Top 10 Baits from Lake Guntersville
What to throw in the grass this fall
You can flip it, frog it, punch it and fish any number of moving baits through it. It’s grass, of course, and Lake Guntersville is full of it. That’s why so many grass-fishing baits were in the mix among the top 10 finishers at the 2018 Costa FLW Series Championship on Guntersville.
1. Tournament champion Kyle Walters punched mats with a pair of beaver-style baits, including a black and blue/green pumpkin Gambler Stinger, using a 7-foot, 11-inch Halo TI Series rod, 75-pound-test Halo Winch braided line, a 4/0 Gamakatsu Super Heavy Cover Flippin’ Hook and 1 1/2-ounce Picasso tungsten sinker.
2. The world’s greatest bass angler Bryan Thrift fished two shallow grassy areas with an E. R. Lures umbrella rig thrown with a 7-3, medium-heavy Fitzgerald Rods Stunner HD, 20-pound P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon and a 7.3:1 Abu Garcia REVO STX.
3. Fishing near Walters, Robert Crosnoe punched with a Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver in the magic craw swirl color using a 7-6 Fitzgerald Rods Titan HD flippin’ stick, 65-pound-test Fitzgerald Vursa Braided Line, a 1 1/2-ounce Fitzgerald tungsten sinker and a 3/0 Mustad 3X hook.
4. Arizona’s Jon Griffith fished grass in areas where he saw bass boiling on the surface. He used a homemade white vibrating jig with a silver blade and an Arizona Custom Baits AFG Force swimbait trailer.
5. For fifth, Bryan New fished shallow milfoil with a 5-inch Zoom Swimmer rigged with a weedless hook. He worked the outer edges of the grass with an umbrella rig fitted with 3.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbaits.
6. Arkansas pro Troy Gibson fished ditches through the grass with an umbrella rig full of 4-inch Zoom Swimmers.
7. Targeting outside edges of main-river grass, Zack Birge used a 5-inch swimbait, BOOYAH Flex 2 square-bill crankbait in the smoke shad color and a YUM YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr. umbrella rig.
8. Terry Tucker fished isolated grass clumps on flats and tossed old-school favorites: a 3/8-ounce sexy shad spinnerbait with hammered nickel willow blades and a chartreuse/white 1/2-ounce Lunker Lure Buzzbait.
9. Shallow-water ace John Cox used a white Berkley PowerBait Jerk Shad, which he fished on an MHX Elite-X NSJ842 7-foot, medium-light spinning rod, and a frog. The frog was just the one he happened to have in his boat.
10. Jake Ormond camped on one hole in a grass bed. He caught one keeper on a 1/2-ounce chrome Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap. The rest came on an umbrella rig with 3-inch Keitech Easy Shiner swimbaits.