Its been a little while since the last post, we just needed a little break 2020 was a year to remember some good and some bad, but here we are in 2021 healthy and cold but that should be changing as I type this I see 10 days of temps above 50 degrees. I am all for a good cold winter if it would create a good shad kill and grass ( eel ) kill like we had in 2018 but it just got to a annoying cold it did achieve much of anything but cold hands and feet. Part of the time off was for tournament prep had the ABT 100 on Lay Lake in Jan and the BFL & Toyota Series here on Guntersville in Feb. The other part was just some Belle and Me time.
The ABT 100 was a cold tournament on a body of water that Steve Or I have ever seen before so it was a learning curve. The tournament was very well ran and we had a decent finish ( 10th ) our practice was challenging and we ignored all the dock talk.. if you listen to it then you might’ve given up completely, there was guys having a great practice and for us we went 4 days with 2 bites.. things changed for us when we went against what they ( the bass ) was suppose to be doing and started to get bites in practice and with my dumb luck I hook one when I was not trying to and it was a dandy but it gave us some confidence in what we was doing and to top it off we could eliminate a lot of water that helped. On tournament day they changed like they seem to always do and after an hour of not getting bites we adjusted and started putting them in the boat I had one that I know as a good one give me the slip in my defense I could do much with it and I learned that is what them Big Coosa Spots will do so its a lesson learned. With a 10th place finish we have a good start with points.
BFL went pretty good it would’ve been a lot better if I didn’t have 2 get away and I hate to have that story but its true and it sucks I had 16-01lbs and took 17th
Toyota Series was lining up to be a memorable tournament the weather was putting them where I wanted them and I had 3 places where they ate for the 1st hour then it was over it was really like the good old days out here where the big ones are all grouped up and fighting each other to eat your lure. I really had a hard time going to bed overnight just knowing what could happen in the tournament, but I put that aside and found some back up stuff for later in the day and some fish for my co anglers. So I felt like I had a sold plan and then came the meeting and then I learned that they was delaying the take off by 1 HOUR… It was ridiculous the temp was the same at 7:30 that it was at 6:30am I went to my area and it was over I could see them just laying there being un active it was struggle from there on out I was like I can make it up tomorrow morning … then come the text for the pairings for day two they delayed take off once again and at that point I was boiling mad…. and here is what tops it off on the 3rd day the top 10 left on time 6:30am talk about a slap in the face. I can’t remember a tournament ever being like that there was not any fog or lightening just cold and on day two it was warmer.. still mind blown
Did have a trip back in Jan and it was good one my clients caught em pretty easy and we was able to fish different areas through out the day and have success.
March will be our kick off to the guiding for 2021 we have days booked up with a few openings.
Water Temps are 42ish in the morning and warming up to 46ish I believe that will change this week I expect to see mid 50s I the coming days and as for clarity the recent rains have stained up the water there is clean water in places throughout the lake and we do have high current 88k through the dam.
The fish we have been catching have been healthy, I did catch a 16 1/2 inch bass that weighed 3lbs ( weighed and measured it ) just couldn’t get over how fat it was.
Heres To A Great Year Of Fishing!
Some Pics
Capt. Jim
www.guntersvillebassguides.com
256-698-6593
