In notching the first win of the season Patterson weighed in five bass at 31 pounds, 12 ounces, his top personal weight in BFL competition.

However, Patterson, who lives five minutes from the lake, said things are a lot different on Guntersville one year later. And, he acknowledged, the season is not set up nearly as friendly for him this year as it was last year.

In 2013 all the tournaments were on Guntersville, where he was able to stay on top of the fish through the entire season, finishing the year with two 1st places, two more top 10s and one 11th-place finish. This year, two of the five tournaments are on Pickwick Lake, more than 100 miles and nearly a two-hour drive west of Grant, Ala., where Patterson lives, so he will have little opportunity for scouting and practicing before those tournaments.

Then, there is this first tournament on Guntersville which is a lot different lake than it was a year ago this weekend.

“The weather has been a lot colder, so things are completely different, for me anyway,” Patterson said. “The lake has some of the coldest temperatures I have seen in a long, long time. The water is stained, with a lot more color in the water than it was last year.”

On Feb. 9 last year, Patterson caught most of the fish in that monster string of bass fishing deep ledges with an Alabama Rig and a swim bait. He bolstered that pattern, throwing a Rat-L-Trap in the shallow water, which he said is traditionally a strong early spring pattern on Guntersville.

The dominant pattern this Saturday most likely will be in shallow water, Patterson said.

“I think they will probably be in the 4- to 6-foot range. There is a lot of grass left over from last year and I think they will be holding in that grass,” he said. “When the water gets that cold, it gets a little warmer up shallow during the day and those fish head to the shallow water to take advantage of the warmer temperature.”

Patterson said he will probably rely mostly on a Rat-L-Trap and swim bait around the shallow grass Saturday. But he won’t use the kind of tactics most anglers rely on when the weather is this cold.

“Guntersville has always been a little backwards from everything you read about fishing,” he said. “On Guntersville, the colder the water is the faster you need to retrieve your bait, which is exactly the opposite of everything you ever read about fishing in colder temperatures.”

Following the Choo Choo Division opener Saturday, the series moves to Pickwick lake out of McFarland Park at Florence, Ala., March 8, then back to Guntersville, out of The Bait, Tackle & Grill at Goose Pond, April 12, back to Pickwick out of McFarland Park at Florence, Ala., June 21, and then wraps up with the two-day final Sept. 20-21 on Lake Guntersille, out of The Bait, Tackle & Grill at Goose Pond, Ala.

 

Walmart BFL Choo Choo Division

Sat, Feb 8, 2014

Lake Guntersville

The Bait & Tackle Grill at Goose Pond

www.flwoutdoors.com