Hi everyone, I’m fairly new here. I’m from North AL and fish mostly Lake Guntersville. I’ve been struggling to consistently catch numbers of fish and figure out any kind of pattern.

I took a guide trip last summer and caught quite a few fish, so I’ve seen the “other side” lol. I also took an electronics trip from the same guide back in February. The crappie side was good, but I was a bit let down on the bass side.

I run LiveScope, down scan, and side scan. I feel like I understand the basics, but I still struggle at times knowing what species I’m looking at and how to turn what I see into a bite.

At this point I don’t know if it’s bait selection, presentation, or just not being around the right fish or area. It’s kind of frustrating because I feel like I should be more consistent than I am.

Any advice would be appreciated!

I've never fished Guntersville but I've fished Chickamauga, Watts Bar, and South Holston on the Tennessee River... A good, basic starting point for me is to find a good down wind creek with a defined channel and start scoping around where the creek channel meets the main river channel... Look for bait balls... find bait balls.. bass will be near either roaming or holding down near the bottom on cover. Start following the channel back into the creek and look for roamers or bass on cover... now go catch them.. I like a jerkbait and jighead minnow for the roamers and a neko rig and drop-shot for the fish down near the bottom... That's a pretty easy pattern to run no matter the body of water your at, except for maybe Florida lakes... my local lakes are all highland reservoirs and I usually have no trouble finding schools of bass.... for me catching them is the hardest part

I used to live in North Alabama and have fished Guntersville a lot. My advice is just keep fishing and learning and enjoying your time on the water. Guntersville is a great place to fish but in my experience but it makes you earn it. In my mind there's a difference between a great place to fish and an easy place to fish. I've had some of my best days on Guntersville and caught my PB there but I've been skunked there a lot. Don't compare yourself to a guide unless you can spend several days a week on the same body of water. You are not alone in your struggles with electronics, just look at how many of the great old timers on the pro tours are struggling to adapt to the new technology. It's not always easy and there are no simple answers but it's always fun if you don't let your frustrations get the best of you.

On 4/4/2026 at 10:14 PM, Checkerfred said:

Hi everyone, I’m fairly new here. I’m from North AL and fish mostly Lake Guntersville. I’ve been struggling to consistently catch numbers of fish and figure out any kind of pattern.

I took a guide trip last summer and caught quite a few fish, so I’ve seen the “other side” lol. I also took an electronics trip from the same guide back in February. The crappie side was good, but I was a bit let down on the bass side.

I run LiveScope, down scan, and side scan. I feel like I understand the basics, but I still struggle at times knowing what species I’m looking at and how to turn what I see into a bite.

At this point I don’t know if it’s bait selection, presentation, or just not being around the right fish or area. It’s kind of frustrating because I feel like I should be more consistent than I am.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Which reservoirs are you on most? Norris fishing a lot different than Watts Bar, and Douglas or Loudon can have their quirks.

Can’t help too much, but I fish Guntersville frequently. I’m a N Alabamian as well (I live in HSV). I’m always looking for folks to fish with, though I’m a kayak guy…

The pattern is: there is no pattern

I imagine if you just fish with a purple plastic worm you'll catch something, eventually.

Sprayed grass works really well for me on GVille…

On 4/9/2026 at 10:56 AM, Tennessee Boy said:

I used to live in North Alabama and have fished Guntersville a lot. My advice is just keep fishing and learning and enjoying your time on the water. Guntersville is a great place to fish but in my experience but it makes you earn it. In my mind there's a difference between a great place to fish and an easy place to fish. I've had some of my best days on Guntersville and caught my PB there but I've been skunked there a lot. Don't compare yourself to a guide unless you can spend several days a week on the same body of water. You are not alone in your struggles with electronics, just look at how many of the great old timers on the pro tours are struggling to adapt to the new technology. It's not always easy and there are no simple answers but it's always fun if you don't let your frustrations get the best of you.

That makes sense. I’ve had some good days, it’s just frustrating that it’s not repeatable, especially in any kind of quantity or consistency lol. I went out today and tried crappie. I used my electronics to find and catch a few on deeper stumps, but I just couldn’t find any kind of numbers. So I have some success with the electronics and stuff, but just getting the numbers is tough

12 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

The pattern is: there is no pattern

I’m starting to believe that 🤣

On 4/10/2026 at 5:33 PM, TNBankFishing said:

Which reservoirs are you on most? Norris fishing a lot different than Watts Bar, and Douglas or Loudon can have their quirks.

90% Lake Guntersville. I do also fish some smaller lakes near me but Guntersville is the main one