Carters Lake Fishing Report – December 2020

Carters: Level: 2 feet low. Temp: 64 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Guide Bill Payne reports, “The warm weather for this time of year has kept quite a few fish shallower than normal. The topwater bite continues to linger, and we’ve caught some on walking baits, like a Zara Spook Jr., Evergreen SB and a Berkley Cane Walker. I see this bite fading quickly in December. We continue to catch spots on shaky heads like the Picasso Rhino Head in 3/16-oz with a Softy Lures finesse worm. This bite will continue to be fairly strong into December and through the winter out on long points, humps and breaklines with cover in the 20- to 35-foot depths. Even though the weather hasn’t been typical for us this fall, the baitfish haven’t waited to move deeper and into ditches and creek channels. One of the best baits for these fish that are following baitfish is the old and reliable 3/4-oz. jigging spoon, like a Hopkins or Georgia Blade’s jigging spoon. These fish can be caught around bait anywhere from 20 to 60 feet deep, and it doesn’t matter how deep the bottom is. Other lures like an underspin in 3/8- or 1/2-oz., as well as blade baits, like the Silver Buddy or a tail spinner like the new Jackall Deracoup will put fish in the boat as well. December has traditionally been the best month for a jig for me. My favorite is the Picasso Little Spotty tungsten football jig in any of their crawfish imitation colors tipped with a Zoom Creepy Crawler twin tail. Even though deep water gets lots of attention during December and on through the winter, nasty weather with rain, sleet or snow has a way of moving the big spots up shallow, and techniques like the Float-n-Fly can produce some big catches. Add a little wind and it can get really miserable out on Carters, but a spinnerbait and a jerkbait can pay huge dividends with big spotted bass.”