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.
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.
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.
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.
First off, huge congrats to Brandon McMillan. That guy can fish and has the mental game to be a superstar. Extremely impressed with Brandon’s fishing and ability to put it all together in win. My 2012 Lake Seminole FLW Everstart was pretty decent, but nothing fantastic. I basically weighed in 12 pounds per day, had decent limits and finished 26th place. We had strong wind and clouds during the tournament days, which had me off my game. I had hoped to get 13-15 pound limits by finesse fishing, and then hunting a big fish with a bigbait or sight fishing. The wind just made me have to work twice as hard to get a fraction of the bites. No excuses, my gameplan just wasn’t very well suited for the weather. It took me way too long to catch a decent limit and I didn’t have the time to hunt the big ones as planned. I kept at it, figuring I might be able to pull off 15 pounds or so both days with one bite. I broke off a fish on a wacky rig on Day 1 in the wind, and that hurt. You have understand in super shallow stump fields, when the wind is blowing, you get pinned up against stumps, high centered and it’s pretty much complete chaos at times. I hooked a nice fish and the fish ran me around on spinning gear, and just basically whipped me where I got stuck on some stumps in the wind with the boat, and broke off where in any calmer conditions I could have avoided the catastrophe. No big deal, but every pound counts and would have improved my overall standings significantly.
Wacky Rigged Trick worms are pretty darn finesse. Trick worms fall and stall much more than even a senko. Add a #1 Owner Mosquito hook and loosen up your drag and get to work. Braid mainline with floro leader recommended.
So, if you want to catch fish on Lake Seminole right now, here are some insights. The fish are on beds, up shallow, and can be found along the shallow sand bars, points, humps and hard bottom places in Spring Creek big time. You are either catching fish on beds, getting ready to bed, or just coming off the bed/guarding fry. The water in Spring Creek is getting back to its normal clear self and things are getting right in Spring Creek again. We had weeks of muddy water caused by some heavy rains that sorta screwed up the creek for a while. There is also a shad spawn happening early in the morning. So, first thing in the morning, guys had areas with hyacynth edges and/or rock where they were able to power fish their way to good 17+ pound limits in the first hour. I missed this bite pretty much completely, but beware shad spawn fish are winning fish, as per Mr. McMillan, Shaye Baker, etc. Find shad spawn and throw spinnerbaits, topwaters, and swim jigs.
Lake Seminole Conditions as of 3/25/2012
Lake Level: -.05 feet
Water Temp: 72 in the am, 78 in the afternoon
Grass: Mediocre grass at best, hasn’t grown up much in most places.
Wacky Rigging is a perfect blend of Rate of Stall and Rate of Fall. So much so, that when done properly, you can literally ‘float’ your bait in place, suspending it in the water column exactly where you want it. Cast your bait a little bit past your targets. Your targets should be any light spots (beds) you see from a distance, stumps, trees, grass line, isolated patched of lily pads, or just randomly on good high percentage flats. Dead stick the bait to the bottom on the initial fall. Just let it fall to the bottom, pick it up and shake it a couple times. Then let it settle to the bottom. I only fished the wacky rig 5-10 feet in most cases back toward the boat, and then would reel in and make another cast. The wacky rig is death on Seminole and the fish there really react well to a slow fall and slow stall.
The light texas rig was a better bait for casting and dragging around in the wind. It was just easier to fish in the wind and many guys who did well were finesse fishing. Seminole is not like Okeechobee. You have to approach the bedding fish with much more care and they don’t kill anything you throw over a bed. You have to slow down, finesse and work them into biting more than on the Big O. You could just drag the bait, or do a slight pull and swim. If you came thru the sparse grass, you could rip it or give it some swim, but when on barren bottom, the drag retrieve seemed to be the better deal. Fishing for the same fish as the wacky deal, just less finesse than wacky, but much better for fishing in any kind of wind.
The Carolina Rig is a good bait on Seminole for a few reasons. It can be fished nicely in the wind first and foremost. The fish on and around beds seem to eat Carolina rigs, don’t ask my why, but they do. Just ask Lloyd Picket Jr about that. He catches solid sacks of bedding fish, by blind casting Carolina rigs in the Spring time, I’ve seen it a couple times. Anywho, the Carolina rig also helps you probe the deeper and transitions sides of the sandbars, points and humps. So you can probe the deeper 6+ foot range of the sandbars. Sometimes the fish move out or are sitting deeper due to whatever reasons, and a Carolina rig is a great compromise of finesse and power because it can be fished down to 15+ feet and across a 2 foot deep hump in the same cast. Many good bags were caught on the C-Rig, lizards and creature baits on stump flats, sandbars, and humps in and around the Spring Creek and Fish Pond Drain area.
The bigbait bite on Seminole was nothing spectacular, but there. You have to fish around the bedding fish, or around the standing timber, grass or docks directly adjacent to the spawning areas. That was the key, but Seminole just wasn’t a great time for moving baits. Finesse baits dominated, but I got the occassional bigbait bite.
Tournament time again. I’m unusually optimistic about stringing together a good tournament. I have been catching fish, not in great numbers or size, but I think the fishing is generally pretty tough out there. Guys who I know can catch them are struggling, which I’m not suprised. This leg of the journey has been tough. Yes, there is a shad spawn, and yes the bass are bedding, but Seminole is a different animal than most lakes. This year, the grass on Seminole has not grown up and it’s relatively barren compared to the other times I’ve fished here. What that means is you cannot go pound the grass and milk fish out of it. Grass lakes without grass can be confusing. Keeping it consistent and being able to have solid sacks of fish for 3 days is the goal.
My gameplan: Fishing Small, getting a good solid limit, and then breaking out and fishing Big. I have various areas where I can fan cast finesse style baits and get it done. I have areas that are in danger of being ruined by muddy water coming down Spring Creek, however, I think I can adjust and fish the moment and conditions. We have relatively strong winds and thunderstormy type day forecasted for tomorrow. That means the bed fishing will be tough for the most part. Not game over, but the bed fishing on Seminole that I’ve experienced is pretty fickle. The fish are really smart, trolling motor aware, and require extreme stealth and skills to get to bite (the big fish anyway). Ideally, I get a good limit with enough time to go have some free time to go hunt some big ones. I am hunting them with Triple Trouts, 3:16 Sunfish/Bluegills and the 5″ Big Hammer sight fish rig (bed fish). The big swimmer bite has been tough, but it’s out there. I need a good 2-3 hours of chunking and winding to get a bite, and that assumes muddy water and muck haven’t messed with my water. Muddy water and muck (ie, floating grass niblets the ducks pull up, or snot grass pieces, or just wind blown garbage are the doom of the swimbait at times).
I’m fishing for a Top 10 and God willing, am able to pull off a Top 5 or better. I think I can be consistent. Worst case, I get 10-12 pounds per day, but best case, I think I can get 15+ a day, and sustain it for 3 days in a row. I think 28- 30 pounds, two day total, will make the Top 10 cut or slightly less. Guys are going to have some big sacks, but I don’t believe they can do it 3 days in a row, let alone 2 days in a row. We shall see. I feel good about catching some fish and competing.
Here is an attempt to post an article that was recently published by Bass Angler Magazine (BAM), in their Q1 2012 Winter Edition. Bass Angler Magazine is kicking butt with really good articles that are full of excellent content. The articles are contributed by anglers who range from KVD and Elite/Tour Super Stars, to the AAA level guy like me, to women, amateurs, co-anglers, and regional and technique specialists. Refreshing reading material, not overly edited and polished, but that’s what makes it real and the content genuine. BAM comes out 4 times year, a subscription is $7.95 and available via Tackle Warehouse by clicking here.
I was humbled and flattered to get an invite to the 2011 Ranger Advantage Tour. The event was 2 days, and gave me a chance to see the Ranger Boats ‘family’. Besides getting great insights into Ranger Boats, the 5 Star Advantage Program, and what is new with the products and marine industry products that are installed on Ranger Boats, it was a chance to test drive boats on the lake and also get a tour of the Ranger Boats Factory.
Ranger Boats was more than accommodating, and put on one heck of an event. The tour of the factory, or the ‘plant tour’ as it was called was off the charts. I mean, like getting to walk and get a tour of the Chevy assembly line or something. They welcomed pictures and video, and I did my best to keep up with tour group, because there was a lot to take in and observe. Imagine how few business welcome folks to come on in, video our plant, and just have their clients, business partners, competitors ( you know it happens ), etc just walk thru and take it all in. That speaks to confidence in what you do and how you do it. I really enjoyed the event, and was great to get exposed to what is going on in the industry.
The Ranger Boats Advantage Tour = Dealers, Professional Angers, the Marine Industry getting together as a 'family' and touching bases and looking forward to 2012 and beyond
Watch the above video and see how a 3″ Big Hammer with a 1/4 oz. Hammer Head swims, at both normal speeds and with the aid of slow motion. There is an incredible amount of ‘rocking’ and rolling the body of the bait does, and the tail itself does a lot of twisting and recoiling. The Big Hammer Square Tailed Swimbait is a fish catcher.
