Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – December 2009

Allatoona: Level: 4.2 feet below full pool. Temp: 58 degrees. Clarity: Clear to stained.

Bass: Guide Mike Bucca reports, “Fishing is great right now and will only get better as the weather gets colder. Turnover has finished, and the fish are starting to concentrate more and more. The best two tactics going right now are the deep-water spoon bite and the float-n-fly. For the spoon bite I am using my Humminbird Side Imaging unit to find concentrations of fish on the channel ledges then positioning my boat over the ledges and working them with a spoon. I am mostly using a 3/4-oz. spoon but also have other sizes tied on and will switch if I get a lot of window shoppers. Vary the action of and depth level of your spoon to entice the strikes. Concentrate most on the channel drops. For the bigger fish look no further than the float-n-fly. It’s been working for several weeks now, and with these colder mornings it’s starting to heat up. Concentrate on any rocky shoreline, and set your leader length to about 12 feet. I am using a 10-foot Silstar Float-N-Fly rod to throw these longer leaders with 8-lb. braid and 8-lb. Triple Fish Fluorocarbon line, and the best colors by far have been the spot candy and spot sushi. The main thing here is to remember to vary your leader lengths if things aren’t working. Always try to position your fly slightly above the fish versus being below the fish. Also, the spoon bite is a mainstay, as well. Concentrate most of your efforts on the channel drops throughout the entire winter, and you will have a ball.”

Linesides: Good, not great, but should get better, reports Robert Eidson. “We still don’t have a flatline or planer-board bite except early until 9:30,” he said. “Then it’s downrods and four-arm U-rigs. We caught 12 today on a U-rig, and that’s the best bite right now from Victoria all the way up to Clear Creek. I’m not even looking in the Allatoona arm right now. There’s a ton of fish moving up on flats and points to feed on small threadfin right now. Catch them on jigging spoons or Rooster Tails if you can get them deep enough. Fish 10 to 12 feet deep. The flats off Gaults have been good, as well as the island at Harbor Town and Bartow-Carver. Seagulls are starting to show up. I expect in December the fishing will be full blown. Key on birds and topwater. Keep a Super Fluke, Sammy or Zara Spook ready. Pull flatlines and planer boards, and later in the mornings pull a lighter three-arm U-rig.”