My first trip to the "Big G" was a "Big Zzzzz"

North and South Sauty - Scottsboro - Lake Guntersville

Time: 7 AM - 1:00 PMAir Temperature: 39 - 57 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 58 degrees
Lake Level: 593.11' -
Weather Conditions: Moderate winds, 8-14 mph North. Cold.


Today was a repeat of what I intended to do on 11/13. I didn't write about that trip because no fishing every actually occurred... I'm not superstitious, but another Friday the 13th like that and I could be...To summarize: I was all excited to have a Friday off of work and go fishing. I'd never fished Guntersville before, and I wanted to check out the crappie action under the bridges. I made it on the water by 7:30AM and was motoring toward my destination when I stopped to trim my motor up to free the grass that had hung on the lower unit. That's when it all went downhill. I never got the motor trimmed down. I couldn't reach the manual trim bypass valve so I tried the fill valve and that didn't work. One hour later, I had trolled about 5 miles and exhausted all batteries as I reached the landing. I trailered the boat and got the motor down with the bypass valve. At this point, I now had water in my trim oil, so I drained some to see what the damage was. It was bad. I had to manually raise the motor and lock in in the up position for the drive home. Two miles down the road, the motor slipped down and drug across the pavement until I could get pulled over. The result: 3-4" of my skeg fin now gone. I spent the balance of my day draining, flushing, and filling my trim unit and tracking down a skeg guard to fix my issues. Then while heading to TN to get my skeg guard, my radio head unit quit. BAD. DAY.


However, no issues today. It was a Monday, so I was hoping for light boat traffic. When I got to North Sauty Bridge, it was packed. I tied up to the last remaining bridge pylon and gave it a go. It was absolutely packed with fishermen. I tried minnows under a cork and bouncing bottom, but it was slow. I pulled in 4 yellow/white bass and two crappie. One crappie was a keeper. The wind was whipping through the bridge and it was cold. No one was doing much good.


I left and headed to fish around a marina with no luck and headed to South Sauty to repeat what I had done earlier. No luck at all and it was also packed.


Probably the highlight of my trip was seeing how others had innovated ideas to fish under these bridges. Several people were using C-Clamps to attached to any point under the bridge. Others had cut boards that fit between the bridge spans and had attached eye-hooks and springs to their tie-off lines. Genius.


I called it a day and rode back. I saw 3 beautiful bald eagles on the way back. Very slow day and not what I was hoping for, but still enjoyed myself.

First Day Back Since My Son Was Born

Location: Shoals Creek, Wilson Lake

Time: 6:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Air Temperature: 36F on Arrival, warmed to about 59F
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 506.57 ft - Still operating at summer pool.
Weather Conditions: Calm to slight E wind


Today was a good day - Today was the first day I've been back on the water since my son was born in May. I've spent my downtime since January with my wife and then my son upon his arrival. I can't wait until he is old enough to get out there with me. However, today was nice and although I didn't break any fishing records, I had a great day on the water.

I went to Shoals Creek on Wilson Lake today. It's sort of my "old trusty" when I don't have much time to plan or get creative. I set out to try to pick up some crappie.

I hit my normal spots this morning and started out under the bridge. However, other than a few bites, there was no real action in any of my spots.

As the temperature picked up and the sun came out, I decided to try out my new bimini top that I recently installed. You can find more information about it on AMAZON. I must say it was pretty easy to install and I am very pleased with it.

Before heading back home, I decided to give the bridge another try. This time, I decided to fish on bottom vs suspension. This finally produced fish, although no crappie today.

Using minnows on a bottom hook and a black/chartreuse curly tail jig on a top hook, I managed to pick up 12 fish under the bridge pretty quickly. I used the Lowrance unit to specifically target bridge columns holding fish. I pick up around 3 bluegill, 2 drum, 2 catfish, and the balance was a mix of white and yellow bass. I had a lot of fun and even pulled a double with a white and yellow bass combination.

I can't wait to get out there again!

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time:
Air Temperature: Cold!
Water Temperature: Cold!
Lake Level: 551.5
Weather Conditions:

Fished around the bridge.  Didn't take good notes today...

Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - Mid Morning through Mid Afternoon
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 505.79'
Weather Conditions: Light Wind

Fished with Doug and Douglas Ainsworth.  We set out for crappie and fished the north side of the bridge.  We focused on the west bank on the drop offs and submerged tops.  No luck.  We moved to the flats in the bend where the 25' submerged beds are.  We immediately caught 3 good crappie, but it didn't last long.

Near the dock and "No Wake" buoy, we spotted good fish on the finder.  These turned out to be catfish.  We caught 4 catfish pretty quickly using minnow and jig rigs bouncing bottom.

Fish finder was showing fish like crazy from the "No Wake" area all the way to the north bank.  We fished this entire area and found it all to be drum.  Screen was nearly covered with fish.  Literally caught about 100 drum! We caught them everywhere we dropped a line.

We moved to the HWY 72 bridge in the afternoon.  We caught one small crappie and 2 good white bass on the same line at the same time.  Also caught a couple bluegill.

 

 

 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: All Cay
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature: 52 degrees.
Lake Level: 551.04
Weather Conditions: Still warm for the fall/winter pattern.

Fished all my normal spots.  Caught a bunch of drum.  Caught one crappie early under the bridge.  Fishing was very slow. 

Moved down and fished south of the bridge.  No luck.  Tried fishing south shore in bay near dam.  No luck.  Fished around the lock by the dam in the slack water.  Caught a couple drum.  Nice place to fish.

Returned back to the bridge on the way back towards the landing.  Started picking up nice bluegill and crappie after lunch.  Caught a couple of catfish, too.  Ended up keeping 5-6 crappie and 5-6 bluegill.

Dressed out to be about 2.5# of fillets.  Used Minnows and Bobby Garland 2" swimming minnow jigs. 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - Mid Afternoon
Air Temperature: 37 - 65 degrees
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 552.17'
Weather Conditions: 4 - 12 MPH East Wind

Jess and I started out under the bridge. Immediately picked up 2-3 crappie. It was too cold and windy to stay under the bridge, so we moved out to wind protected bays. Not much luck elsewhere. Returned to bridge after lunch and resumed catching crappie. Fished minnows bouncing bottom. 20-25' of water. Caught several nice deep water bluegill. Kept 6 crappie and 4 bluegill.