Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – August 2006

Level: Down 5.3 feet below full pool. Temps: 85-88 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Tough. First thing in the morning, there is a very short-lived topwater bite, said guide Mike Bucca. He said to fish the main-lake points with a herring-colored Sammy. Also try around the mouth of Cooper’s Branch and throw topwater or a fluke. There are a lot of bass suspended 25 to 35 feet down over 50 to 70 feet of water, said Mike, but they’re not easy to catch. Mike recommends fishing over deep humps that have brushpiles. Make very long casts with a Yamamota 3 1/2-inch Swimbait in pearl-blue fished on a 1/2-oz. lead, or try a 3/8-oz. Fish Head Spin. Mike said you’ll catch good fish using this technique if you stick with it. “There are just a few fish shallow around the main-lake wood cover, and they are hitting a Yamamoto Senko in blue-pearl color. I am using a four-inch 9S Senko and rigging it with a 4/0 Gamakatsu hook and working it in the four- to five-foot range. Another good pattern that is working is still the infamous drop-shot bite, and that is a sporadic bite right now. You will have to cover some water to find the pods of fish on the drop-shot bite, and again fish in the 25-foot plus depth range either on the bluff walls or around brushpiles. If you catch one, you will usually catch a few more in the area. They are hitting Yamamoto Flat Tails, 3 1/2-inch Cut Tails, Tiny Flukes, Baby Sluggos and Basstrix baits. I am using a No. 4 Splitshot/Dropshot hook by Gamakatsu, 8-lb. Triplefish Fluorocarbon line — mandatory to feel those deep bites — and 1/2-oz. Quickdrop sinkers.”

Linesides: Very good for hybrids, and surprisingly good for stripers in the main lake. “The water quality up the rivers is really poor this summer, so the stripers that normally stay up there in the cool-water refuges must be in the lake this summer,” said guide Robert Eidson. He recommends fishing the south end of the lake from Clear Creek to the dam. There are also lots of linesides in the Allatoona Creek arm from the dam to the I-75 bridge. “Eighteen feet is the key again to the downlines,” Robert said. He said threadfins, gizzards and bream are working, but for some reason shiners aren’t getting bit right now. Also try flatlines early in the morning. “There’s a lot of topwater activity early,” Robert said.