Alabama trip, 3-31-12

[MississippiBoy]

Man, we had a great trip. John and Lisa are the best hosts anyone could ask for. He took off work on Friday so he would have time to smoke a pork shoulder and a yard bird for us. I ate so much this weekend, I can pretty much guarantee I gained 2-3 pounds.
Lisa's parents live right next to them, and they own 2 horses, Shay and Diamond. My little girl Caitlyn loves horses, and for about a week ahead of time, she would randomly look up at either me or Louann and say in her little 2 year old voice, "We gon' go see Papa John and Aunt Lisa. I gon' go ride horses!"
So she did....Louann and Lisa took her over there Saturday while John and I were out fishing (more on that in a minute), then all of us went back Sunday morning and took some good pictures of her on Shay's back. I haven't downloaded those off the camera yet, but they're coming.

Now, the fishing. There was a big tournament out of Goosepond that supposedly had 1,000 boats entered, so we knew the lake would be busy. Louann and I got to John's house at almost midnight Friday night, and John and I left the house at about 3:15 headed to the lake. We put in at maybe 4:30-4:45 to avoid the rush. Good thing, too, because the parking lot started stacking up by 5:15....one truck after another after another. Even with all those boats, G'ville is big enough that we never really felt crowded. We couldn't quite go wherever we wanted, but we never had to fire a crankbait as a warning shot over anybody's bow or anything.
I started off throwing a Ragetail frog through the grass, and got a good blowup after about half an hour or so. A small bass, maybe 1-2 pounds, came a good foot up out of the water when he hit that frog. Here's the result:



Not a good way to start the morning.

A little while later, another one blew up on the frog and took it under. I waited a good 2-3 seconds, set the hook, and the frog came flying back at me without its legs.
That was the only action we had for a loooong time....we threw everything everywhere. We fished the bridge pilings, more grass, shallow laydowns, a steep drop off at the river channel, some good looking spawning flats....nothing. Nada....Zip. I had one "tap tap tap" on a Paca Craw probably around 1-2 p.m., but he never committed. Then finally at about 2:30, I got one on a T-rigged Senko. He was a monster...



I pushed him as far out towards the camera as I could, but I don't think that was quite far enough. He wasn't much longer than the Senko....

We gave up soon after that. At least I wasn't skunked....I guess.

Of course, I believe part of the problem is that my guide bailed on me for about 2 hours.




Man, I can't believe that guy. Left me to my own devices on a lake I've been to ONCE, 4 years ago. Geez....some people....