The Stars Fell on Guntersville

Every state has a slogan on its license plates. Illinois license plates read: “Land of Lincoln.” Kentucky’s: “The Bluegrass State” or “Unbridled Spirit.” Maryland: No joke, they say “Drive Carefully” (A good message, but it sure doesn’t say much for the state. Or maybe it does.). Then there’s Alabama. The vast majority of the vehicles traveling its roads have the slogan “The Stars Fell On” plastered near their bumpers. The stars fell on? On what? Wouldn’t that mean it was pummeled by asteroids (Sorry, I guess that’s just the way my mind works)? The truth is, the slogan came from a 1934 jazz song by Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish entitled “Stars Fell on Alabama” (Thank you Google). Well, I have no idea about the rest of the state, but there’s something astronomical about the state’s Lake Guntersville.

In case you haven’t seen the latest recap from the first stop of the 2009 Walmart FLW Tour, the pros went crazy at Guntersville. It took 20 pounds a day to make the cut. And it wasn’t just 4- and 5-pounders getting weighed in. A 9-plus-pounder was weighed in each of the first two days. And I can’t even begin to tell you how many 7-pounders filled out limits. Heck, BP pro David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., had two near 8 pounds on day one to complete his 29-pound, 3-ounce limit – the heaviest catch ever weighed on the first day of an FLW Tour event. Throw in his co-angler that day also landed a bass near 8 pounds and it goes to show what kind of fishery I’m talking about.

Luckily, I didn’t have to just play spectator while I was down there this weekend. Local stick Ed Gettys was kind enough to take out myself and Editor Jason Sealock Sunday so we could experience the shallow rattle bait bite for ourselves. And after just a morning on the water, we know where we’re headed next winter.

Consider this: The lake had just been pounded for three days by some of the best anglers in the country. And that doesn’t include the days of practice before the tournament. Yet, despite that, in just the morning we caught four bass that would have weighed in somewhere around 16 1/2 pounds, with one of them being a 7-pounder I caught on a 3/4-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad – my second largest bass ever. Pretty incredible.

Off the water was more of the same. The state park where the pros launched from was beautiful, and apparently the equivalent of deer heaven. All told, we must have seen more than 100 deer over four days. We pulled up to the lodge the first night and were greeted by two six-point bucks and a 10-pointer. If you can imagine, it got to the point where if we took a drive and didn’t see three or four deer we were stunned. I’ll post some pictures soon, because as impossible as it sounds it’s 100 percent true.

So, stars fell on? Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty good slogan. Something otherworldly is definitely going on in that lake. And I can’t wait to get back down there.

Slam the hooks!