I could have stayed home and cut grass last weekend rather than going to Lake Guntersville for the Potato Creek August Tournament.  In two days nine of us landed 24 keepers weighing about 58 pounds.  There were no limits and three fishermen didn’t catch a keeper in two days, I think.

    Kwong Yu won with six weighing 17.15 pounds and had big fish with a 5.47 pound largemouth, Tommy Reeves had four weighing 10.52 for second, Ryan Edge came in third with four weighing 10.35 pounds and Raymond English was fourth with five at 10.27 pounds.

    Fishing was tough.  The first day I tried everything I knew to do, from shallow grassbeds to deep ledges.  I caught some short fish that I could not weigh in.  The size limit at Guntersville is 15 inches for largemouth and smallmouth and there is no limit on spotted bass but our club has a 12-inch size limit on them.

    At 11:00 I hooked and lost what felt like a decent fish that hit a jig and pig on a shellbed on a 14-foot-deep ledge.  I fished several other places then at 2:00 went back to the shellbed and caught a 15-inch spotted bass on my first cast with the jig and pig.  An hour later I landed a 16-inch spot there that hit my jig as I reeled it in for another cast. That was a suicide spot that was just meant to get caught.

    That day Ryan led with four weighing just over ten pounds and Raymond was second with four weighing eight pounds.  The second day I never hooked a keeper although I fished the shellbed hard, starting there at daylight. 

    Kwong had the kind of day we all hope for the second day. On the first day, like me, he had two keepers weighing three pounds. But on Sunday he landed four weighing almost 14 pounds, including the big fish, and won.

    Fishing will continue to be very tough for at least another month, then the cooler weather should make fishing more comfortable and encourage the bass to bite.