Lake Guntersville was proclaimed Alabama's top bass lake for 2002 in the annual Birmingham News Top 10 Bass Lakes listing last Sunday. When an outdoors writer goes out on a limb and tells the world that one lake in the state is going to be better than all others in a given year, a little support helps.
Thanks, Donnie Hudson and Alex Wheeler. The fishing partners from Remlap gave that No. 1 ranking a lot of credence (in early March) by going to the 69,000-acre Tennessee River lake and producing the largest five-fish tournament catch in state history.
For the record, the five-fish stringer they caught in the ABC Coke tournament weighed an incredible 34 pounds, 13 ounces. The anchor was the monstrous 14.03-pound largemouth caught by Hudson. One 7-pound fish and one 6-pound fish were also in the creel.
Hudson's bass is the largest bass ever caught during a tournament in Alabama. It was no slouch that Hudson took the record from, either. Four-time BASS Masters Classic winner Rick Clunn previously held the record with a 13.15-pound largemouth he took while fishing the Eagles of Angling Tournament on Ray Scott's 55-acre private lake in Pintlala a decade ago. George and Barbara Bush were on hand that day to witness that catch.
The record for a bass taken on public waters during a tournament was a 13-pounder taken at Lake Guntersville almost 10 years ago.
The news of Hudson and Wheeler's incredible catch made its way quickly across the state this past week. One of those wondering if it were indeed true was Scott himself.
"That tells me that Lake Guntersville is one of the great bass lakes in this country," Scott said. "All that lake had needed is for TVA to stop its herbicide-spraying program and allow God to let it produce."
Hudson was still in shock last week over the catch.
"It was a day like you never even dream about," he said. "I don't think anybody even thinks about having a catch like that."
The record catch came last Saturday on a day that was fit for neither man nor beast. A cold rain made it tough on tournament fishermen all across the state last Saturday. That pitiful fishing weather no doubt led to the record catch.
"I almost screwed up," Hudson said. "My plans were to run upriver and fish, but it was just too miserable to run that far in that weather. We decided to just stay close to where we launched and to fish there."
Despite the foul weather, Hudson and Wheeler had a good limit of fish by 8:30 a.m. The duo started to have visions of winning the tournament.
"It was just 8:30 and I was looking into the live-well and thinking that we already had 21 pounds," Hudson said. "I was thinking that maybe we just might win this thing."
The team's goal the rest of the day was to pick up a kicker fish or two that might boost their overall weight. That kicker fish came just 15 minutes later. It was the 14.02-pound monster.
Hudson says the big bass fell to a Norman crankbait in Brown's Creek.