# Lake Buckhorn



## Baracus (May 23, 2009)

Anyone ever fish this lake?  I am going tomorrow with a buddy who lives over that way.  Never been only drove over.  Any tips would be appreciated.


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## Sweetwater (May 23, 2009)

I used to live on Buckhorn, but it's been several years since I fished.

I did best at night, but many folks do well with crankbaits.


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## BLACKJACKMTMAN (May 23, 2009)

I had a place there about ten years ago.  The lake was tough most of the time, though like the previous poster said it seemed to be better at night.  That might be your best bet, that place was a zoo on holiday weekends in the summer. Dangerous actually.

There used to be some good ones in there though. I never really did well with numbers, but you a had good chance a bite might turn into a decent fish. Of course, things can change in a decade!  If the sun is out bright, which ain't likely, skip a trick work or senko under the docks.   Also, upstream of the power lines as the lake narrows and starts to bend back to the right a little, there was (has been a while) a concrete seawall with several docks around it.  The river channel, such as it is and it is heavily silted, cuts in close to these.  That was my best bass hole on the entire lake.  BTW, caught my biggest largemouth ever out of there, on a zoom lizard on some brush that is right at the bottom of the riprap on the dam to the right of the spillway/pump platform if you're looking at it.  Was the deepest part of the entire lake.  Maybe a bit early for that though with all the cooler rainy weather we've been having.

Also, bluegill and shellcrackers used to bed in the corners of the dam, particularly the southeast side right in the corner. Was a little sandy there, very shallow.

If the guy lives there, or knows someone who does, get a key to the gate and go in the spillway behind the dam (turn left at the end of Buckhorn Drive and go aways down a dirt drive).  There is a small pool first, by-pass that and get down to where the Little Tallapoosa forms back up.   That is the one thing I miss a little about the place. The fishing back there was tremendous.  Tons of crappie, all summer long, huge shellcrackers, and surpisingly large bass for that size of water.  For the bass, throw in the fast water with a trick worm, fluke or something of that nature and let if float down naturally, then stop and twitch it once it finds an eddy.  A spinnerbait or topwater would work too. Same for the shellcracker/bluegill, just use a small beetle spin, works or crickets.  There are some large rocks down there they get behind in the current, which can be surpisingly strong at times.  I used to catch tons of crappie back there by just finding an eddy and throwing a hal-fly or similar jig about 2 ft under a float and just slowly reeling through those eddys.  Was amazing how many would be there. Let me know if you do this and how you do please, I think of this spot often.  

Good Luck.


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## Sweetwater (May 23, 2009)

Speaking of how dangerous it is, I remember when a kid got killed by his cousin who was on a jet ski.

There used to be a gibbering, gold paint huffin, idiot named Grady North that lived in the trailers near the powerlines. He used to go out and shoot rifles at night till Carroll co. took them away.

You'd hear,"Gibberish, Gibberish...WHITE POWER" then blam blam.


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## Baracus (May 23, 2009)

Thanks guys, will let you know how it goes.


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## Dustin Pate (May 23, 2009)

Sweetwater said:


> Speaking of how dangerous it is, I remember when a kid got killed by his cousin who was on a jet ski.



A very good friend of mine. Killed when we were freshmen in highschool.


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## BLACKJACKMTMAN (May 24, 2009)

> A very good friend of mine. Killed when we were freshmen in highschool.



Dustin, I seem to recall this happening on a weekend when were there?  What year if you don't mind me asking?  We had a place on the "Temple Side" a few lots up from the dam.

I'd totally forgot about the Grady character.......


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## Jeff C. (May 24, 2009)

Hey Blackjack...that was awfully generous of you to give this guy such a detailed account of your old spots. I realize you don't fish there anymore , but still...that was cool. I think it says a lot about you.

That kind of stuff keeps me coming back to this forum.

Thanks,
Jeff C.


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## Sweetwater (May 24, 2009)

Dustin, I'm so very sorry. I was out there when it happened.

Blackjack, the sad thing is, I knew Grady before he started huffin paint. He was a smart guy.

I believe the accident happened in 1998.


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## Dustin Pate (May 24, 2009)

BLACKJACKMTMAN said:


> Dustin, I seem to recall this happening on a weekend when were there?  What year if you don't mind me asking?  We had a place on the "Temple Side" a few lots up from the dam.
> 
> I'd totally forgot about the Grady character.......



It was either fall of 99 or spring 2000. I think it was 99 though. I am trying to remember if it was right after we started school or later on. For some reason I want to say it was Labor Day weekend but I could be totally off.


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## Sweetwater (May 24, 2009)

Dustin Pate said:


> It was either fall of 99 or spring 2000. I think it was 99 though. I am trying to remember if it was right after we started school or later on. For some reason I want to say it was Labor Day weekend but I could be totally off.



I'm pretty sure it was labor day weekend. The lake was crowded.


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## BLACKJACKMTMAN (May 24, 2009)

Maybe I remembering another such event, we sold our place up there in 1998.  Wouldn't surprise me though, the place was nuts on any weekend from May through late Sept.  Way too many folks (half of them three sheets to the wind) on a lake that size, not to mention a good portion of it was way too shallow and way too narrow which forced all the boaters/skiers/jet-skis into the relatively small area out in the front of the dam and up to the power lines. 

I also learned what flood-control meant by having that place, you flood and everybody downstream doesn't!!   We timed it right though, bought it cheap in 1992 before anybody thought of that being Metro Atlanta really, and then sold it when the sprawl started to go that way.

Thanks for the compliment Jeff!


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