Guntersville today....a rare site

[flyingwillie]

At least for me......I'm fishing a ledge with a shell bed and catching them really good midday. This guy pulls up and stops 50 yards (max) from me and engages his spotlok on his Ultrex. Then he sits in his boat rigging a rod for a long time. Finally stands up and casts a very large live shad into the lake. Within minutes he catches what looked like a 4 pounder minimum. I asked him where he was from......Ohio. At least he released the fish. I didn't say anything else and left. I know it's common at Okeechobee but I've never seen it here.

[Lkmbjb502]

5 or 6 years ago fishing a bridge on Guntersville, catching a few - guy in a new Skeeter pulls up he catches a couple and then we both catch good ones - sharing the water, talking a little and catching several more good fish, both having a good time...then an older couple pulls up in a newish Ranger anchors not too far from where we are casting - but not too close tho - they both drop lines with shad/shinners and just start wrecking them, laughing/yelling/taking pictures/catching-releasing 3-6lb fish one after another...they guy in the Skeeter and I never caught another fish. It was crazy - good and bad - was interesting to know how many fish were there that we were NOT catching throwing artificials. I have seen some bank guys fishing with shad - but pretty sure only a couple of boat fisherman over the years - but the deal 5-6 years ago was the worst/best.

Good Luck.

-Jonathan

[AveryF]

I had the same thing happen on Pickwick a couple of months ago. We were fishing along a current seam, and caught and released a mixed bag of five or six pretty decent 3+ pound bass when four guys in an older flat-bottom boat pulled up about a half-cast distance away and started fishing with live shiners. They must've caught 20 or 30 BIG 5+ pound smallmouth in about 45 minutes and every one of them ended up in the cooler. And we never had another bite once they started catching them.

[OH_Ranger]

Funny story. I live in Ohio and fished Guntersville yesterday for the first time. Can't blame me though, I don't have spot lock and I certainly didn't catch a 4 pounder. Caught some small fish. Maybe I needed shiners.

[flyingwillie]

Funny story. I live in Ohio and fished Guntersville yesterday for the first time. Can't blame me though, I don't have spot lock and I certainly didn't catch a 4 pounder. Caught some small fish. Maybe I needed shiners.

Ha! He was there again today....didn't see him catch anything though. Each to his own. If you are still here a lot of us are catching
dinks. I caught 14 today with only 6 keepers. Still fun! PM me if you have any ?

[Bassman Ia.]

Years ago ( before cell phones) I catch a 7.3 on Table Rock. I put her in the live well and run 1/2 mile to the resort we are staying at. Just my luck, the wife went to town with the kids and she has the camera. So I walk back down to the dock, open up the live well and set her in the water---- moving her back and forth to make sure she will be ok. Three guys from Ohio was staying at Lone Pine, when I turned her loose they said " What's matter, you don't like fish?" I told them I prefer Walleyes and crappies, their response was "We clean everything we catch".

[OH_Ranger]

Ha! He was there again today....didn't see him catch anything though. Each to his own. If you are still here a lot of us are catching
dinks. I caught 14 today with only 6 keepers. Still fun! PM me if you have any ?

Still in Alabama. Staying at a house on Weiss. Not planning on going back to Guntersville. Too busy chasing kids. Any advise for Weiss?

[flyingwillie]

Still in Alabama. Staying at a house on Weiss. Not planning on going back to Guntersville. Too busy chasing kids. Any advise for Weiss?

This time of year I would fish the ledges and docks. Just watch the locals and do what they do. Good luck and enjoy your stay.

[chass75]

I grew up on Lake Guntersville and my dad and I ran a guide service, we started using live bait in the 90's. Shiners and shad when we could catch them... It was insane how many fish we caught on live bait versus artificial. Dad was a successful tournament angler and he always said thats why the first rule in every tournament is NO LIVE BAIT!!!! lol

[AC870]

So how did they rig these live baits?

[GOTTA BIG SACK]

[AC870]

Asking for a friend....

[chass75]

#4 or #6 bait hook with barrel weights on 6-8 lb test using a toothpick as the stopper for holding the weight. I literally just got back from Guntersville Sunday and my friends and I caught 50-60 largemouth on live bait. The largest was about 5 lbs. I also ran up on something that I have never seen before in all my years on Guntersville. A gigantic school of 35-70 lb gar that stayed on a ditch I like to fish all weekend. We kept getting hooked up and of course breaking but I did manage to land one that was 40-50lb, it was a helluva fight on 8 lb test. There must have been 1000's of them and they were all huge. I have never seen anything like that before and I even used to blowfish all the time down there. I will try to get some pictures up tonight because theres no way I would believe it either.