SECOND WEEK OF MADNESS OF MARCH 2026

The second week of Madness of March on Lake Guntersville has been steady, but it has also been one of those stretches where the fish are keeping everybody honest.

Some of our guides have been extremely consistent with both size and numbers, while others may not have landed the numbers they wanted but still ran into the kind of fish that make your whole day.

What makes this bite so interesting right now is that these bass are not acting textbook. In a lot of places they seem to be sliding right past traditional staging areas and roaming shallow before they are fully committed to the spawn.

We have heard reports of some fish showing up on beds, but from what we have personally seen, the real deal has not fully broken loose yet. We are not seeing consistent bloody tails or that widespread locked-on spawning behavior, but the fish are absolutely acting goofy like they are getting closer.

Weather had a major say in this week. Early on, several of our guides flat-out blistered them. Then a nasty cold front rolled through and Thursday brought brutal wind that pushed into the 40 to 50 mile-per-hour range. You could still catch them, but your options got real limited in a hurry.

The good news is Lake Guntersville rebounded pretty fast. Even after colder nights, the daytime warming helped things settle back in, and Friday and Saturday proved again that if you can get to the right water, you can still crack them.

This report is a good reminder that March on Guntersville is never dull. The fish are moving, the weather is swinging, and the next big push still feels like it is building.

WHY GUNTERSVILLE STILL STANDS ALONE

Even when the fish start acting strange, Lake Guntersville still has a way of reminding everybody why it sits at the top of the list.

This lake has taken a beating from fishing pressure, changing weather, traveling anglers, and tournament traffic, and it still keeps kicking out the kind of quality that very few places in the country can match.

One day you may feel like the bass are scattered and hard to pin down. The next day, somebody runs into a stretch that reloads in a hurry and suddenly the deck is covered up with the kind of fish people drive across multiple states to catch.

That is what makes this place so dangerous this time of year. Even when it feels a little off, it is never far away from exploding.

We are in that short seasonal window where the lake can go from really good to unforgettable in a matter of days. There is still enough movement happening that we believe Guntersville has not shown its best hand yet.

And with another moon phase change right around the corner, there is every reason to believe the next wave will only make things more interesting.

CAPT. JIM KEPT THE POWER-FISHING DEAL ROLLING

Capt. Jim had a phenomenal week on the water, and one of the highlights was a father-and-son trip with Nick and Owen, who came down from Louisville as part of one of our multi-day fishing packages.

They got the full March experience, including one of the nastiest weather days of the week. The cold-front day was flat-out brutal, and with that kind of wind there is no point in pretending otherwise. It restricted where you could fish and how you could fish, but the next day turned into one of those days you remember for a long time.

In about a 20-minute window, the heart of the bite showed itself in a big way. A 7-pounder hit the deck, then a 6-pounder, three 5-pound fish, and a couple of 4-pounders. Fish were caught throughout the day, but that short burst was where the true juice was.

Saturday called for a different move. One thing that keeps showing itself right now is that the same water does not always reload with the same quality, especially when it comes to the bigger fish. You may get a few bites by revisiting an area, but the better deal often comes when you keep moving and go hunt something fresh.

That is exactly what happened. After checking a few places that had given up fish earlier, Capt. Jim covered some new water for this year and found another batch of quality. This time it was not just one nice bass. It was five quality bass, and one of them was one of the most unique-looking fish we have ever seen.

The markings on that bass were unbelievable, almost like a zebra pattern running down the sides, and around here we are calling that fish a Zebra-Mouth Bass.

The biggest key for Capt. Jim this week has been staying with the power-fishing method, covering water, and understanding that these bass are roaming more than a lot of people expect. When you run into the right group, they are often stacked and ready to make things happen fast.

CAPT. SCOTT KEPT IT GOING WITH CRAPPIE AND BASS

Capt. Scott put together a really solid week by doing exactly what good guides do this time of year — adjusting to what the lake gave him and making the most of more than one bite.

On the crappie side, he had some trips that produced the kind of fish people hope to run into when spring gets closer. Big single-fish photos tell that story pretty well. Those were not just random keepers. Those were quality crappie that stand out.

He also spent time on bass trips and stayed consistent there too. The bass bite has been changing by the day, but Scott has continued to find enough of the right fish to put together some strong catches and keep clients smiling.

That versatility matters a lot this time of year. Whether somebody wants to spend the day chasing bass or mix in a crappie trip, Scott has been giving people a real opportunity to catch something worth talking about.

He also still has a few dates open, so if you have been wanting to fish with Capt. Scott while multiple species are producing, this is a great time to make it happen.

CAPT. PHILLIP STAYED RIGHT IN HIS WHEELHOUSE

Capt. Phillip has done it again this week and stayed very consistent putting clients on bass while a lot of these fish continue to roam and reposition.

The way these bass are setting up right now fits his wheelhouse really well. They are not always doing the clean, obvious thing, and that is where experience and timing start to separate people. Phillip has been making the right adjustments and keeping clients around the kind of fish they came here hoping to catch.

This is one of those stretches where the pictures really back up the story. He has continued to produce quality, and the catches below show exactly why he has been one of the steady producers during this second week of Madness of March.

Not every day on Guntersville right now is easy, but Phillip has been one of the guides who has kept finding a way to stay on them while the lake keeps changing.

THE COLD FRONT AND WHAT IT DID

This week gave us another reminder that a March cold front can still swing things in a hurry, especially when it comes in hard with violent wind behind it.

Thursday was one of those days where even moving around the lake became part of the challenge. The fish were still catchable, but the wind took a lot of productive water off the table and made it tough to get to some of the areas where the better bite may have been waiting.

Even so, the rebound after the front was encouraging. We had colder nights afterward, but the daytime warmth helped the water temperature recover pretty quickly, and that mattered.

Did the front slow the bigger fish down some? Maybe a little. But more than anything, it felt like access was the bigger issue. Friday and Saturday proved again that when you could get to the right areas, the quality was still there.

PRO TIP RIGHT NOW

Cover water and do not get married to yesterday’s juice.

These fish are not acting glued to the usual stuff right now. They are roaming shallow, slipping around cover, and in some places acting like they are ahead of schedule without fully showing their hand yet.

That means the angler who stays flexible has a huge advantage. If one area dries up, do not waste the whole day trying to force the same thing. Pick up, move, and go hunt a new group.

The reward can be immediate when you run into them. That is a big part of why some of the best catches this week came after making a fresh move instead of camping on old water.

FISHING FORECAST

Looking ahead, we have another major cold front expected to arrive Monday, and it looks like temperatures could drop in a hurry.

A sharp change like that can hit these fish in the head pretty good, even if it only lasts a day. Sometimes a front like this will slow the bite briefly while they adjust, and sometimes Guntersville rebounds faster than expected. Either way, it is something we will be watching very closely at the start of the week.

The good news is we just saw this lake recover pretty quickly from the last nasty front. Even with colder nights behind it, the daytime warming helped the water bounce back, and the fish showed again that if you can get to the right areas, they are still there.

We also have a new moon on March 18 and a full moon on April 1, and that is where this forecast starts getting really interesting.

Based on the way these fish are already acting, we believe the real major push of spawners could happen somewhere in the window between March 20 and April 1. We are still not seeing the full-blown spawn ourselves yet, but the fish are definitely behaving like they are getting closer.

If that next wave lines up with a warming rebound after this front, the second half of March could get wild in a hurry on Lake Guntersville.