Lake Allatoona Fishing Reports – January 2021

Allatoona: Level: 13 feet low. Temp: 52 degrees. Clarity: Slight stain to clear.

Bass: Tournament angler Matt Driver reports, “January on Allatoona is typically the toughest month of the year. It usually gets super cold, and we see the water temperatures drop into the low 40s, which in years past has caused a shad kill. My prediction for this January is that conditions will be better than in years past. I believe that we will have some cold weather, but it will be short-lived. As long as the water temperature stays in the mid 40s and up, we will continue to see a good bite and some really good fish being weighed in. The month of January I typically key on two different patterns: suspended fish and deep-bottom fish. For suspended bass, I like the jerkbait and the Float-n-Fly. My go-to jerkbait is a Jackal DD Squirrel in white or threadfin. Slow is key. I do mix it up with the Megabass Vision OneTen and a Lucky Craft Pointer 95. This time of year the bite is subtle and not as aggressive. Pattern two is the jig on deep rock/bluff walls. I like to throw crawfish colors with a compact trailer that has little movement. I throw the jig on a medium-heavy Shimano Expride and 16-lb. Sunline fluorocarbon. Feel is very important to catching bass on the jig. Right now I’m throwing a Picasso 1/2-oz. football head and a Picasso Little Spotty. Both of these jigs are tungsten, and the tungsten does not get hung up as bad in the rock and also has good feeling. If the water is stained and we get a warmer day with the sun out, the muddy water warms much quicker and bass will move shallow for short periods to feed. Squarebill crankbait or a medium-diving bait such as a Spro Little John can be a great way to catch a big fish when the go shallow to feed. This is a better late-day pattern. Areas of the lake to key on will be from Red Top to just north of Galts Ferry.”

Linesides: Guide Robert Eidson reports, “Good! The winter bite is here. The live-bait bite has been very good. Trout and shiners are fishing well right now. Fish planer boards and freelines early, and then change over to downlines once the sun comes up. Our guides have been doing really well from Bartow Carver to the Delta. The white bass are doing great. Fishing 1/2-oz. spoons on any flat from Kellogg Creek to Little River can and most days produces a lot of fish. The Mack Farr Mini-Me is also producing on the flats.”
There’s a full feature on Robert’s lineside fishing in the January issue of GON magazine.