LAKE GUNTERSVILLE PICTURES

February 18-19, 2006

 

"THE ICE BOWL"

 

 

LODGING

 

For this tournament we rented the lodge at Goose Pond Colony.

 

 

PRACTICE

 

The planned name of the "Ice Bowl" was the "Pig Fest". In anticipation of the great pig fest members of the club soaked up every bit of information we could find. Here we see Lance as one of the first arrivals at Kenneth Grover's Lake Guntersville seminar. Notice the Mark's bag full of special lures Chris Jackson showed us.

 

Here Bill shows a 3+ lb bass he caught in practice. But because he did not attend Kenneth's seminar he did not realize that bass like this one are culled on Lake Guntersville.

 

 

Bass like this 6-7 and 5-6 are what you should be after.

Add a 4 lber and you have the start of a good stringer. In about 10 cast I caught a 6-7, 5-6, 4-0, 3-3, and 3-3. It was hard but I made myself stop sticking those fish in order to save them for the tournament.

Bill also caught a poor man's tarpon in practice...

...but the trash fish apparently grow larger on Guntersville too. This carp was snagged by a Rat-L-Trap and put up quite a fight. Thanks to the guys who were nice enough to stop fishing and take the photo.

 

The night before the tournament we filled up on ribeyes at Russ T's.

 

 

TOURNAMENT DAY 1

 

When you wake up and it is raining like crazy with the temperature in the 30s, well the just isn't a good day to fish. But when you turn on the weather channel and they say the temperature is supposed to drop and the rain is supposed to turn to ice, well that is just silly. But we fished anyway.

Clint and I managed to catch a decent stringer weighing 17-12. Actually, Clint did most of the catching and I just helped with the net.

Clint caught this nice 3-15 that makes our prestigious Top 10 List.

Jeremy said it was a nice stringer, but considering the weather he thinks he will wait for the frog bite.

 

TOURNAMENT DAY 2

 

On day two we awoke to a balmy 16 degree temperature.  Most of the club was still shivering from the day before and the thought of fishing in the teens was enough for most of them to throw in the towel.  Clint had to return to Birmingham due to a family emergency.  That left Benson and I in the unique position of fishing a tournament without the usual tournament pressure.  We basically fished for the purpose of breaking club records.

 

What can I say?  I love it when a plan comes together.  It was cold but it was very manageable because there was very little wind.  It was much nicer than Saturday.

 

This 4-6 largemouth is the biggest bass Benson has ever caught. Watching your buddy catch a fish like that is almost as much fun as catching it yourself. It is also makes the aforementioned Top 10 List.

Six pounds three ounces. The largest bass in TMTangler history.

2-13 catfish. Made the Top 10 Trash Fish list.

The tournament ended at 3:00. (Our stringer was 21-05). But we were having so much fun at that point that we kept fishing for fun. Shortly after that Benson caught this 3-15 which would have made the Top 10 list had it been caught before 3:00.

MORE PHOTOS

 

 

 

 

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