Every year I try to keep up with patterns and baits that worked in the past by keeping a log on a excel spread sheet where I have it set up so I can sort by day, month, or bait and even areas of the lake. I can tell if I was fishing humps or boat houses or even ditches and road beds, and over the now almost 20 years of data I can tell you patterns change drastically over time. The one pattern that stands out to me is boat houses.
I can research my data and tell you that boat houses have mainly been a fall pattern where the heat drives the bass under boat houses during the hot fall time of year. In the last year I have found that bass are now moving under boat houses more in the winter than they have in the past couple of years during the fall. There seems to be a very good reason for this, if you just think about it; the first being that we just have not had the cold winters we use to have, and boat houses have become a safe haven from the onset of the Alabama rig. There is I believe a difference in how you have to fish a boat house in the winter vs. the fall.
I believe because bass are just not actively feeding in the colder winter water like they do in the fall that the bass stage farther under the boat houses, which requires you to be able to skip your bait back under the boat house. There is no bait better built to skip in my mind than a jig, it being a solid bait with the weight and head together that you can easily skip it deeply into the under workings of a boat house.
Patterns change and being able to recognize it, and adjust is the key to finding fish consistently; don抰 be blind to patterns that worked last year or before as adjusting seems to be a key to consistency!
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email:
[email protected]
Phone: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry
