Jimmy Mason's boat is fully equipped with live sonar, and it's typically running when he is fishing. As a long-time Tennessee River guide and tournament pro, he stays up to date with technology and uses it to his advantage and his clients' benefit. That said, live sonar is seldom central to Mason's strategy when he fishes Lake Guntersville, and the ongoing refinement of this technology hasn't substantially changed his overall approach to fishing this iconic bass lake.
Mason (Instagram: @jmasonfishing) relies on his understanding of the bass' seasonal movements and behavior and how they relate to structural features and current, and how the lake's extensive vegetation affects the fish's holding positions and feeding behavior. He fishes locations where fish should be and commonly finds groups of fish with his lures and down- and side-scanning electronics.
"We should get bit in the next few casts," Mason has frequently told me over the years as we've fished a river bar or channel edge. Not because he was looking at fish but because he knew we were coming up on a shell bed atop a bar or a cut in the channel edge that creates an ambush point. And far more often than not, he has been exactly right.
Guntersville is vast and complex, so finding the fish and the right pattern any given day can take time. That said, its characteristics make the types of areas the fish will be using somewhat predictable, if you know what to look for.
About Lake Guntersville
Lake Guntersville is the fourth reservoir along the Tennessee River, between Nickajack and Wheeler lakes. It covers 69,000 surface acres and is 75 miles long. It is largely riverine in character, although the main body broadens toward the lower end and the lake's acreage includes a handful of vast impounded creek arms. The Nickajack tailwater is in Tennessee, but the reservoir proper is in Alabama.
Guntersville is highly productive and a genuinely iconic bass fishing destination, known both for overall quality and the potential for trophy bass. Plentiful shad, sunfish and crawfish keep the bass well fed. The lake supports a modest population of spotted bass and yields occasional smallmouth, mostly from the extreme upper end. That said, thick-bodied largemouth are reason bass fishermen travel to Lake Guntersville.
Habitat-wise, Guntersville has diverse offerings, and fish use many types of cover and structure. However, the lake is best known for its diverse and widespread vegetation – submerged, emergent and floating – and for the vast mats that form in the summer and stay in place well into fall.
The lake is well served by boat ramps from end to end, plus marinas, bait and tackle shops, restaurants, and boater-friendly lodging options. It is a fishing lake, first, and nicely set up as an angling destination.
Guntersville Driving Factors
- Current & Current Breaks – As a big-river impoundment with large dams at both ends, Guntersville often has current pushing from end to end. It's typically not visible through the lower reaches, but you can detect it by how your baits move, if you pay attention. If any water is moving, it impacts the way fish position themselves, and more current typically equates to a better bite and fish more predictably holding on the back sides of river bars behind high spots on structure, along cross-current channel edges, and anywhere else the structure creates a current break and ambush position.
- Depth Breaks – Depth breaks are critical on Guntersville, especially during late winter, when fish are wanting to push shallow to feed and prepare to spawn but need deeper water nearby to retreat to for thermal refuge. Edges of flats, channel edges, channel swings, points and bars all help define where the fish hold.
- Vegetation – Guntersville is rightly famous for its mats, but that is only a very small piece of the "grass" story. Submerged vegetation, including hydrilla, coontail, eelgrass and many other varieties, hold bass and forage fish all year. During winter, finding vegetation that remains green and vibrant and figuring out the varieties that are holding the most fish can be critical.
- Causeways – Several highways flank Guntersville, crossing creek arms, big and small. Most have built-up causeways with bridges spanning only the main channel. These causeways create pinch points that commonly concentrate forage fish and predators and can be important fishing areas. The bridge spans, riprap banks on both sides, and areas near the creek channels in the vicinity of the bridges can all be potential hotspots, and they tend to be extra important during winter and early spring.
- Forage – Threadfin and gizzard shad, bluegills and related sunfish, and various crawfish species keep Guntersville bass fat and happy, and the seasonal behavior of the forage plays a major role in dictating where bass are most likely to be found.
"Anytime I think of Guntersville, I think of two things, and that's grass and bridges." Luke Palmer, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro
Elite Series Expectations
The Bassmaster Elite Series will visit Lake Guntersville Feb 5-8, and it will be the first of several Elite Series events where no live sonar may be used, highlighting the lake's status as a stellar old-school bass destination. We asked a few Elite Series anglers about their expectations.
- "100 percent wintertime pattern, with the recent Arctic air; will make it challenging to move quickly. I expect and old-school jerkbait bite. I got a boatload of Flash Points ready!" Jason Christie
- "BOOYAH Hard Knocker is going to play a major role in the grass. Bridges – I will definitely have a BOOYAH Flash Point or a Norman Speed N rolled by the rocks. The extreme cold will definitely take this from a somewhat pre-spawn tournament to a hardcore winter pattern. Deeper grass edges and main river areas will play more." Luke Palmer
- "This should be one of the best BOOYAH Hard Knocker/One Knocker tournaments we have had in years! I also believe the Flash Point Jerkbait will be a major player. Find the right combo of forage, cover and technique, and should be a fun week." Stetson Blaylock
One Knocker & Hard Knocker
BOOYAH One Knockers and Hard Knockers go hand-in-hand with Lake Guntersville, especially through late winter and early spring. Any given day you'd find a bunch of both tied to anglers' lines all over the lake. You might find them in tackle shops. Shop owners certainly try to keep them in stock. When the lipless bite is hot, though, that can be a tall order.
The Hard Knocker and One Knocker are premium lipless crankbaits that come have the same baitfish-matching shape and tight vibrating action. The difference is their sound. The Hard Knocker has multiple rattles and emits a loud high pitched rattling sound. The One Knocker contains a single tungsten ball in a rattle chamber, and it creates a duller, lower pitched thud each time the bait move side to side. Each have their days on Guntersville, with the One Knocker tending to produce extra well when the lipless bite is hottest, and bass are hearing a lot of rattles.
Both come in 1/4-, 1/2- and 3/4-ounce sizes and a great selection of colors. The 1/2-ounce size is the most popular, by far, and comes in the most colors. However, the smaller and larger versions allow anglers to work a bit shallower or deeper with the same presentations, along with proving smaller and larger profiles, respectively, to match situations.
Red dominant colors, such as Rayburn Red, Toledo Gold and Sunset Craw, are the most popular on Guntersville this time of year. Royalty, which has a purple back but a generally shad-like appearance, is also extremely popular and effective.
Fishing mostly over relatively shallow grass, whether on a flat near a spawning area or atop a structural feature, anglers make long casts, let the bank sink to the top of the vegetation and work it through the zone. Some reel steadily, moving the bait just fast enough to keep it the action engaged and prevent the lure from getting bogged down in the grass. Others add snaps to reeling retrieves or work the lure somewhat like a plastic worm, repeatedly lifting it with the rod tip and allowing it to sink back.
"I really let the bass tell me how they want it," Mason said. "Some days they want it swam slowly right at the top of the grass. Other days pumping the rod, so it lifts out of the grass and falls back again works better."
3 More Guntersville Winter Options
- YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr – Elite Series competitors can't use them, but many would if they could, and you certainly can for recreational fishing. The national craze began at Guntersville, and swimming a YUMbrella is still a great way to catch bass during winter. Rig with YUM Scottsboro Swimbaits
- BOOYAH Flash Point Deep – In truth the whole Flash Point family is important throughout the cooler months at Lake Guntersville, especially over the edges of main-river structure and around the bridges.
- Norman Speed N – The tight pitch and roll of the Speed N make it a stellar cold-water crankbait. Use it to work riprap on causeways, jetties and channel swing banks on the main river and in the largest creeks.