Finsation: Day 2 - Guntersville, AL

August 1, 2014

We got up early and drove to McDonald's for breakfast and coffee before heading to the Waterfront Grocery and Tackle shop where we were to meet Brent Crow, our fishing guide. After making sandwiches in the parking lot, we left at about 6:30 in the morning from the dock and sped to our first fishing site. We fished swim baits through grass that was just a couple feet below the water surface and probably several feet thick. We didn't get any bites there so we moved over to a different area of grass off the point of an island. Brent got a hit on his top-water lure but neither Billy nor I got a strike. We then moved again to another grassy area and fished the same technique, soon switching to a plastic worms with conical worm weights on the line. As we were fishing that way I noticed that fish were hitting the water down a ways from us, so we shot over there and of course, once we arrived, the fish stopped biting. We fished several other grassy spots with no luck.

So, we put on some 8" shad swimbaits with 1oz. weighted heads, and we ventured to deeper water. Here, we cast out and let the lures drop all the way to the bottom, a depth of 30 to 40 feet, before we reeled them in slowly just above the bottom. This didn't work either. We tried fishing the grass some more and Brent taught me how to use his baitcasting reels. At another long grass channel, Billy noticed that a bunch of bass started hitting the water next to us. We all cast over there. I got a strike but didn't get the hook set. Then, in less than 15 seconds, the water stopped boiling and we didn't get any more strikes. Next, we tried some flipping, which is where we trolled over some thick Hydrilla and another sort of water weed called milweed or something. We fished with these kind of these crawfish creature looking jigs with 1 oz. weighted heads. We dropped the lures down into the weeds until they hit the ground about 6' under the tops of the plants, 8' under the surface of the water. Once the lures hit the bottom, we would jig them up and down once and then drop them in another location. Billy got a strike with this method but the fish got off the hook. Brent caught a good sized one. The last technique we tried was dropping a Shakey Head worm to the lake floor in about 20' of water near 3 tepeed posts and wiggling it with the rod tip. Brent caught a 4 or 5 pound fish.

We fished a total of 9 hours, one hour more than we paid for, yet Billy and I caught nothing. I guess that's the game of fishing. Brent said this is one of the hardest days he's ever seen on the lake, at least in recent years, and attributed it most likely to the hot weather. After we were done fishing and thoroughly exhausted, we put the boat back on his trailer and he gave us some lures with which we could fish the next day.

Billy and I went to Lake Guntersville State Park which was a beautiful park with a cool beach. I met an older couple from Alabama who have been camping at the state park since 1994. I helped them set up their tent in the back of their truck. We talked mostly about football and fishing but I did learn that they were horse ranchers for a doctor up in Tennessee. I believe they live up there while she needs them and travel back down to Alabama to camp in their free time.

That night, Billy and I set up my little backpacking tent and cooked burgers for dinner. We then made a fire, accompanied by cigars and beer.

Odometer - 830 mi