The next 4 to 6 weeks for me is the toughest time on the water to catch the bigger bass. My many years of history I have been keeping have been repeated for several years now that the late November on through December proves to be extremely tuff. The bass are very lethargic; they only feed every 3 to 5 days and only the toughest fisherman find the bigger bass. My history tells me that the tuff times will be here until we start seeing the days get a little longer and the sunny days warm the water.

The advice I can give you is to be prepared for a few bites, and while your fishing be prepared to fish hard and long days to find the bass. Find the grass edges in 9 to 15 feet of water, work slow baits like Tight-Line Jigs or Jerk Baits. Be patient, in your presentations let your baits sit on the bottom or rock in the water movement and keep yourself mentally prepared. I know from my experiences that 8 to 10 hours on the water waiting for those few bites is very tough on you mental...

[Read More]

Every year the shortest day of the year-ends on December 20 or 21st and the slow winter fishing changes immediately. There has never been a doubt in my mind or by the way my 13 years of history that after the winter solstice the bass fishing gets better. The late November and early December seems to be the toughest days on the water for bass fishing, then like a dose of magic the fishing turns on once the days start to get a little longer. What happens or what changes that cause this change or get the bass back active and feeding so we can enjoy our bass fishing past time.

Well first of all the day’s start getting longer, and believe it or not the longer days even though measured in minutes seems to have an immediate effect on the bass feeding habits. The longer day means more sunlight, which gives more midday heat to the water and hence more active bass. Next we generally get a couple of weeks of real cold weather during January and the cold starts to really take a toll on t...

[Read More]

I often get asked by people to explain the difference in “reel speed” on the new bait cast-reels, and what advantage or disadvantage there is to each.

Well this is fairly complex subject, one that may take some time to try and detail. I will answer the speed question first and next week get into the advantages or disadvantages. First of all a bait cast reel that says its speed is 6.3 to 1 means that for every 1 rotation of the handle the spool rotates 6.3 times. So the different speed reels out like 7.1 to 1 or 3.5 to 1 these all refer to the handle rotation vs. the spool rotation. Hence the faster reels, the spool will rotate 7.1 times for every 1 rotation of the handle and your bait moves through the water faster than a 3.5 to 1 reel.

Now here is where it’s complicated, the more line on a high-speed reel the faster it moves. What this says is that as the spool builds with line a full spool will run your bait faster than a spool that may be almost empty. In other words...

[Read More]

Fishing in the winter on Lake Guntersville, can be rewarded with some outstanding size “lunker” bass. Over the years the winter always produces big fish in fact the lake record caught by Charley Bertus was caught in February of 1991. In order to catch those lunkers the winter fishing comes with some very distinct patterns that seem to stay fairly consistent over the years,

The lake in the winter goes through some definite cycles. Guntersville will change weekly as the winter moves on, you will see the grass dying and floating in the early part of the winter, the water will cool and seem to drop in temperature weekly until it hits about 42 degrees and the grass will change at the deeper depths enormously but this occurs only in the late part of the winter.

The early winter is generally the toughest of the winter fishing, this occurs because there is still a lot of grass and the bass have many ways to feed on the bait left over from the late fall fishing and spawn. This t...

[Read More]