With a slight drizzle falling on the covered heads of anglers at the Day Two take-off, it looked to be another day of adjusting to inclement weather. Forecasts predict scattered and severe thunderstorms throughout the day with a mild possibility of hail.
The smallest number of fish and limits were caught by the field of Elite anglers on Day One at the Lake Guntersville Southern Challenge than any other Elite Series tournament this season. That may have been due in large part to the ever-changing weather.
Bassmaster.com caught up with a few of the anglers to find out just how much the weather will affect fishing Friday and the weights for the entire tournament. Here's what they had to say:
Kenyon Hill
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "I'm going to have to make some adjustments. I wasn't site-fishing yesterday, I was catching spawning fish."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "I would probably need to catch another 13 or 14 pounds and I think I will be fine."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "Apparently this lake has been slow all year. You read about it on the internet and lakes cycle like that. Actually this is more like a real tournament than anything we've had this season; those other ones were just slugfests."
Byron Velvick
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "Well, it changes a lot because I was sight-fishing. All of my fish yesterday were bed fish but I didn't catch any females, only males. Today I am going to go to some beds but I'm not looking for bedding fish. There are some post-spawn schooling fish that are active on reaction baits. I think it will have an effect on a lot of guys, and you will see the weights decrease as well."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "I definitely need about 13 or 14 pounds. I am about a pound out of the money right now and I've got key bed fish that I need to catch. I am going to do more fishing around docks because I think I know where they are spawning so I will do a lot of blind-casting."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "No, it's getting into a post-spawn situation now. The spawning bite is tapering off for a lot of guys, but the big spring wave we had early in the year will not be as apparent. You will see a lot more guys now fishing for post-spawning fish."
Jon Bondy
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "The clouds haven't bothered me, but the rain muddied up my area yesterday. It started to clear up a little bit in the afternoon, but I'm afraid by now it could be all muddy again. If it's not muddy today I've got a good shot, but I just have a really bad feeling about it; A very bad feeling. So, if it is muddy I am just going to go look for a new spot and throw a spinnerbait all day."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "If I can catch 14 pounds today I'm in."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "I talked to (Kevin) VanDam in practice and he told me if I catch 15 pounds I am going to get my butt kicked. I knew right off the bat that we weren't going to see any 30-pound sacks. They are just in post-spawn right now and sometimes when they're in this stage they are very tough to catch. The period usually only lasts about a week or so and they get into a funk where they are just not into biting. A lot of the locals think that the biggest wave of spawners has yet to move up. But that's not true because the water is in the mid-70's now. Sometimes if the conditions aren't right in a given year, up to 30 percent of the fish won't spawn. I don't know, by the time we leave I'm sure they will be biting."
Jimmy Mize
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "It's going to make the sight-fishing hard if it's raining, but it also may turn the fish on and make them bite. My main concern is the rain muddying up the water."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "Probably 10 pounds. I've also got to fish to make the Top 12 so probably 15 or 16 pounds could put me there."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "No, because most of the fish were post-spawn fish. We were catching good fish, but they weren't weighing much because they were long and skinny. I saw one yesterday that I though weighed five pounds and I fooled with her for 45 minutes and then caught her, and she might have weighed a little over three pounds. She was just long and skinny. I always look to see how long they are but can't get close enough to know how fat they are."
Dave Wolak
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "We're going to see when we get out there today. I am looking to see if the water I fished is going to muddy up. If it does, then I have some areas that are protected with a lot of grass. The grass usually filters the mud up. My plan is to just get out the muddy water if it is too bad."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "I'm two or so pounds out of the 50 cut so I think around 13 pounds will allow me to fish tomorrow."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "No, I kind of expected it. When we came here last year it was pre-spawn and usually in pre-spawn the fish are fatter and they tend to bite more. Some of the big fish bite now, but they are in a transition stage. I think the guys that are focusing on post-spawn fish are going to be the ones that come through as opposed to the guys targeting spawning fish. With the muddy water the bed fish aren't going to last as long."
Randy Howell
How much of an impact will the weather today have on your fishing: "I'm kind of waiting to see that. Yesterday was actually my opportunity to have a big bag, but I failed to execute. I only caught four fish but they were good ones. I've been sight-fishing mostly but yesterday as the weather started changing I got away from my game plan. I Carolina-rigged a few deep spots and wasted at least three hours by not catching anything. This morning I am going to fish some new stuff with the rain that has come in."
How much weight are you going to have to catch today to assure yourself a spot to fish tomorrow among the Top 50: "I was dead on the cut at 13 pounds, 7 ounces. I think I need at least 13 again. I think it might be a better day overall for fishing."
Lake Guntersville is known for big bags of fish, were you surprised by the lower-than-normal weights brought to the scales yesterday: "Yes, I was definitely surprised because it was low for Guntersville. I was expecting to see three or four bags in the low to mid-20's, but in practice I covered a lot of the lake and didn't see many big fish."