with Captain Mike Gerry
See Captain Mike Gerry’s weekly fishing report here
October is a great month for catching bass all over Alabama but Guntersville is hard to beat. The lake is full of big bass in shallow water that will hit a variety of baits right now. And you can be more comfortable fishing for them all day now that cooler weather is here.
A dam 94 feet high and 3929 feet long was completed on the Tennessee River in 1939 to form Guntersville. The lake has 67,900 acres of water and 890 miles of shoreline, but the average depth is so shallow that most of the lake holds bass in easy to reach cover.
The water level stays stable to provide a navigation channel, fluctuating only two feet between summer and winter pool. This allows different kinds of grass beds to grow and get thick most years, and the bass use them for cover all year long. A 15 inch size limit insures a good population of smaller bass that grow into bragging size fish.
In the 2007 Alabama Bass Anglers Information Team report Guntersville had the highest average weight for bass caught in tournaments of all reported lakes, and it took less time to catch a bass over five pounds at Guntersville than any other Alabama lake. Numbers of bass caught were not as impressive but the 15 inch size limit makes it harder to catch keepers.
Mike Gerry moved to Alabama in the early 1970s and coached high school football for many years. He loved fishing the area and participated in many tournaments, fishing on Guntersville starting in 1974. After a boating accident while fishing a night tournament and three tough years of rehabilitation he started guiding on Guntersville full time in 1997. He lives on the lake near the ramp at Waterfront Grocery and Tackle and is on the lake about 200 days a year now.
Mike netted the lake record 14 pound, 8 ounce bass for his partner Charlie Betus several years ago. His personal best from the lake is an 11 pound, 2 ounce hog most of us can only dream of catching. And his best five fish limit weighed 27 pounds. He catches lots of bass and big ones. He won the Guntersville Civitan Big Bass contest this past June with a 7 pound, 4 ounce largemouth and got his best of the year, an 8 pound, 14 ounce beauty, in mid August.
Mike says this is an unusual fall for Guntersville because the grass mats are not as common and thick as normal. Last February was real cold so the grass did not get a good start, and unusually strong winds all summer kept it broke up. The rat bite is usually one of the strongest patterns on Guntersville in October but it will not be as good as usual this year.
The water started cooling early this year and the bass started moving into the creeks and coves. Mike says they follow mussels and baitfish. The mussel beds offer a variety of foods for the bass as do the baitfish. Most of his fishing this time of year is from the mouths of creeks back in them. He started catching good bass on this pattern this year in mid August and the 8-14 came on it.
Early each morning Mike likes to start with topwater baits and says a fast moving bait like a buzzbait is his choice. He will run it over hydrilla and milfoil that is not covering the surface, trying to draw an active bass up and out of the grass to feed. If he finds a solid patch of grass on top he will fish a rat or frog on it.
As the sun gets up Mike switches to crankbaits, spinnerbaits, a jig and pig and a Texas rigged Paca Craw. He fishes the shallow running crankbait or a Punisher Lures spinnerbait over grass that is several feet below the surface, concentrating on edges where channels or ledges drop off and the grass stops.
If the bass won’t chase the crankbait or spinnerbait he will make short pitches with the other two baits, let them fall to the bottom, then pop them up two to three feet and let them fall again. He only pops them up one time since he gets almost all his bites on the initial fall.
To get down through the grass he uses a black and blue one-ounce Tightline jig with a black or blue Paca Craw trailer. He will go lighter for a slower fall with a Paca Craw rigged with a one-half ounce sinker if the fish seem to want a slower falling bait. Both baits are pitched about 20 yards from the boat then reeled in for another pitch after one hop.
The following spots have been holding bass for several weeks now and they will get better and better as the water cools more. Give them a try to see the kinds of spots Mike looks for this time of year.
1. N 34 31.400 – W 86 10.327 – Beshart Creek is the first creek on the west side upstream of the ramp at Waterfront Grocery and Tackle. It goes in and turns and there is a big bay with the Highway 79 causeway running along the west side. The bay is shallow and full of grass with a good channel running through it and Mike likes to start here with topwater baits in the morning.
Run into the creek and you will see the causeway ahead of you. It is broken by an island with trees on it and you want to stop out in the middle of the bay about even with the island. Watch your depthfinder and you will see the creek channel snaking across the flat running about nine feet deep. It has hydrilla on the edge of it forming a good grassline to fish.
Keep your boat in the channel and make casts up to the shallow grass and run a buzzbait over it. There are some solid mats here to work a rat on, too. Fish the rat pretty fast to draw a strike. Work along the channel from even with the island all the way to where it makes a turn toward the bridge.
If nothing hits on top try your jig and pig or Texas rig, dropping it into holes and popping it up. Mike uses Suffix monofilament 20 pound test on both jig and Texas rig. The mono is better in the clear water but you need heavy line to pull the fish out of the grass.
The water in here is normally very clear and it is due to the hydrilla. Hydrilla filters sediment out of the water more than milfoil so you can expect to find clearer water where hydrilla is present. We caught four or five bass here on top early the day Mike showed me these spots a few weeks ago.
2. N 34 29.787 – W 86 09.740 – Come out of the creek and head downstream across the lake, staying on the downstream end of the big hydrilla bed and shallows in the middle. You will see two long riprap points running off the east bank where they used to fill barges with coal. Upstream of the upstream one is a cove with a small island in it that Mike called Murphy Hill. The downstream point of this cove has a good grass flat running out from it.
Stop on the outside of the point and start fishing with your boat in about 13 feet of water, casting up onto the shelf that is four to five feet deep on top. Work over it on top and try your crankbait and spinnerbait along the drop, too. Work all the way around the point back into the cove then fish back around it, dropping your jig and Texas rig into the grass. You may need to get in closer to fish those baits.
Mike says wind blows onto this point and pushes baitfish up on it, making it better. Some wind blowing into grassbeds helps concentrate baitfish and bass this time of year. Current moving across them helps, too.
3. N 34 30.162 – W 86 08.723 – Go upstream around the island and point into the next big cove. Mike calls it Church House Cove and you will see a pocket filled with big lily pads on your right as you round the point. There are big stumps mixed in with the pads and grass that grows way out from them here.
No matter what time of day, if Mike sees any movement in the pads from baitfish or bass he will work a frog or rat through them. He throws it on 50 pound Power Pro braid to get the fish out of the thick stuff. You can work all around this whole cove fishing pads if the fish are up in them.
If not, start on the point staying out from the pads and pitch your jig or Texas rig into the grass. Remember to fish fast, dropping the bait into holes you can see and popping it up high. Be ready to set the hook if you feel a bass as you start your pop, they will often grab the bait when it hits bottom and hold it, and you won’t feel them until you start to move it.
If you hit a stump cast back to it again once you have it located. Big bass love to hold on the stumps surrounded by grass. You can fish this whole area since it is filled with cover. Bass will often get in small areas within a big flat like this and you have to find where they are located, then you can often catch several.
4. N 34 31.980 – W 86 08.562 – Back across the lake, again avoiding the shallows in the middle, go upstream to the Daylight Marker 373.2 on an island on that side. Just upstream of this marker there is a cut running behind the island and the upstream point is clay. You will see a big standing dead tree on the inside of this point and another one lying on the bank.
If you idle across the mouth of this pocket the bottom will drop off to 14 feet then come back up on a hump five or six feet deep. Baitfish and bass often stack up in the cut between the two and run up on the point to feed. Current coming down the river will also make a good eddy here that attracts bass.
Start out off the point with your boat in 14 feet of water and fish the top of the point with all your baits. Mike says he usually finds bass here in the first 30 yards going into the cut so he usually does not fish all the way back unless he is catching fish. This is a good schooling spot so start with a crankbait. Work in with one bait then work out offering them something different.
5. N 34 31.924 – W 86 07.354 – Back across the river there are a series of islands on the upstream side of the mouth of South Sauty Creek. Stop downstream of the first small island off the willow grass point and fish upstream. The point of the first island runs out shallow but there is a “U” shaped pocket between it and the next big island upstream. These “U” shaped pockets are a key to what Mike is looking for.
Mike says a good depthfinder and GPS are essential for his type fishing and he uses Lowrance products, one of his sponsors. Watch your depthfinder as you work upstream and you will see the bottom drop from about six feet deep off to 10 or more then come back up. This area has good access to deeper water and Mike says it is a good spot hole.
Fish all the way up to the outside of the big island, working all your baits over different depths and through the grass here. Watch for schooling bass, too. I got a bass here on top right in the middle of the day when a small school busted shad within range of my popper. Have something ready to throw to schoolies if they come up.
6. N 34 31.863 – W 86 06.790 – Go around the islands into the mouth of South Sauty and there is a big bay to your left. The creek channel makes a sharp bend on this side and there are flats and humps all around the channel. This is a huge area that holds bass this time of year. Get your boat in the channel and work the edges as it cuts across the flat. Concentrate on the outside bends in it.
Be careful as you go across this area with your big motor. Some of the spots come up to a couple of feet deep. Use your trolling motor to fish the area until you learn where the drops and high spots are located. You could easily spend a whole day fishing this area, starting on top then pitching jigs and Texas rigs into the grass.
7. N 34 32.116 – W 86 06.197 – If you look up toward the bridge in South Sauty you will see a point to the left of it with houses on it. There is a cove to the left of this point that has grass in it that comes out then drops off into about seven feet deep. On your right will be a gray double door boat house with a screen room on it and on the left point of the cove you will see a duck blind.
Start out even with the dock and fish across the mouth of the cove, keeping in about seven feet of water and casting a crankbait up shallow and working it back. Mike got a nice 5.5 pound bass here on a crankbait the day we fished and another bass on the very next cast. He was throwing a Bagley square lipped shallow running crankbait that stayed over the grass.
Work across the mouth of this cove with the crankbait then try your other baits while fishing back across it. If you catch a fish make multiple casts with different baits to the same area. You might get an active bass on the crankbait then pick up some other less active fish from the school on a jig.
8. N 34 32.324 – W 86 06.227 – On the other side of the point with the duck blind on it is a good example of the kind of “U” shaped cove Mike looks for this time of year. The bottom contour swings back forming a pocket that drops off into the middle. They show up on a map or GPS like a horseshoe. Wind blowing into these kinds of pockets concentrates the baitfish and bass move in to ambush them.
Work across the mouth of this pocket just like the one beside it. Keep your boat in about seven feet of water and follow the contour, throwing your baits up from deep to shallow. Fish all your baits here before leaving.
9. N 34 31.144 – W 86 06.335 – Head to the right point on the downstream side bridge in South Sauty. A point runs out downstream from the end of the riprap and bass stack up on it, especially when it is cold, according to Mike. It is six feet deep on top but quickly drops to 25 feet deep.
Start out deep and throw your crankbait across the top of this point. Work all around it with a crankbait then try a jig or Texas rig on the bottom. Any current coming under the bridge when they are pulling water creates an eddy around this point that makes it even better.
10. N 34 30.107 – W 86 06.524 – Go under the bridge and run up to the mouth of Yellow Creek where it splits off to the right. Be careful here, the creek channel swings in near the bank and there are rock piles and shallows even out in the middle of the creeks. Stop way out off the point where you see a grassbed on the bank in the edge of the water with your boat in 10 to 12 feet of water. The ledge between the creek channel and bank comes up to four to five feet deep on top.
You can work this bank all the way back to the bridge. There are a series of humps and shallow flats off the bank between it and the creek channel. Mike says this is an excellent place in the fall to sit deep and throw a spinnerbait or crankbait up on the flat and work it back across the drop. There is usually a lot of bait here in October to bring the bass in and hold them.
Check out these spots then look for similar places to catch Guntersville bass this fall. These spots hold bass but similar places all over the lake are good, too. Once you get the pattern you can find many more to fish.
Contact Captain Mike Gerry at or visit his web site at to set up a guided trip to see first hand how he catches Guntersville bass.