Fishing Wheeler, Wilson and Guntersville in Alabama

[LittleMiamiJeff]

What a beautiful weekend, Slo Ride had me down for a long weekend, we fished all three tailraces in his area: Wilson, Wheeler and Guntersville, all on the Tennessee River.
No stripers, a few whites and small mouth, we literally filled a 120 quart cooler with skipjack Saturday, and I established my Personal Best Drum ;) on the Gizz4, to bad they're not a sport fish! Actually, for as big as they are, they wimp out pretty quick, one little fight and then they just give up!
Skips were every cast at Guntersville, and if you lost one, another took it's place, fast and furious action, beat the skunk big time!
Slo Ride put on a seminar in Southern Hospitality, don't ever hesitate to take him up on an invite to fish w/him!
Be prepared to sleep on the floor though, his spare bedroom is filled wth fishing gear! LOL, just kidding! ;)
Dave, thanks for being such a gracious host, and for trucking the boat all up and down the Tennessee River to the 3 dams, you showed me a great weekend of fishing. Hope the Stripes turn on for you soon.
God Bless to you Dave, look forward to future trips!
LMJ

Just one pic of the drum, if you've seen one, you've seen enough!

[JakeF]

Sounds like an great time Jeff! That's a nice lookin drum too!

[Mepps]

Nice fish! Looks like you had a great trip.

[LittleMiamiJeff]

It was a great time, got to meet Slo Ride/Dave, and man did he show me some dams!
We hit all three tailwaters, it was slow Friday, but Saturday we wore ourselves out after they started generating at Guntersville.
Dave posted somewhere else that he has become the Drum/Skipjack king in the absence of stripes, and he's right! ;)
I've never been in a "fish soup" where the skips were hitting so rapidly, that you'd get 2-3 hook ups just in one cast, if the one came off the other took it's place, it was a blast.
I can see where a sabiki type rig, except w/1/16 or 1/8 jig and tail in multiples would be a ball, two and three at a time.
Hopefully Dave got to use all that bait w/his buddy Phil catfishing.
LMJ

[slo-ride]

It's was good to have you aboard the "Skipjack Express", Jeff...I had a blast!!(sorry for the stripah skunk, but that's fishing)

I have plans to go with Phil and his crew to Gulf Shores at the end of the month...we're going to take some of those skippies you and I caught with us and try 'em out on some redfish. We usually use cut mullet, but figure we'll try some cut skipjack this trip just to see if it'll work.

[LittleMiamiJeff]

Taking the "Skipjack Express" to saltwater?
If not what do you guys fish from?
Enjoy the trip, after this cold front, the Ohio should warm up again, wipers and stripers at the dam!
Ohio won't let you near dam in a boat, so we're at a disadvantage to you in Alabama, TN and other states that let grown men make informed choices about where they'll take a boat.
LMJ

[slo-ride]

Originally Posted by LittleMiamiJeff

Taking the "Skipjack Express" to saltwater?
If not what do you guys fish from?

LMJ

Are you kidding me?!?...you obviously didn't notice that the only thing holding my trailer together is rust and mud. One whiff of salt air and she'd self destruct.
The place we're staying at has a private pier that we'll be fishing from.

[LittleMiamiJeff]

That's some great mud then, Dave! ;)
Between the trailer and that Volkswagen, impressed me how well it tooled around and in and out of the river!
Pier fishing, no experience, just a little maybe in Biloxi in '85 on my first honeymoon. (that just doesn't sound right does it?)
Try and Try again!

We caught salt water catfish on shrimp (I can't get over fishing with one of my favorite foods) and the blue crabs stole like thieves!
My wife couldn't catch a cold, until she finally got a blue crab over the wall and flipped it on me! Good for a laugh.
Then we shared a charter for Mackerel, she landed biggest and most, I can't remember the numbers, 74 fish for the boat (5 of us) and hers was ?? 12 pounds, does that sound right for kings?
LMJ