fish in them are constantly adapting . Today ’ s Guntersville is not the same Guntersville as it was 10 or even five years ago .”
Specifically , Davis says the proliferation of eelgrass in Guntersville has changed bass habits over the last few years .
“ During March and April , I spent many hours studying eelgrass on 360 sonar ,” he details . “ I ’ ve learned a lot about how bass relate to the eelgrass through the spring and summer . It ’ s been a tremendous learning experience , both in terms of understanding eelgrass and really tweaking 360 imaging to read it better . Having the time to experiment and learn that stuff would not have happened if it had been a business-as-usual season .”
Wesley Strader echoes some of Davis ’ sentiments in describing how he spent his lockdown time .
“ I purposely went to several tournament lakes that I haven ’ t fished in many years ,” Strader says . “ I spent time at Dale Hollow and Center Hill Lakes . Both lakes have changed so much since the last time I fished them ; they ’ re like completely different bodies of water now . If a big tournament happens on one of those lakes in the next year or so , at least I won ’ t waste half my practice on old memories that don ’ t work anymore .”
Walker joins the ‘ Tubers
Long before there was such thing as a GoPro , David Walker had already gone pro . For that reason , Walker used his lockdown time to get better acquainted with personal action cams .
“ Over the last 10 years , the role of being a professional angler has required also becoming a YouTuber ,” Walker says . “ Making videos of yourself is now basically a prerequisite to being a pro , and I ’ m way behind on that deal . So , when everything came to a halt in March , I forced myself to learn how to use GoPros and edit videos for social media .”
Since then , Walker has learned a lot about pixels , resolution , frame rates and transitions .
“ It ’ s been a learning curve with these cameras ,” he says . “ But now I at least know how to turn one on , manage the settings , where to mount them for the best footage , and , most importantly , what to do with the footage once I get home . The irony of the whole process is that in order to learn how to make YouTube videos , I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos .”
Dudley ’ s ‘ lure-testing facility ’
Leave it to the illustrious David Dudley to have one of the more entertaining responses to how he spent his time during lockdown .
“ I started building a pool ,” Dudley answers candidly . “ Notice I didn ’ t say a ‘ swimming pool ,’ because it ’ s actually going to be a lure-testing facility .”
Dudley ’ s “ facility ” is no spit of water , either . Measuring 20 by 50 feet and 8 feet deep , Dudley wanted a pool that was long enough to accommodate a true full-length cast .
“ I used to take all my lures to the big lap pool at the YMCA ,” he says . “ Seeing what lures really do in the water on a fulllength cast has been a powerful learning tool in my career . A lot of lures look great dancing around in a tank or aquarium on the end of a dowel rod . Anglers just assume their lures are working perfectly all of the time , but they might be surprised to learn that ’ s not always the case .”
Dudley ’ s testing facility will have pilings , stumps and rocks in it to duplicate real cover . He ’ ll customize a casting platform that is the exact height of a bass boat bow on the water . He also plans to install an underwater track camera that can follow the baits through the water to record their every move .
“ The plan is to film different lures in action and put the videos on YouTube so anglers can see what these baits really look like underwater ,” Dudley adds . “ It ’ s something I ’ ve wanted to do for a long time , and the lull this spring allowed me to break ground and get it going .”
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FLWFISHING . COM 17