2012 Lake Guntersville Everstart Insights - Consulting Firm, Business Consulting, Lifestyle Coaching

I caught all 10 fish I weighed in on the 8″ Triple Trout in Sexy Shad. I was not on winning fish, but 15 pounds per day isn’t horrible fishing. Lake Guntersville put out some high 20s and 30+ pound sacks last week, but if you notice, a small minority of guys (who tend to guide here year round, or live in the area) knew the ledges where the big ones pulled out first. Only JT Kenney, who is no slouch on any lake, was the sole ‘out of towner’ in the Top 10 on the final day.

sexy-shad-triple-trout-guntersville — The 8″ Triple Trout, Sexy Shad was my workhorse for 2 days on Guntersville. Fishing shallow grass in 2-6 feet of water, focusing on the edges and wherever I could see it go from shallow to deep, right on the edge, wind blown or rainy, the better. I have never weighed all my fish in any FLW Outdoors event on a bigbait, so this is a step in the right direction.

The winning and Top 10 fish were deep. Like 30 feet deep. Most of the Top 10 guys agreed that the fish were suspended and not glued to the bottom, which made the umbrella rigs + swimbaits and the single stand alone swimmers good choices. Justin Lucas nailed two 30 pound sacks swimming a single Hollow Belly mid water column off one spot. The same spot Richard Peek fished. They shared a single spot. Casey Martin fished a couple spots and found himself sharing water with JT Kenney and Mark Rose. Basically, the ledges of the TN River aren’t stacked with fish yet. The big ones are clearly moved out, but there is miles and miles of ledge without fish.

berkley-hollow-belly-tube-guntersville — Justin Lucas’ right hand and right bait. The Hollow Belly or Paddle Tail Tube or the Shadalicious…a common theme onstage on the final day. I realized I’d made a mistake to not commit more time to the mid water column, I either fished out deep and on the bottom or up shallow and over the grass. But suspended fish in a few key areas is what won, and the swimbait was the right bait.

Grass Fishing:

I committed to shallow grass fishing for the event because that was the only thing I had going. I couldn’t find the ledge bite. I was super stoked to find fish eating the 8″ Triple Trout though. The Sexy Shad color is just a good choice, and they really ate it well. I caught 12 keepers on the first day, and missed one big bite right at the boat. The rain the first day seemed to help the bite and prevent me from seeing the big follower too well, but still, I felt like any cast I could easily stick a 5-7 pounder. I fished around North Sauty in fairly community hole type water. In fact, I fished around guys like Tharp and McMillan, so I figured I couldn’t be too out of my head. My co-angler partners got a kick out of me throwing that Triple Trout and getting fish on it. I think they are now Triple Trout converts. 15 pounds per day isn’t great on Guntersville right now, but it was good enough for 38th place and a check, and helped me secure 8th place overall in the South East Division for 2012, which just for pride sakes, is cool.

guntersville milfoil — Lake Guntersville Milfoil. You typically have 6″ to 1 or 2 feet of clearance above the grass to fish your Triple Trout. Sometimes I get fouled up, but most times, I could just grind the Triple Trout over the milfoil, put a lot of stalls and pauses in the bait, and the fish would be smash it. Fun fishing, but not winning fish.

More to come on Guntersville and recapping the Everstart. I got a few inbound requests on what I did, and I’m hoping to provide some film and footage that better shows what I was doing up shallow in the grass, and what the other guys are doing out deep on the ledges to catch these bigger sacks.