Good start to FLW season in Alabama

The 2017 FLW Tour bass tournament season got underway this past weekend down at Lake Guntersville, Alabama.
Although it was some of the toughest fishing that I’ve encountered in my travels south over the past five years competing in these events, I was very fortunate to leave Guntersville with a solid 22nd-place finish.
In these tournaments, anglers bring in five-fish limits each day and over the two days of the tournament that I fished, I only caught five keeper-sized fish each day, which had to be at least 15 inches in length. So I was pretty fortunate.
There was some disappointment because the top 20 anglers after two days qualify to fish a third day in these tournaments, but I was very happy to escape this event with a good finish that earned me $10,000 and great points towards qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup–the season-ending championship event.
Without a fish or two that I caught along the way, I easily could have finished really bad in this event.
Lake Guntersville was known as one of the top bass fisheries in the U.S. only a few years ago. But it has seen a massive amount of angler pressure over the past few years and just seems to be going through a lull right now.
Of the 165-angler field, only 25 were able to bring a limit to the scale each day. That is tough!
I had a bunch of different fishing rods in my boat for this tournament and spent my time fishing a variety of different ways in order to catch my fish. I caught a big one early each morning on the spot I started fishing on, each around five pounds, on a lipless rattle bait.
But I would stay for about an hour-and-a-half fishing the same small area and was unable to get another bite.
After that, I just ran around fishing a bunch of different spots trying to catch my five fish. I used a variety of different techniques and just fished whatever looked good.
On the first day last Thursday, I had four bass in my boat by around 11 a.m., then went for more than five hours without a bite. I had a long day that first day and did not have to check in until 5 p.m.
During the last hour, I was feeling sick that I had all that time to catch one more fish and failed to do so. But I was really lucky that with about a half-hour to go, I boated a bass just barely over the 15-inch minimum length.
On Day 2 on Friday, I had a short day and had to check in at 3 p.m., but I was fortunate to have caught my fifth fish at around noon. My weight was not as good on Day 2 but I moved up several spots in the standings because the fishing was so tough following the cold front that hit just before the tournament started.
Next week, we are back at it with our second event taking place at Lake Travis in Texas. So this week, I’m spending a few days fishing in Alabama with some sponsor people before starting the big drive west.
Being away from home for these long stretches is kind of tough, but it is fun to be fishing in the boat and spending time with all my good friends that I’ve made fishing in these tournaments the past few years.
Meanwhile, the ice-fishing reports that I’ve been getting from some of my friends around home have been good over the past week for crappies, lake trout, and walleye.
Ice conditions seem to be a lot better since everything thawed out and then refroze.
But longer days and milder weather will be coming soon so stay safe out there!