Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – August 2008

Allatoona: Level: Down 2.2 feet below full pool. Temp: 85 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Good, but you’ll need to concentrate on deep offshore structure. “I’m doing a lot of sonar fishing. I haven’t cast at the shoreline in two months,” said guide Mike Bucca. “I’ve been fishing both the drop shot and the spoon almost exclusively, except topwater during the early morning hours for schoolers. The schooling activity has been a lot weaker in July than it was in June. Most of my fishing has been taking place more in the main lake than in the creeks. I am keeping a 3/4-oz. and a 1-oz. spoon rigged just in case there is a profile preference. I am using a regular treble hook and not a tough saltwater hook, so if I hang up, I can pull my spoon free. I like 15-lb. Triple Fish Fluorocarbon to ensure I’m constantly in contact with my spoon. Some of my fish have come as deep as 50 feet, but most are in the 25- to 30-foot range.” For a drop-shot rig, Mike likes 8-lb. test fluorocarbon line, and he fishes a Tiny Fluke or a Yamamoto Cuttail in blue-pearl color. “Most of the offshore areas I’m working are on the ends of points and over humps that have the channel nearby, and even more brownie points if you can have some brush nearby as well. The biggest key is being comfortable with your sonar equipment. If you have the Humminbird Side Imaging capability, you are at a huge advantage on the fish due to its ability to locate schools of fish. In August, I expect the bite to remain the same as it has been in July. So far we haven’t gotten a thermocline to develop, so if hot air temps continue, a thermocline could develop and squeeze our fish at certain depth ranges and make them a little easier to catch. Keep your sensitivity on your graph high, and be on the outlook for a developing thermocline.”

Linesides: Excellent. Guide Robert Eidson said they’re catching up to 50 fish a trip, and it’s easy fishing right now. “It’s been incredible, and it’s really ABC fishing. Pick a main-lake point, start in about 20 feet of water, and start working out with your downlines,” Robert said. The linesides are setting up 18 to 24 feet deep, but they might be suspended over a deeper bottom. “Today we didn’t find them until we hit the 60-foot bottom, but the fish were 24 feet down,” he said. Trolling with umbrella rigs is producing along with the downlines, but bites on topwater and flatlines are nonexistent. “The south end of the lake is the key. If you’re fishing within sight of the dam, you’re in a good area. Fish from Clear Creek to the south, and into Allatoona Creek to about the railroad trestle at the southern end of Allatoona Landing,” Robert said. “There’s nothing up north, even the white-bass bite has died. One other thing worth mentioning is last year’s stocking of 100,000 stripers — about three times more than the lake normally gets. I think every one of them lived. Never have I seen so many peanut stripers, 1-pounders, in my life. And the hybrids are big and strong.”