Prelude to February’s FLW Tour event on famed Lake Guntersville in Alabama, The Bass Bureau caught up with Professional Bass Anglers Michael Murphy and Jerry Green. Professor Murphy as I have titled my good friend and extremely knowledgeable Fisheries Biologist, enlightened me to his predictions on the underwater transitional movement of Guntersville’s Black Bass.

“If the weather patterns lean towards a warming trend, the fishing could be explosive!!! I am anticipating water temperatures to range between the upper 40 to low/middle 50 degrees by tournament time. Typical early spring patterns should prevail, with anglers reporting bass moving towards the shallow spawning flats in schools. Technically speaking there are three basic categories of bass. 1- Those that live shallow all year long, 2-Migratory Bass, these bass move into shallows to spawn, then drop back to slightly deeper water where they become ‘Funnel Feeders’. They have a tendency to grow larger, feed in schools, usually roaming in a 100-200 yard area. The last or third group of bass lives deeper and they will also spawn deeper. The two stronger prevalent patterns in my opinion will be the shallow bass pattern and the deeper bass pattern,” predicted Ranger Pro Michael Murphy. ( www.MichaelMurphyFishing.com  )

Turning to Texas transplant Jerry Green of Cullman, Alabama, I inquired as to the type of structure and cover Lake Guntersville has to offer the arriving FLW Tour Anglers? “The predominate structure for Guntersville consist of river/creek channels, Rip-Rap walls, flats and some bluffs. Whereas the cover bass relate to the most would be vegetation! Guntersville is known for its massive grass beds made up mostly of milfoil and Hydrilla.”

Sharing a breakfast of grits and gravy, both Ranger Pro’s revealed what they believed would be the prevalent patterns. “This event in my opinion will be held during an early spring pre-spawn period. With that said most anglers would be looking for reaction strikes utilizing a variety of baits to locate schooling and staging bass,” suggested Green. ( www.JerryGreenFishing.com )

“I agree with Jerry. The water temperatures should be prime for suspending jerkbaits over submerged grass or deeper channels, lipless crankbaits ripped over and through shallow grass beds, while jigs worked slowly in deeper water or outside weedlines should be productive,” replied Murphy.

Then with a sudden pause Professor Murphy added, “As I mentioned before the weather is going to be a key element in this equation! The length of daylight is perfect signaling a natural movement to shallow spawning grounds, yet the water temperature may not be high enough. This in turn may place the bass in larger schools utilizing staging areas? I will concentrate in all three depths. Depending upon the light conditions and the water clarity I will have five Fenwick Techna 7’ M/H rods paired with Revo Reels with each setup having a different color new IMA Flit suspending #90 jerkbait. ( www.OptimunBaits.com ) Two more similar setups with 20 lb Spiderwire each with a _ oz IMA Rock-N-Shad, colors will be Chartreuse Shad, Hot Craw. My final setup will be two jig rods, each with TABU jigs; one in 5/16 and the other 7/16 oz. My jig colors will be Black-Rusty Craw and Black-Red Shad, each jig will utilize a Berkley Power bait trailer in a red shad or black color.” ( www.TabuTackle.com )

With everything taken into perspective I asked Green and Murphy just how much weight they felt were needed to make the cut, as well as what it would take to win the Guntersville FLW Tour event? Green thought he would need at least 20-25 lbs a day to make the Top-10 cut. While Professor Murphy anticipated anglers would indeed carry 25 lb bags to the scales, he estimated 38-40 lbs to make the top-10 cut. Their winning weights shared similar margins; Green predicted 42-45 lb, and Murphy predicted close to 50lbs claiming the Guntersville Championship.

David Fritts’s carried a total of eight bass to the scales over the final two days for a total of 38.01 lbs, to claim the $200,000 FLW Lake Guntersville Championship! While, Cullman, Alabama’s FLW Pro Angler Jerry Green managed to deposit $14,000 into his Alabama Bank Account after making a quantum leap on Day-2. Green’s 5-bass limit tipped the scales in his favor weighing in at 20lbs 7oz! “I was idling in 46^th Place and knew I needed to bring in a big bag if I was to collect a check,” recalls Green.

Having originally predicted he would utilize fast moving baits, such as spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits, Power Tackle ( www.PowerTackle.com ) Pro Staffer Jerry Green elaborated as to his actual on the water patterns. “When it came to the spinnerbait I was unable to get the bass to eat it, and decided to concentrate on utilizing a small-modified crankbait with no rattles. I honestly believe the bass were extremely pressured and had seen just to many rattling lipless crankbaits.” Adding with a pause, “Besides our FLW Tour event Bassmasters was holding one of their Weekend Series Tournaments on Guntersville at the same time. Although the dominant colors utilized by most anglers was ‘Red’, I chose to throw a Chartreuse Black back crankbait. My water was slightly dingy and I caught all my bass on this color in depths ranging from as shallow as 6 inches to an average of 2-3 feet.”

Jerry Green’s most consistent bites came from slowly crawling his modified-crankbait into isolated patches of milfoil. According to Green, “Two key terms sum it up Extremely Shallow (6 inches) and Warmer water!”

Murphy’s 133^rd Place finish may appear as though he struck-out, however long fly balls against the fence are also listed as an out! “I believe I did everything right! My practice went as planned I located the bass and the areas they would be moving to. When I logically review the areas I fished, the baits I threw and the presentations I made compared to the anglers within the same areas and the overall tournament results, it comes down to one deciding factor! You either caught them or you didn’t! And, in my situation I just didn’t get the bites when I needed them. One factor that surprised me was that these bass seemed to have moved very shallow much faster than I thought!”

Guntersville’s Change-Up: Most of the field went down swinging as the FLW scales witnessed very few 5-bass limits. Professor Murphy’s Tournament Conclusion reveals the following. “Keying in on the bass’ locations from staging in deeper water along ledges in 6-7 feet to extremely shallow warmer clear water only 6” deep, was imperative to their transitional movement. A ‘Bold-Type’ note that these bass moved in very, very fast and very, very shallow! The areas I fished were also the areas in which several of the Top-10 anglers were fishing. Finalizing my results coupled with reviewing my maps I came to the conclusion that the bass I had located actually moved within a 200 yd stretch. Unfortunately for me it wasn’t until the last few hours of Day#2 when I relocated them. In this short period of time I landed three bass for just under 10 lbs before I had to return to the scales!”

God Bless and Best Bass’n

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April 2009 Issue