No matter where you live, largemouth bass follow a consistent pattern every spring, summer, winter, and fall. In early springtime they move up from deep water into shallow water to spawn. After spawning, they leave their nesting areas in the shallows and move back to deep water where they orient and feed next to topographic structure such as ledges, points and channels.

This, however, may occur more than once in the same spring. A female bass will service several nests during her spawning cycle, moving shallow and back deep again several times over just a few days before completing her reproductive cycle.

On large lakes like Guntersville, the spawn may occur at one end of the lake as much as two weeks earlier than at the other end. I have always felt the upper end goes first and the lower end last.

By understanding the timing of this pattern, you can adjust your skills and presentations to catch fish offshore on the structure that is not so obvious to most fishermen without good Lowrance Electronics for big lakes like Guntersville. Its time to find those depth changes, humps and not so obvious pieces of structure that no one else has found. It’s these non-conspicuous changes on the lake bottom that will win a tournament for you this time of year.

Spend some time studying topographical maps either on your computer or hard copies, and look for contour lines that indicate something different on the bottom. When you find the subtleties you will find the big fish.

In Florida and the Gulf coast region, this movement may happen in February, March, or April As one moves north, it occurs later in the year. On Guntersville, May is time when this movement occurs. One thing I always do this time of year is slow roll big 1 oz. Punisher Spinner Baits on the ledges and drops and humps on the channel. The other thing is to take Secret Weapon buzz baits or Zara Spooks, working them over and around the grass points on the channel ledges. Either or any of these presentations will result in big fish and big bites and some winning stringers.

May is a great time on the river!

Captain Mike Gerry
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
Web: www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
(256) 759-2270