A recent trip to Guntersville lake produced some very big largemouth bass! How big? How about one weighing 5 pounds! O K, it was followed by a 7 pounder! Again, not that big of a bass for some anglers.
Well, then we had a 9 pounder and one weighing a little over 10 pounds! Oh, and a smaller one weighing about 3 pounds...
Yes, we had a very good day.
It all started as we launched at the what is now called the Best Western motel (previously Holiday Inn) boat launch on the lower end of massive, Guntersville Lake.
This is Alabama's largest, man made reservoir, impounded in 1939. It is also the best BIG bass lake in Alabama! As we soon saw, when our day unfolded.
It was a cool, winter day with air temps in the upper 30's that morning and highs only reaching the lows of 50-53 degrees by that evening. Water temps were in the mid-40's (as they are right now) and it was a cool, partly cloudy day.
A creek channel drop-off produced a nice 5 pounder, the first bass of the day, taken on a black and blue jig & crawfish combo in 3-4 feet of clear water around weeds and stumps.
That was just after dawn.
It took another 2 hours to get another bite! This bass, looking to be about 3 pounds, was a very welcome sight. As the day continued we moved to some deep, main lake drop-offs, fishing near river channel flats about 5-10 feet deep.
Very few bites, but what took place in size made up for numbers of bites by noon. A ten inch, Texas-rigged, plum-colored worm produced a 9 pounder, the biggest bass we have seen this year!All taking place after no bites for almost another two hours!
We fished that spot hard, but to our dismay no more bass at all took our varied offerings. So we made a move, a good move we later discovered, to a location nearby where a weedy, stump-filled flat dropped into 30 feet of water.
Why was it so good? We again, in terms of fooling a big bass into biting, soon found out why.
No it was not the very small bass looking to be about one pound that hit a red rattletrap. A very hard tug awaited my black and blue jig with matching plastic crawfish combo.
We had been fishing this spot for about an hour moving our boat (and our lures) up and down the weedy, river channel ledge drop-off, with only that one small bass to show for it, when I set the hook on what I thought was another, small bass bite.
It was a fish and the welcome tap tap soon turned out to be that of a big largemouth that slowly came to the boat in a very lethargic motion. Once we netted it (just like the 9 pounder), out came the scales. It weighed 7 pounds and one ounce!
What a day! We stayed later than usual. And with good reason. In the livewell were 3 big bass.
A five pounder that would look good on any winter trip! Another long, but fat bass weighing about nine pounds and now, a seven pounder. We had let the three pounder go earlier, but these three bass together still had a weight of 21 pounds!
After the 7 pound bass hit the jig combo it was a long, dry spell with no more hits (or even a small bass), before we finally decided to call it a day. And what a day it had been.
Still, on my way back in I just had to stop and hit that "big bass hole" the nine pounder had came off of earlier around midday. My friend was very glad I did!
We had been fishing jig combos, but 10 inch worms were included in our lure line up as well. So he just cast that big ol' worm, and cast it, and cast it. Hoping for another big, largemouth bass.
It was getting late and my reply was to make a few more casts before we officialy call it a day.
I was rigging up my life jacket and kill switch when the boat suddenly rocked hard. I thought it was the angler getting off the back deck, but to my surprise I looked up at his now, very bent rod!
It was another monster bass! He even made an exclaim, "I think this one is bigger, it sure is fighting hard!" And when we soon landed it, we discovered it was.
Ten pounds and two ounces. Wow! Was all we both could say. So naturally we fished this spot hard until it was almost dark.
But unknown to us at the time, this was to be our last big bass of this day...on one trip we will both will always remember!
(* Note - If we had kept the 3 pounder it would have been close to 5 bass weighing 34 pounds!)
See attached file pictures of the 5 & 7 and the 9 & 10 pounders!
Always call on Reeds Guide Service...first! Guntersville Lake's and all of Alabama's oldest, professional "bass fishing only" guide service!
"For over forty years"
Thanks and Good Fishin'!
Reed Montgomery Owner of Reeds Guide Service Birmingham, Alabama (205) 663-1504.
E-mail: alabassgyd@aol.com
Website: www.fishingalabama.com
