Catch Hungry Lake Chatuge Bass In June

Eric Welch, who guides on several north Georgia mountain lakes, says that June is a great time to catch Lake Chatuge spotted bass.

Lake Chatuge spotted bass are moving from spring spawning areas toward their summer holes. Also in late May and throughout June, the herring are finishing up spawning. The presence of these baitfish can stimulate feeding frenzies. You can intercept the spotted bass as they move out and have great catches if you hit it right.

Chatuge is a 7,000-acre TVA reservoir on the Hiwassee River along the Georgia/North Carolina line. It has many creeks and coves that create 128 miles of irregular shoreline, plus Lake Chatuge’s many islands add more than 4 additional miles of shoreline. Much of it is steep and rocky, and blowdowns litter many banks. Some areas of the lake have docks that offer structure to fish.

Eric Welch lives near Blue Ridge and has been guiding on Chatuge, Blue Ridge, Burton, Hiwassee and Nantahala for 20 years. He knows the north Georgia mountain lakes well and has watched as the introductions of blueback herring and spotted bass have changed the lakes.

Eric fishes more than 250 days a year, and that helps him keep up with daily patterns and changes. He knows how to catch bass on the mountain lakes under all conditions.

“Chatuge is mostly a spot fishery for numbers now,” Eric said.

There are some quality largemouth in Chatuge, but they are harder to catch, especially as the water gets hotter in June. But spotted bass are easy to pattern this time of year, and they are feeding actively.

“Spots are moving from their spawning areas to summer holes, so you need to find the transition areas to fish,” Eric said.

These feeding locations are going to be humps, points and banks between summer holes and spawning areas. With all the arms and coves on the lake, there are many.

Bass are going to be concentrating on herring, so finding schools of those baitfish will enhance a location. The herring on Chatuge spawned late this year, in May. They are almost done by now, but they will still be in their spawning areas. So a transition area for spotted bass that is also a herring spawning area is ideal.

Eric keeps his bait choices simple. He always has a topwater bait, a drop-shot worm, a tube and a shaky head ready. The three bottom-bumping baits will be fished on most holes until the bass show him what they prefer that day. A spinnerbait is also rigged and ready if wind is blowing in on a bank.

Eric has forward-facing sonar (FFS) on his boat and uses it to find fish and watch how they react to his baits. FFS has confirmed there are more suspended bass in a lake than we ever knew, and FFS helps anglers catch them. However, Eric said you can also waste too much time on these suspended bass that aren’t actively feeding. That’s especially true for Eric when he has clients in the boat who are not skilled anglers.

A few weeks ago, we checked the following 10 locations, and bass were beginning to move to them. These holes will be good throughout the month of June. There are countless other locations with these types of features, so use Eric’s suggestions to learn and set your June pattern on Lake Chatuge.

No. 1: N 34º 58.271 – W 83º 46.271 — If you put in at the Towns County/Georgia Mountain Fair Park boat ramp, you don’t have to go too far to fish the first location. The second point upstream from the ramp, at the campground, is where Bell Creek narrows down before the main lake. It is a good pinch-point for bass to stop and feed as they move out and as herring spawn on the gravel banks.

The point drops down to a little ledge, then quickly drops into deeper water. That gives bass an ideal place to hold and feed. Keep your boat out in about 30 feet of water—a long cast off the bank—and throw your topwater right to the edge of the bank and work it out.

Eric likes a bone or chrome bait—like a Whopper Plopper 90 or a 110 Berkley Cane Walker. Both imitate bass feeding on baitfish on top. The Plopper is easier to fish—just cast and reel. The Cane Walker, like all walking baits, is hard to beat with its side-to-side action.

Follow up with a shaky head, tube or drop shot, casting them up to about 10 feet of water and keeping them on the bottom out to about 30 feet deep. Fish holding on the bottom sometimes do not want to come up to the top, and those bottom baits will get bites from those bass.

No. 2: N 34º 58.454 – W 83º 46.234 — Go across to the opposite point in Bell Creek, the point with the big “4” green-and-white channel marker sign. This point between Reed Branch and Bell Creek offers bass coming out of both sides a place to stop and feed. It runs way out before dropping into 40 feet of water.

Start a long cast off the bank with your topwater, and work it from a couple feet deep out to the boat. A big topwater is good to help you make long casts. Fish around the point, covering it from all angles. Make sure you work your topwater across the end of the point, too.

Follow up with bottom-bumping baits. On his drop shot, Eric rigs a 6-inch morning dawn or sunrise colored Roboworm 10 to 14 inches above a 3/16- to 1/4-oz. sinker. Deeper water and wind call for heavier drop-shot sinkers, as does guiding clients who need the heavier weight to feel it.

Cast the drop shot up to 10 feet of water and work it all the way back to the boat, keeping your sinker on the bottom. Small shakes might help attract a bass, but usually just a slow drag with the worm hanging off the bottom is enough to draw bites.

No. 3: N 34º 58.962 – W 83º 47.385 — Run down the creek past the big island with channel marker 3 on it, and watch for a steep bank on your left that has some big rock houses. There are four orange balls out from the bank along the bank. Stop out from the house that has three turrets, lots of glass windows and a fake-rock seawall.

A hidden point runs way out in front of this house—you can see it on a good GPS or map. It has deep water all around it but tops out shallow enough for herring to spawn on it. Its position also gets wind across it, which helps the topwater bite.

Fish the seawall on both sides of the point. Start with your topwater, swinging way out from the bank as you get to the point. Also cast your topwater across the point from both sides. Then follow up with your bottom-bumping baits.

If wind is blowing into the seawall, this is a great place to pick up a white or shad-colored 1/2-oz. War Eagle spinnerbait with double willowleaf blades. Cast it right against the bank and fish it back fast to attract bass feeding on shad and herring that are blown into the bank.

The herring spawn was about two weeks late starting this year, so it is just ending by the first of June at Lake Chatuge. Wind will force the herring in toward the bank, offering bass a good feeding opportunity.

No. 4: N 34º 59.375 – W 83º 48.109 — Go across into the mouth of Woods Creek, and you will see a long, shallow point with a small island at the end of it. The bank going upstream to the small cove with two fish-attractor buoys in it is a good bank to fish. It is a hard-clay, steep bank with lots of wood.

In this and other similar bays, hybrid bass will push shad and herring into the area from deeper water at night and first thing in the morning. Just like wind moving the bait, this offers bass easy meals, and the wood here offers great ambush points.

Work your topwater over the submerged wood, being careful to work it around limbs sticking out of the water. Then follow up with a drop shot, shaky head and tube. Eric rigs a 5-inch green-pumpkin finesse worm on a 3/16-oz. screw-lock head and tips the tails in Spike-it chartreuse dye. If the fish seem to be aggressive, he will switch to the same colors in a Trick Worm to entice bites from bigger bass.

Work the entire bank, covering water from 10 to 25 feet deep. When you get bites, slow down and fish the area carefully. There should be other fish nearby.

No. 5: N 34º 58.443 – W 83º 47.650 — Go up Long Bullet Creek into the big bay to your left. Straight ahead, there is a danger buoy sitting off the bank in front of a green-roofed dock. Stop out from the buoy in about 30 feet of water. The hump marked by the buoy tops out about 12 feet down.

Eric says this bay and the pocket downstream of the buoy are special places where lots of hybrids feed at night. The linesides push lots of baitfish back into the bay and, as it gets light, the bait moves back out. Bass set up on the hump to ambush the baitfish.

Eric mostly fishes topwater here since the bass are usually actively feeding. Make as long a cast as you can across the hump to cover both sides and the top of the hump. Work around it so you cover it from all angles.

If Eric sees fish down on the bottom on his electronics, he will cast a drop-shot worm to them. If they are straight down under the boat, the boat will probably spook them if the water is less than 25 feet deep. If you have forward-facing sonar, you can watch their reaction. If they seem to stay in place on your regular sonar or forward facing, lower your drop shot straight down to them.

No. 6: N 34º 58.216 – W 83º 48.400 — Go around the big point and head back into the cove with Young Harris Water Sports Marina. Across the cove from the marina is a pole marker out from the highway causeway. This marker is on a hump at the end of a long point coming off the bank. The hump tops out about 10 feet deep, but it is deeper all around it.

Bass spawn in the pocket, as do baitfish, so the bass don’t have to move far to set up to ambush the bait. There is a small brushpile that is key to where they hold, but they will sit anywhere on the hump or its sides to feed.

Make long casts with topwater and then bump the bottom. When all else fails, Eric will rig up a 3.5-inch tube—smoke with silver flake—on a 3/16-oz. jig head and fish it with hops and crawls along the bottom. This bait is not used as much by anglers, so it often will get bit when other popular lures do not.

No. 7: N 34º 59.330 – W 83º 48.883 — Go up Woods Creek to the point upstream of McClure Cove. This is the big cove straight ahead where the main creek turns left. Some pallets were on the bank when we fished it. There are danger markers on a long, shallow point on the opposite side of the creek, and the main channel swings in near the point to join the creek coming out of the cove. That junction is like a crossroads for bass and baitfish.

The bank on the creek side of the point has a lot of wood in the water for ambush points for the bass. Stay out from the bank and cast your topwater over the trees. Then work your shaky head through the structure, or rig your tube Texas-style weedless and work it through the wood. Fish all the way around the point, hitting both the creek and cove sides of the point.

No. 8: N 34º 59.662 – W 83º 48.495 — Go downstream and into the next big cove on your left—shown as Dayton Cove on some maps. There are docks on the left going in, but focus on the right bank, which drops off faster and has more cover on it. Bass tend to use the right bank moving in and out and ambushing bait that’s moving out.

This bank is straight clay with wood. It stair-steps down from the bank to 13 feet deep, then flattens until it drops to 16, and then there’s another drop to 18 feet deep. Those little steps offer great holding locations for bass.

Stay out in 25 feet of water and cast your topwater right to the bank and work it back. Then fish your bottom baits—work them slowly to keep them on the bottom on each step. Watch your line so you can lower your rod tip when your bait comes to each drop. You want your bait to stay right on the bottom.

No. 9: N 34º 59.372 – W 83º 46.295 — Go out around the big island and into Sneaking Creek. Straight ahead is a round point. Upstream is a big cove, Burrell Cove on some maps, and downstream is McIntosh Cove. This point is a good gathering place for Lake Chatuge bass moving out of both coves during the postspawn and throughout the month of June.

There is a lot of brush here. After trying topwater, fish water from 14 to 40 feet deep with a drop shot, tube and shaky head. Work all the way around the point. Eric says this point often gets wind, which will help the bite, but it makes boat control difficult, so fish into the wind no matter which way it blows.

No. 10: N 34º 59.382 – W 83º 46.557 — Across and downstream, the main-lake point on the Sneaking Creek side of the big island is one of the last places where bass hold when moving out after the spawn, and some will stay here year-round. There is a recently blown-down big pine tree laying out above the water on the point—it was still green.

Fish this point like others, working all the way around it with all your baits. Use the wind to help you control your boat, it helps the bite as long as it is not too strong to allow you to fish here.

All of these places and many others like them on Chatuge hold aggressive bass right now. Check them out.

For more info on how Eric catches Chatuge bass, go to his website at www.northgafishingguide.com. I have to say, he is one of the most knowledgeable, easy-to-talk-to guides I have done an article with.