Lake Allatoona Fishing Report August 2015

Allatoona: Level: 0.1 feet below full pool. Temp: 89 degrees. Clarity: Mostly clear.

Bass: Slow. Tournament pro and radio host Matt Driver reports, “August can be a very tough month. Bass are deep, with the best concentration around 18 to 25 feet deep. Drop-shot finesse worms and shad baits like the Jointed Jerk Minnow are working good. Another key is very light line and a heavier drop-shot weight—6-lb. Sunline Sniper line fished vertically around brush using sonar is a good tactic. Fish are scattered, and size has been low. Stamp Creek and north is most productive. There is some schooling activity in the evening, especially after a storm. The SPRO Dawg, BB Jerk Minnow and Zara Spook are my weapons of choice for that. It takes a long cast to get the bass to bite and not spook. I’m using 10-lb. Sunline SX1 braid and a 7-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy spinning rod for optimal distance. Don’t try to get the boat too close. And for the kids, the bream are biting worms and crickets around boat docks and bluff walls in the shade. Keep it fun!”

Linesides: Robert Eidson, of First Bite Guide Service, reports, “The bite this summer has been off the hook. The fish right now are in their late summer pattern. Cooper Branch, Stamp Creek, Iron Hill, Glade, Tanyard and Clark creeks are the places to be right now. We are catching somewhere between 20 to 60 fish per boat on most half-day trips. We look for these numbers to slow down as we head into August, but as of right now, the bite seems like it’s getting stronger. Downlines are the ticket. We are catching most of our fish on a 30- to 40-foot bottom. Bait is dying very quickly at these depths because of the lack of dissolved oxygen (DO). Carry plenty of bait with you. Most days we will go through 140 to 160 baits per boat. This doesn’t mean we’re catching 140 fish, it just means we are changing our baits every five minutes. Shiners will last a little longer on a hook, but shad are still the ticket. Fresh bait is the key to running up big numbers right now. We are netting bait pretty easy right now under our Hydro Glow Fishing Lights, but you must get to the lake early.”