Guntersville is slowly aging, and we are starting to see some very definite signs of this throughout the lake!

One sign is the gradual disappearance of the wood cover. Another is the advanced erosion of islands and banks by current and waves. Then there’s the disappearance over the last couple of years the grass, once so prolific on Guntersville.

Our abundant rain over the past two or three years has actually accelerated the erosion problem. That, in turn, reduces water clarity, which also reduces the sunlight required to help the grass grow in the early part of the year.

Young lakes earn reputations as bass factors, but as the reservoir ages, anglers have to adjust if they hope to keep catching good numbers of fish. Here are some tips for that can help you find bass on any of the older reservoirs.

The first thing I do is start fishing deep-diving crank baits on the long points, humps and roadbeds. On aging lakes, actively-feeding bass often stack up in these areas where baitfish abound. As lakes silt in and start to lose their clearly defined structure, bass have a tendency to relate to the baitfish more and more. Finding the baitfish in the past few years has been a very good pattern on Guntersville.

Another occurrence that we see more of on aging lakes is suspending bass. The newest technology in drop shot fishing, a Secret Weapon Lure Recoil Rig baited with a Go2 Bait Shakie Head 4- or 7-inch worm, enables you to catch these suspending fish.

With the Recoil Rig, you can put your lure right in among the suspending fish and then shake and wiggle the lure without moving it out of the strike zone until the fish respond. If fish are there, they will bite eventually; just give them plenty of time to react.

The Go2 Bait Co. Shakie Worm with its triangle point tail is made by a unique hand poured process that causes the rig to look and move differently than any other bait on the market. These hand-poured baits take over an hour to dry, causing a density difference and, hence, a different action with the bait.

So my advice for fishing aging reservoirs, whether it’s Guntersville or any other, is to find the baitfish, find the bass, go after actively feeding fish with deep-diving cranks, and then goad suspending fish to bite with Recoil Rigged Shakie Worms by Go2 Bait Co.

Captain Mike Gerry
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
Web: www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
(256) 759-2270

Tags: Aging lakes, guntersville

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 9:10 AM and is filed under Tips and Tactics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.