2021 04 16 Guntersville AL

[coldfront]

dropped the boat in Friday afternoon over on Guntersville.  Poking around looking for fish.  Action was slow and sporadic for a few smaller fish, but persistence paid off with one nice one.
TN river lakes have been running 'hot' (current flows) for past few weeks as TVA has worked to keep winter pool levels until April 15.  With the turn of the calendar page, current flows went from 100K cfs (or higher) down to 30K cfs.  some sections of the lakes also lost a bit of depth as the volume of water decreased and easier settled into the channels.  so fish are just starting to re-orient.
Water temps in main river channel were 62°-63°F.  65°-66°F in the backwaters/pockets.  Clarity was slightly stained upper lake; clearing/clear lower lake.  Sunny/partly cloudy to start afternoon with clouds building in late afternoon.  finished in the evening with all clouds.

fish didn't want moving baits, but did respond to soft plastics 'soaked'.  Got a few.  one touched 19.5" in length.  Thick, girthy, heavy fish for the size.  Always amazed at the teeth on these fish.had to work for the fish we did get, and they weren't all over the place, but in dispersed pockets. 

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the details on the lake... My fishing partner has a theory on the teeth of bass in the early spring... Crawfish have been gone all winter so shad is the main course which are not hard on teeth. This allows them to get sharp. When the teeth start smoothing out, he switches to craw colored baits. Who knows, works for him.

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