King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah
Fishing ? Instructor!
Well, it's been some more time and after a few more dozen trips, things have changed yet again! Imagine that! I'll fill you in...
Water Level: Annual drawdown to 10+feet below full pool
Water Clarity: 5ft Visibility on main lake, 2ft up the creeks
Water Temperature: Mid to low 50s
Bass Fishing Patterns.....
The Bass have shifted from being up shallow to now positioning on humps, reefs, and the ends of long points. They're also on channel edges. As such, the transition from shallow fishing to deep fishing has begun. That said, there are still some up the creeks and in the backs of pockets, just not in any great numbers like they are on the main lake. You'll catch a few up shallow, but you're better off in 15-35 feet of water. If you find some deep rock, that's even better. Fish are schooling up in deeper areas following bait balls and your choices in baits are a bit more limited. Small swimbaits, drop shot, shaky heads, spybaits, Damiki rigs, and flick shake are all being bit right now. I'd imagine a shad color crankbait or jerkbait would produce also but I have focused mostly on softbaits lately. I should add that topwater is dying down, but every so often you still see some come up and attack bait at the surface, normally later on in the evening and stopping immediately after sunset. A small popper or buzzbait may get you an extra strike or two. Here's your better colors so far this month...
Soft plastics: green pumpkin and variations of green pumpkin, margarita mutilator, black, watermelon chartreuse, watermelon magic, white pearl, pro blue red pearl
Hardbaits: Chartreuse shad, pro blue, elegy bone, ghost minnow, sexy shad, chrome blue back
Stripers/Hybrids/White Bass....
Schooling activity is picking up! Fish are gorging themselves on threadfin shad and are following them along the channels and points much like the spotted bass are. You may need to look around for them a bit, but they're definitely there. Downline a live shad or large minnow, or if you prefer artificial, you can't go wrong with a small bucktail, curly tail grub, spoon, or jerkbait. You only need ONE color, and it's white. Keep your lure size in the 3-4 inch range, as the Baitfish aren't very large. If you can't get any bites at all, go all the way down to a white rooster tail or keitech 2.8 swimbait. Those two baits are normally the cure for Allatoona linesides with a bad case of lockjaw. They're beginning to school, but will do so much more heavily as water temperatures continue to reach the annual low.
Crappie...
Deep brush and docks in no less than 10 feet of water are where these fish are. Many are in 15-20. Vertical fishing with 2 inch jigs or medium size crappie minnows has worked well. For whatever reason they aren't eating the tiny minnows and are after bigger offerings. Your colors for crappie jigs are monkey milk, white pearl, yellow, chartreuse, and popsicle.
That's all I got for now! Can't speak on the catfish bite other than that there's some bycatch while striper fishing. Tight lines!
Water Level: Annual drawdown to 10+feet below full pool
Water Clarity: 5ft Visibility on main lake, 2ft up the creeks
Water Temperature: Mid to low 50s
Bass Fishing Patterns.....
The Bass have shifted from being up shallow to now positioning on humps, reefs, and the ends of long points. They're also on channel edges. As such, the transition from shallow fishing to deep fishing has begun. That said, there are still some up the creeks and in the backs of pockets, just not in any great numbers like they are on the main lake. You'll catch a few up shallow, but you're better off in 15-35 feet of water. If you find some deep rock, that's even better. Fish are schooling up in deeper areas following bait balls and your choices in baits are a bit more limited. Small swimbaits, drop shot, shaky heads, spybaits, Damiki rigs, and flick shake are all being bit right now. I'd imagine a shad color crankbait or jerkbait would produce also but I have focused mostly on softbaits lately. I should add that topwater is dying down, but every so often you still see some come up and attack bait at the surface, normally later on in the evening and stopping immediately after sunset. A small popper or buzzbait may get you an extra strike or two. Here's your better colors so far this month...
Soft plastics: green pumpkin and variations of green pumpkin, margarita mutilator, black, watermelon chartreuse, watermelon magic, white pearl, pro blue red pearl
Hardbaits: Chartreuse shad, pro blue, elegy bone, ghost minnow, sexy shad, chrome blue back
Stripers/Hybrids/White Bass....
Schooling activity is picking up! Fish are gorging themselves on threadfin shad and are following them along the channels and points much like the spotted bass are. You may need to look around for them a bit, but they're definitely there. Downline a live shad or large minnow, or if you prefer artificial, you can't go wrong with a small bucktail, curly tail grub, spoon, or jerkbait. You only need ONE color, and it's white. Keep your lure size in the 3-4 inch range, as the Baitfish aren't very large. If you can't get any bites at all, go all the way down to a white rooster tail or keitech 2.8 swimbait. Those two baits are normally the cure for Allatoona linesides with a bad case of lockjaw. They're beginning to school, but will do so much more heavily as water temperatures continue to reach the annual low.
Crappie...
Deep brush and docks in no less than 10 feet of water are where these fish are. Many are in 15-20. Vertical fishing with 2 inch jigs or medium size crappie minnows has worked well. For whatever reason they aren't eating the tiny minnows and are after bigger offerings. Your colors for crappie jigs are monkey milk, white pearl, yellow, chartreuse, and popsicle.
That's all I got for now! Can't speak on the catfish bite other than that there's some bycatch while striper fishing. Tight lines!
