If you are wanting to fish one of the Alabama Bass Trail Lakes to catch giant bass and see live eagles, then Lake Guntersville is where you want to go. For the past 35 years Lake Guntersville State Park has held annual Eagles Awareness Weeks. The park holds this event in 2-week sections in late January/early February. It includes tours throughout the day of eagle nesting sites and eagle sittings. And at the end of the day, there’s an eagle showing where you can actually see an eagle from just a couple of feet away! I’d never heard of this event, so when the Alabama Bass Trail asked me to come fish the amazing Guntersville Lake and check out live eagles, I loaded up my ALX Rods and headed north!
I got to the lake on Friday and got settled into one of the Chalets that Lake Guntersville State Park has for rent and I just need to say that this Chalet was beautiful. It had three bedrooms, one bathroom, a massive living room, kitchen, and a breathtaking view over Guntersville Lake from the back porch, truly a mountain view scenery. After I got settled, I struck out to the State Park’s ramp to fish for the day. Super cold and windy day but I did catch some fish including the biggest drum that I’ve ever caught, on a spinning reel. This bad boy took off in a frenzy and I thought the drag on the reel was going to melt off the rod. After a good 3-minute fight, I got the massive drum in the boat.
Besides that, the coolest thing I got to see was an eagle soaring literally right above me, kind of circling me as if I were prey. I fished the first day for about six hours, covering about four miles of the area out of my kayak until I started to get a bit hungry. Eating at the restaurant inside the State Park’s lodge, they had plenty of options and customer service was great. Leaving the restaurant going into the main lobby I noticed a crowd of people. In the center of the crowed were two live, rescued owls. This was another bird that I’ve never seen up close so, of course I had to get in on the action.
The second day I struck out to Seibold Park to search for offshore bass. It was cold and raining but, not wasting any time I headed straight to the deepest points and ledges I could find and fished as slow as possible with jigs, swimsuits and shaky head straight tailed worms. I finally started catching fish around ten o’clock and it was a slow bite all day. The sun came out for about 30 minutes and then a huge black cloud came over but held no rain. What it did contain was wind. I swear the wind picked up to around 15 to 20 mph. I started heading back to the boat launch around three o’clock. As I approached the boat launch, tired and wore slap out from the wind, I saw this eagle swoop down near the bank and lift back off with a huge fish, and head back into the park tree tops. That right there made this whole trip worth it.
Getting back to my chalet that afternoon I decided to head up to the lodge for the Auburn University’s Raptor Department’s presentation on the raptor species. I can say one thing to anyone who hasn’t experienced this presentation, it was an experience in itself. I’ve never had an encounter with birds like these up close, and the speaker was super informative. The room was nearly full of people with the same interest as mine.
All in all, the entire trip was absolutely amazing, of course I would not expect anything less on one of the Alabama Bass Fishing Trail lakes. I can’t wait until I can have my family experience Lake Guntersville State Park’s Eagle Awareness Week. Along with the presentation that I mentioned, they also provide tours for people to actually see eagles in the wild and there’s also a time set aside for activities for the kids. I would definitely recommend this event to anyone who wants to get outdoors and learn about Alabama’s raptor bird species.
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