Late Summer Tips for Fishing Lake
Guntersville while “Rat Fishing”
With the water temperature in the high 80’s and low 90’s I thought I
would expand my late summer thoughts on productive rat fishing on Lake
Guntersville. As I have stated in the past the late summer brings on the
rat time of year. I wanted to expand on what to look for to find
productive areas that should help catch fish on a rat. As the evenings
start to show a few signs of the cooling north winds you will find that
the grass will start to turn brown, then pull away a little from the
roots. The wind will move clumps of grass, create holes and start a
foaming on the top as the grass gives way, or dies to the change in
temperature. This change is exactly what turns on the rat bite. It is
this exact grass pattern that you need to look for to catch those late
summer bass on a rat. That nasty foaming area of grass is what to look
for, coupled with some holes created by the wind moving the grass is
creating prime locations to catch those late summer bass on a rat. The
shallower the water in this pattern the better, you see the key change
in late summer fishing is the bait fish start to move back to the
shallows and school up and if you can find some of those schools of bait
and this foamy icky grass you have found rat heaven.
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Lets talk a little about how to work a rat, what and how to
rig for it as well as some techniques, remember its not just a
bait that can be thrown out and be retrieved without a little
thought. Although sometimes if the bass are real active it would
appear that all you need to do is to retrieve it.
Rat fishing in Guntersville requires some proper rigging, you
must get you a rod strong enough to pull those fish out of the
grass, like a flipping stick at least 7 feet long preferably 7 ½
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This will give you a strong tip and a rod long enough to
get a good long cast. You must use a good brand of braided line, at
least 60-pound test so you have the strength to pull a fish out of thick
grass without the line breaking.
Now that you are rigged and have an idea on what to look for to find
fish, lets talk about how to use this bait. First of all as I have
stated before I like a rat or frog that has a weight under the rear
area, it does a couple of things. It allows you to cast into the wind
easier, allows the rat to land with the hooks up and keeps the head up
so you don’t get as many hang-ups in the grass. Getting that strike on a
rat now requires some thought as to how and where to retrieve the bait,
I believe there are several patterns to try.
The first pattern is working that rat deep into the grass getting the
bait to the far edge, and working it back to you, this pattern requires
patience as you need to work it slow, stop it in the holes in the grass,
twitch it while it is stopped. Change speeds and retrieves and be aware
of the grass movement underneath your bait. Many times you will see a
little movement and when you do throw back to the same spot if you
didn’t get a strike. Always throw back to a strike when the fish missed
the bait, many times the miss will be produce a bite when you throw back
into the same area. As always in bass fishing repeat any pattern that
produces a bite.
| :The next pattern would be to work the edges of
the grass only, if you find the pattern above doesn’t produce a
bite then move off the grass with your boat and work the edges,
this may require you to only throw the bait into the grass about
20 feet. You will find doing this you are fishing more of the
holes in the grass as the grass generally deteriorates from the
outside in. When your pulling the bait in this pattern the open
grass areas will generally be where the bites will come from, so
when you hit those open areas, stop the rat, make it rock and
move it slowly, pop it some in the open area, then let it sit,
jerk it try different movements until you find that productive
pattern. |
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The third way to use a rat is one that may require you
to move more quickly in your boat, as this pattern is one where you are
looking only for grass points.I have found over the years of rat fishing
that there are many times when the bass stage on the points as this is
where the bait fish seem to congregate. When doing this you are moving
your trolling motor quickly to the points and not wasting time in the
other grassy areas. As well as changing locations when you have fished
the points in the area you stopped at. A key to this is boat position,
you will find many times in this pattern that you need to be backed off
20 to 30 yards as well as trying different approaches to the point. As I
have stated many times before boat position can be critical to getting a
bite and when you are fishing grassy points only with a rat the wind
this time of year has a tendency to position the bait fish hence
requiring you to position the boat. Key here being aware of the wind and
the position of the first bite to the wind, this will really make a
difference when you approach the next grass point after getting that
first bite. If there is ever a time to make the wind work for you this
is it, I promise you the bait and the bites will come from the same
relative position to the wind on every point.
The last tip on rat fishing is paralleling the grass edges, there are
times when you just have to get the boat positioned so you can throw and
work the rat down the edge to keep the bait in the strike zone, so
position the person in the back so they can throw and work the edge as
well as you can do the same from the bow. Sometimes I find in this
pattern that you need to go to a popper rat, it allows you to make a
splash and move the rat along the edge with a little racket and
movement. As always try different retrieves until you find one that
produces a bite, stop it, let it rock in the water, pop it and move it
quickly.
The last pattern is one where you need to establish that the bass are
hitting in the open areas inside the grass. When this occurs don’t waste
your time pulling up to thick grass areas, look for grass that has many
opens spots and spend your time in those grass areas, its kind of like
“fishing where the fish are.” You can’t go wrong if this occurs.
Sometimes those open areas are the only places the bass will strike so
be a smart fisherman when this occurs.
I often when talking about rat fishing get asked about color, well I am
just a believer that the color just needs to contrast to the
surrounding, like white when the sun is bright or brown or black when it
is cloudy. I’ve used other colors but I must say 9 out of 10 times I
will be fishing one of the 3 mentioned colors.
The next tip on rat fishing I am going to talk about is how to partner
up when rat fishing, as a guide I do this, when rat fishing. Many times
on the water especially rat fishing we miss a bite or a bass strikes
short, or the bass rolls behind or under the rat. A great way to buddy
up and something I do often as a guide is to have one of you fishing the
rat and other with a worm anxiously waiting for the miss and throwing
the worm in where the miss came from. I’m telling you the misses on that
rat can produce a boat full of bass for the worm fisherman, you see the
activity produced by the miss generally works on that aggressive nature
of a bass, and if the same fish doesn’t strike the worm the bass that
was sitting there waiting for the next bait will. In this pattern I
generally always fish a long worm and here I generally like a red in
color. Oh, and don’t forget to rig heavy with line, rod and weight as
this is the time you will need that backbone to pull the bass out of the
heavy grass.
Let’s take one more part of this rat fishing technique, that being
setting the hook. I have seen many people set that hook way to quick
while rat fishing, this is generally the time the fisherman expresses
frustration. So be patient when setting the hook, a bass will pull the
bait down when it strikes it, give it time to do so. A couple of seconds
or a feeling of the fish pulling should allow you time to get a good
hook set and catch the fish. Most misses come from the fisherman just
setting the hook to quickly and the fish has not taken the bait in yet,
and when using braided line the quick snap of the hook set will pull it
out of the fishes mouth before the bass has it firmly in his mouth.
Hopefully these tips on” Rat Fishing” will prepare you for the next
stage coming quickly to Lake Guntersville. The grass this year is as
thick and as well covered as it has been in many years and I believe we
will have a great late summer, and the rat bite will produce some great
stringers. Come fish with me this fall or late this summer lets
experience this rat bite together.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
256.759.2270
Mike Gerry
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