Cochran Says Wait On Bite Windows at Guntersville

 

By Pete Robbins 

 

It’s common knowledge that Lake Guntersville in the jewel of the Tennessee River system. Indeed, it produces big fish – and lots of them – year after year after year, but the tricky part is that it’s a known commodity, which means it gets lots of pressure. The lake remains healthy, but the big bass are educated. 

 

In order to win the upcoming Big Bass Tour event on the Big G, it’ll take a mix of strategy and perseverance, and perhaps a little luck. 

 

Local guide Lonnie Cochran says that he’s consistently catching nearly 100 bass a day, but the ability to target big fish is still something of a mystery. 

 

“That’s the $56,000 question,” he laughed. His best advice is to get in a good area and wait it out. “There are lulls in every day. Don’t give up on a place that you know is good. In some places they’re not biting until 9 or 9:30 in the morning. In other places they bite right off the bat.” 

 

He also encourages anglers not to abandon areas simply because they’re catching mostly smaller fish. When he’s on the right sized school, the big ones show up intermittently, scattered among juveniles. But even those smaller fish can earn a payday at the Big Bass Tour. Careful strategic use of the live leaderboard allows savvy contestants to cash checks with even a 3-pounder at certain times. 

 

Right now Cochran’s best bait is the Berkley Krej 100 in Stealth Shad, a lure developed for use with forward facing sonar, but that’s not how he’s employing it. 

 

“We’re throwing it out and reeling it across the surface of the water,” he said. “I’m using an 8:1 Zenon baitcasting reel and reeling it fast on flats with scattered grass and humps with clean areas on top. By reeling it fast you maximize that rolling action and they can’t stand it.” 

 

If he finds a school of fish, he’ll camp on them as long as possible. 

 

For those who want to engage in Guntersville’s more traditional patterns, the plentiful grass holds plenty of giants, too. Cochran likes to punch the thick stuff with a Berkley Pit Boss in Black and Blue, Green Pumpkin or Skeet’s Green Money. He’ll also throw a Berkley Swamp Lord over the top hoping to entice a big fish to come through the mats. 

 

“I like bream or shad colors depending on the visibility and what they’re feeding on,” he explained. He said that occasionally a bigger-than-average bass will attack his frog in skinny water, but most of the time he’s looking for access to deep water. 

 

“I’m looking in two places,” he explained. “In the extreme backs of creeks, on the edges of deeper water, and out on the river channel. They’re everywhere but not everywhere if you know what I mean.” 

 

He’s also utilizing the PowerBait Drip swimmer on the flats around scattered grass and near creek channels. 

 

While Guntersville produces more than a few double digit bass each year, Cochran said he’ll be surprised if it takes a 9-pounder to win. The past results bear out that hypothesis. In these fall BBT events, there have always been at least a couple over 7 pounds, but last year the field topped out at 7.15. The year before that it was 7.60. Every once in a while, though, it takes something truly impressive, like in 2022 when an 8.52 pound behemoth finished second behind a 9.39 pound Big G special. 

 

It pays to pay attention to the leaderboard to make sure that your Guntersville trophy maximizes its earning potential, both for the particular hour and for the entire weekend. That’s true at the bottom of the top ten, too, where a smartly-timed 6-pounder can punch above its weight.