Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – December 2019

Allatoona: Level: 10 feet below full. Temp: 58 degrees. Clarity: Slightly stained with visibility 3 feet.

Bass: Guide Bill Payne reports, “Fishing has been good throughout the fall, especially for numbers and a few bigger fish. The spoon bite has been excellent, and small swimbaits and shakey heads have been working well, too. The great topwater bite we enjoyed earlier in the fall has almost disappeared. As we move into December, look for the quality to improve and more largemouth to show up in your catch. My favorite Allatoona bait for December is the jig. The new Picasso Tungsten Little Spotty finesse jig has already accounted for some nice catches, and it’s in stock at some of the better tackle stores now. We should see some increase in rain this month, and when Allatoona gets stained, the crankbait bite comes alive in the 4- to 8-foot depths around rocks and stumps, and some really big fish are caught. Spinnerbaits and jerkbaits also come into play in a big way. Allatoona has always been known as a great winter lake with some the largest tournament weights brought to the scales during December. Alabama Rigs account for lots of fish though the winter, with December being one of the key months. Even though I mentioned jigs as a key bait this month, don’t be afraid to concentrate on moving baits, regardless of how cold the water gets.” Tournament angler Matt Driver reports, “The jerkbait bite is awesome! The Jackall DD Squirrel in white and threadfin works great, but I’ll mix it up with the Megabass Vision 110 and a Lucky Craft Pointer 95. Good concentrations of fish can be found in the creeks near deep water and on main-lake points. We also have great results from the 3/16-oz. Picasso tungsten roundball head tipped with a 4-inch soft swimbait. I fish the swimbait on 8- to 10-lb. Sunline fluorocarbon. Cast and count it down about 10 seconds, and slow reel it back. The bite is light sometimes. The Picasso Rhino Ned rig and a Roboworm NED worm in Aaron’s magic is also a great choice. Fish it slow. December is the best month for the Float-n-Fly. Rock bluff and points mid-lake work great. December hot spots are the mouth of Illinois Creek, Iron Hill and the bluffs mid-lake.”

Linesides: Guide Robert Eidson reports, “The winter bite is starting to heat up. The north end of the lake is still producing some nice stripers, along with good numbers of white bass. The bigger stripers are eating gizzard shad fished on planer boards and freelines both right at sunup and again at sundown. Look for these fish from Little River up to Fields Landing and as far south as Kellogg. The hybrids and white bass are really starting to school and are blowing up all over the lake. We have seen some big schools breaking the surface from the dam to the S-turns. These busting fish will eat almost anything you throw at them. When these fish go down, they will still bite threadfins and small gizzards fished on downlines, as well as spoons. The bait is starting to get really hard to net. It’s almost time to start using store-bought bait. The seagulls are starting to show up and will make finding the fish a little easier for us over the upcoming holiday break. Remember Allatoona has very few loons. If you see birds diving on Allatoona, this normally means there are linesides close. Trollers should keep pulling Mack Farr u-rigs 60 to 120 feet behind the boat at speeds between 2.4 to 3.1 mph.”