Bartletts Ferry Fishing Report October 2011

Bartletts Ferry: Level: 0.4 feet below full pool. Temp: High 70s to low 80s. Clarity: Clear with a light green stain back in some creeks.

Bass: Fair and improving. Tournament weights have been light over the last few weeks, but Dennis Hudson said the bite has been improving with cooler nights. The University of Georgia team won the recent three-day regional on Harding fishing the backs of creeks, and Dennis said that pattern should improve. Fresh water coming in with lower water temps and a nice green tint in the backs of some the creeks seems to be the best thing going right now. The UGA team caught most of its fish flipping soft plastics to shallow laydowns. Dennis said he would opt for creature bait for this bite; his preference is a Sweet Beaver. Another bait that should soon begin producing in the creeks is a square-billed, shallow-running crankbait fished through brush tops. Running the banks around the points and up into the creek mouths with a small, shallow-running crankbait is another good October pattern for Harding. Folks are still catching spotted bass on the main-river points with drop shots and shaky heads, but the fish have been small. Another pattern Dennis noticed an up-tick in is jigging laydowns up the river. He has been getting some bites picking apart wood structure up the river with a jig, and he expects this bite to only get better.