|
Neat Tricks for a Better Time on the Lake |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Captain Mike Gerry
|
|
Saturday, 26 March 2011 09:13 |
Neat Tricks for a Better Time on the Lake
Over time I have developed some ideas on making my boating trip a little easier and more comfortable; so I thought I would share some of my learned as you go experiences!
1. It never fails when you’re looking for your measuring ruler or weighing scale they are never where you can find it, especially if you have an older model boat that doesn’t have a slot for the ruler. Easy solution stick the back of each with Velcro and stick the receiving end in an out of the way place along the inside of your boat for the ruler and the scale up under a compartment cover and the problem is solved. They are where you need them when you need them.
2. I put my boat in a lot by myself or with clients that don’t expect to have to help or maybe don’t want to help. An easy solution for the one and done person is to buy a retractable dog leash with a ½ inch rope, connect a rock climbers metal clip (karabiner) to the leash end and then to your middle boat cleat. Then back you’re boat down and somewhat in the water, attach the leash to a cleat on the boat dock and slowly launch your boat. The kool thing is that the retractor leash after your boat comes off, will move the boat back to the edge of the dock as it winds the rope into the case, and you drive away and park your truck and trailer.
3. It never fails that when you reach into a rod locker to get your favorite rod it is all tangled up and takes forever to get the lines untangled so you can fish with it. Simple solution; cover each rod in your rod locker with a rod sock; problem solved!
4. Tournament fishermen are always filling their weigh in bags with water to bring their fish to the weigh in table. Well don’t bother trying to walk down to the water edge to fill your bag, use your pump out on your live well system and stick the bag under the water and fill it easily from the side of the boat. If your boat doesn’t have a pump out system, cut a 4 foot length of garden hose put it over the spray nozzle in the live well and fill your bag that way!
Hope these ideas help your become a bit more efficient!
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
|
Read 0 Comments... >>
|
|
Written by Captain Mike Gerry
|
|
Saturday, 19 March 2011 09:54 |
Fishing the Spawn
With the spawn, about to hit full cycle I thought I would spend a little time talking about some key ways to catch fish during the spawn. Most people would tell you that the spawning time of the year is the easiest time to catch a bass, and they are probably correct. They obviously understand where the fish move during this time of year. However the novice fisherman may not understand it as well and I thought a few tips might simplify this time of year.
The spawning time of year can be as easy as understanding one statement; “find the hard bottom surface areas of your lake.” Most lakes have a variety of bottom surface from soft and muddy or vegetation areas to rock, shell bottom, wood and clay. Guntersville is blessed with most of these different types of bottom structure and in the spring it’s easy to find. I like a combination of the hard bottom and wood like stumps or bank lay down rip rap off a red clay bank. You see on Guntersville the hard bottom clay areas are very easy to see, if you look up and see a cut out bank that looks red it generally red clay. If you start fishing through an area where you see a red clay bank and realize there is an abundance of stumps then you have more than likely found the ideal spawning grounds. The only other thing to remember is to get shallow enough for the bass to be actively spawning; sometimes that might be as shallow as inches of water. I personally believe the bigger fish spawn in the least amount of water and generally next to the bank edge.
I also believe that if you find and overhanging tree in skinny shallow hard bottom area of the lake the bass will be spawning under it because of the shade the tree offers. Shade is kind of the X-Factor and trumps all other spawning bottoms. Spawning patterns are just part of finding fish, but certainly an important part!
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
|
Read 0 Comments... >>
|
The Key to Fishing Vertical Structure |
|
|
|
|
Written by Captain Mike Gerry
|
|
Sunday, 06 March 2011 18:44 |
The Key to Fishing Vertical Structure
When the bass are hanging on structure that is at a 90 degree angle with the bottom one can assume the fish are very difficult to catch and the vertical structure is difficult to present with bait. You see when the fish are around vertical structure they are generally suspending and most fishermen find it very difficult to get a bite. There are ways however to catch fish when this occurs.
I believe it’s time to get creative, and use baits that are capable of dropping vertical and still entice the bass to bite. It’s also the only time of the year I would consider using a spinning out fit because bait fished with a spinning rod will drop vertical just by the loose line drop a spinning rod gives you. The few types of bait I would use are first of all small, capable of dropping slowly and precisely around vertical structure.
My first choice is a wacky rigged small jig head, the wacky style worm is very enticing and the jig head allows the worm to move slowly with precision through vertical structure like wood or rock. The key is just slow decisive fishing, feeling every twitch and movement of your bait. The key to getting this rig deep is the jig head sometimes I will go as light as a 1/16 and sometimes I might fish a 3/16 just depends on the depth I am trying to achieve.
My next choice is a shaky head, the concept remains the same, the bait falls vertical and the weight of the head controls the depth. The difference is a shaky head will fall very quickly when the worm is traditional rigged, so start extremely light in weight and see if the bait is getting to the bottom in a vertical fashion. It needs to fall just fast enough to drop yet slow enough to entice a bite. Vertical structure is tough but creative fishing will be the key to over coming it.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
|
Read 0 Comments... >>
|
Lowrance Structure Scan Can Find you a Sweet Spot |
|
|
|
|
Written by Captain Mike Gerry
|
|
Sunday, 27 February 2011 08:50 |
Lowrance Structure Scan can Find you a Sweet Spot
Structure Scan can be your ticket for that big tournament bag as we move from winter to spring fishing. You see as we change to spring there are many fish that move later than others; there are a lot of reasons for it from cold water to their biological clock. The point remains however that a transition point with just one piece of structure, like a stump or buried Christmas tree can hold that big fish that makes a difference in winning or not.
The key is if your boat is rigged with Structure Scan you can view the bottom with hopes of finding the correct object holding big fish. The good news is this time of year it’s not necessary to be viewing the 20 plus depth, you need to be looking for that transition depth of 8 to 12 feet where the bass are staging for their next move up to the shallows for the spawn.
Structure Scan with its ability to define the bottom structure out from the boat in both directions, and directly under the boat can allow you to move down a ledge and view out from the boat up to 120 ft. in both directions. The image will allow you to idle down a ledge and look for the defined structure quickly, thoroughly and find that game changing location while preparing or fishing in a tournament. You can quickly mark a GPS waypoint and work the structure for that big fish that could mean the difference in winning or losing a tournament. It also has a built in tool that allows you to measure the width of a creek bottom or height of a tree and actually see the fish hanging on the structure you are viewing. This is game changing technology that will make you a better fisherman.
Structure Scan has that wow factor that makes a difference, come fish with me and let me show you this amazing technology. The problem is after you view this, Structure Scan will jump on your “got to have” list and you won’t be satisfied until it is installed on your boat!
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
|
Read 0 Comments... >>
|
Written by Captain Mike Gerry
|
|
Sunday, 13 February 2011 17:12 |
Bait Trends Change Again
As baits change, and technology pushes forward, 2010 once again showed some big changes as we head into 2011. The professional tournament trail once again proved that changing trends in baits has evolved once again. The biggest change came in crank baits and swim baits, we were so accustomed to noisy crank baits and now heading into 2011 noise from rattling to knocking is going quiet.
No longer are the tournament anglers looking for noisy crank baits, instead there taking many of their existing baits drilling holes in them and removing the noise makers. The bass are so beat up in the heavy pressured lakes that noise has become a detractor instead of an attractor as it has over the past many years. New crank baits are being designed without noise and most tournament anglers are finding great success by going to quiet baits with a lot of erratic wrist motion and speed changing retrieves. Also, the tournament trail has found that a combination of quiet baits changing to noisy baits when the bass stop biting has proven to be a successful method of catching big bags of fish. It could be as simple as day to day as the bass get beat up during long tournament days that changing from quiet baits to noisy baits and visa-versa are putting big stringers in the boat.
Swim baits have become part of every anglers tackle box and more and more they are producing big bags of fish during professional tournaments. There are plenty of different types and styles and experimenting with several in all kinds of conditions is producing big tournament fish. Fishing them deep, shallow, over spawning beds and over grass has all produced good fish. Rigging changes have also become a big producer, as pros are fishing them as trailers for jigs, chatter baits and swim jigs and are all produced tournament weights and winning combinations.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
|
Read 0 Comments... >> |
|
|
|
|
|
Page 5 of 27 |
Articles
