Guntersville gray-out

Friday of the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship on Lake Guntersville started with a slight delay due to rain and foggy conditions that created low-light conditions for longer than normal. After roughly a 10-minute delay the field was off, but the weather didn’t improve for quite a while.

We followed the Day 1 leaders Billy Sharp and Kevin Stubblefield who are locals to Lake Guntersville. The Alabama duo reeled in over 27 pounds of bass on Wednesday and had a 13-ounce margin over second place going into the final day of the team portion.

Soon after beginning their day, they were joined by another boat that emerged from the fog that began to blanket the area. At the launch ramp the fog had disappeared by takeoff, but it re-emerged during the morning.

Stubblefield hooks up with their first fish of the morning. On Wednesday the team said they caught almost all of their weight before the 8 a.m.

Sharp grabs the net and scoops the quality fish and that’s number one for the leaders.

Four more like that and they will be on their way to 20+ pounds.

Moments later, Stubblefield hooks up again. The duo threw numerous types and sizes of baits early this morning as they tried to get their fish fired up.

Decent keeper gets in the boat, but they know they will probably need to cull that one later in the day.

But for now it gives them two on the board and it increases their lead as we still hear boats driving by us as they head to their spots to start the day.

The dense fog settles in even more in this area they were fishing. Behind us was clear for a good distance, but their area was socked in by the fog.

The sun tries to peek through the clouds and burn away the fog. For anglers who are fishing offshore it seems that they prefer sunnier conditions, which help position their fish and get in feeding mode.

Slow and steady, Stubblefield hooks up for a third time this morning, but this one is the smallest so far.

It makes a jump before it gets to the boat, but the team successfully lands the fish and puts it on the small side.

They remained silent for most of the morning, but they told us that there was a large amount of debris floating on top of the water and in the water column making it hard to fishing their area efficiently. The team picked grass, leaves and sticks off their baits on about every other cast.

We decide to check out the rest of the field to see how they are faring this morning.

We make it to one of the ever-popular bridges on Lake Guntersville and as we arrived we could tell the bridge was producing fish once again. In the background Jay and Kyle Hulsey were putting a quality fish in the livewell.

Meanwhile Jason Wilson and Kelly Logan hooked up with a big fish. The North Carolina team had 18 pounds, 4 ounces on Day 1 and was in 26th.

This big fish tries to dog them at the boat and dive under the gunnel in hopes of getting away, but the team corrals it.

They are jacked up for this fish!

This toad is their sixth fish of the day and it allows them to cull a smaller fish.

They put them on the balance beam and quickly decide which is the smallest.

Then they are back to fishing moments later.

Just on the other side of the bridge we found the fourth-place team of Dean Alexander and Thomas Martens.

They were patiently working the bridge as well.

Then we spotted the Lamar brothers who qualified through the Alabama Bass Trail. Mac and Joe had 20 pounds, 3 ounces and were in 15th place on Wednesday.

I’d say there were just a couple competitors boats on this bridge…well maybe a couple per piling.

At times it seemed that teams would take turns so they wouldn’t hook each other’s line. This takes an amazing amount of patience because casts take time and time is money in fishing.

Then, it begins to pour down raining for a few minutes and some anglers weren’t too happy about the sudden change in rain intensity.

While others became frustrated after breaking off their baits in the structure and rocks below the bridge.

The Hulsey team from Missouri hooks up and fights a fish at the boat.

Bam! A good fish to help their cause. This team only weighed three fish on Day 1, but those three weighed 19 pounds, 15 ounces and that kept them in contention.

They show off their fish.

Alexander hooks up for the third place Texas team.

He fights the fish while Martens readies the net.

Alexander gets the good fish to surface and ski its way towards the net.

Thomas stretches to scoop the fish before it has the chance to shake free.

In the net! Quality fish for the Texas team. This gave them four fish so far this morning. They said they had three good ones out of the four.

Thumbs up for Alexander, but he stays focused because he knows they need that fifth keeper and probably a kicker later.

Meanwhile on the other end of the bridge the Hulsey’s were hooked up again.

This was much smaller, but it added to their livewell count and gave them a limit.

Just a few casts later, they were hooked up again.

And this one didn’t seem to be on the small side.

The Hulsey’s fight the fish around the edge of the concrete piling and it jumps toward the net.

In the boat for the Hulsey’s who may certainly be in contention this afternoon.

Very good fish to cull out a small keeper. Great cull for the Missouri team. Check out the live weigh-in on bassmaster.com to see how the standings shape up. It starts at 2:30 CT.