Too cold or too hot? That is the question confronting anglers in the final Walmart FLW Tour tournament of the season on Lake Guntersville which begins Thursday.

It has been too hot and the fishing has been extremely tough, said Frog Tape pro Brian Travis of Conover, N.C. But the weather is changing quickly and that could be a good thing, according to National Guard pro Justin Lucas of Guntersville who said in an FLW news story that temperatures needed to drop drastically for fishing to pick up.

Travis is not so sure.

When fishing is as tough as it has been at Guntersville for the past month or so, it usually takes a while for the fish to ease back into a normal routine, especially when the change is as drastic and as quick as the one that hit the region in mid-week.

“Fishing has been the worst I have ever seen at this place. I’ve been talking to some of the others guys, 10 or 15 of them, and they are all in the same boat.

The problem, he said, was the the lake was wrapped in balmy weather with temperatures in the 80s, particularly the first of this week during practice.

“It’s fall, the grass is all matted up and it is supposed to be as frog deal, but the bite has been tough. They are very few and far between.”

He said a recent WalMart BFL two-day tournament drew 141 boats and the field was cut to 21 after the first day.

“It only took 8 pounds to make the top 21 and at Guntersville that is terrible.”

That springlike weather went south in a hurry, however, when the cold front moved in and nobody knows what that will do to the fishing.

“The last two or three days it has been in the 80s and today it is pushing to get over 50 degrees with 20 mile-per-hour winds,” Travis said. “If there ever was a cold front we hit this one right on the head. It is supposed to stay in the 30s at night all the way through the tournament, with highs in the 50s and 60s.”

A week ago Lucas told FLW that air temperatures would need to plummet into the low 40s at night and remain in the mid-50s during the day in order for water temperatures to drop to an ideal range for fishing so it looks like the weather is cooperating with that plan.

The colder temperatures should ignite the fish under the grass mats and the frog bite should turn on with the colder temperatures, Lucas said.

Travis hopes so, but he is doubtful.

“You never know. That cold front could snap them into a feeding frenzy. It is the fall of the year and I have seen a cold front cause fish to feed like crazy,” he said. “The lake is full of bait. It is everywhere. The shad are deep and shallow, but fishing is struggling and it has been that way for a while.”

Travis said his plan is to head upriver to a deep hole first thing Thursday and then he plans to fish docks and grass flats with a jig and Chatterbait.

“That’s all you can do, just go chunking,” he said. I am sure there are fish still out on the deep ledges, but that is not my cup of tea and riding the lake I don’t see many guys out on the ledges. Most of them are punching the grass mats.”

The high winds might curtail the grass fishing, too, he added.

“A lot of guys are fishing those mats right on the main lake and it is going to be hard for them to do that.”

Travis said he will be looking for five each day that can help him move up the points in this final tournament of the series for the year. He is 13^th in the standings, just 41 points behind Dave LeFebre who enters the tournament in fifth place. The top five in points after the Guntersville tournament qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup.

He just needs for his fishing to heat up during this cold snap.

 

FLW Tour Open

Oct. 20-23, 2011

Lake Guntersville

Lake Guntersville State Park

www.flwoutdoors.com