Bassing three ways on North Alabama lakes

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/785047393364537344

Captain Mike Carter, who guides some 300 days a year on North Alabama lakes, has evolved a palate of tactics that allows him to find and catch quality fish most of the year, and it involves only three rods, each with a different subsurface lure. Here's how he goes about it:

Swimbaits

            When he's on a big fish pattern, Carter often starts the day with a big soft-plastic swimbait like the Producer in 6 to 7 inch size. These lures, which are available at tackle shops around the lake, are huge compared to most swimbaits, with the head about 2 inches in diameter, and they're molded to look very much like a gizzard shad, the primary food of bass in the TVA lakes.

Swimjigs

            Swimjigs, lighter jigs in the 1/4 to 3/8 ounce class dressed with large twin-tail swimmer soft plastics, are Carter's next go-to bait much of the year.

            "The swimjig lets you run the lure just over the top of the grass where it drops to deeper water, and there are a lot of fish laying down in those weeds that will come up and get it," says Carter. "I like areas about 8 to 10 feet deep where the water comes to within 2 to 3 feet of the surface, and I'll swim that jig so it flutters along, just touching the tops of the weeds instead of sinking down and getting jammed up in them."

Standard Jigs

            Crawling jigs on bottom probably accounts for more fish than any other tactic at Guntersville and other TVA lakes, and Carter takes advantage of this tactic, too, when the more aggressive methods of fishing off bottom are not producing.

            "You're imitating a crawfish with the jig, so you want a crawfish color, brown or a dark blue or black, and you need enough weight so it's easy to keep the lure down there in contact with the bottom," Carter says.

            He applies this tactic in water anywhere from 10 to 20 feet deep, with some of the best areas on rocky outcrops or shell bars near the main channel.

            "You want to feel that lure crawling over the hard bottom," says Carter. "A lot of times, when you feel it starting to scrape on hard structure, that's when you get bit."