Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – February 2010

Allatoona: Level: 10.1 feet below full pool. Temp: 38 to 47 degrees. Clarity: Stained to muddy.

Bass: Slow. Mike Bucca reports, “Fishing is tough on Allatoona. The Etowah arm is fishing very hard now. We had ice on almost the entire north end of the lake, and not much fishing was done. We also had a massive shad kill, and that alone has made the bite tough. The Etowah arm definitely has the coldest water, which is in the upper 30s to 40 degrees, while the Allatoona arm is significantly warmer in the 45- to 48-degree range. When the water clears up in February, watch Allatoona come alive. The fishing will be outstanding, especially on the float-n-fly. Best colors are Nature’s Tackle Box’s Mike’s magic and the spot-sushi colored flies. Start off with a 10 foot leader, and work your way deeper as the day progresses.” Craig Miller from the Dugout said the month of February can be very rewarding at times, but it can also be slow. “With the huge shad kill, start your days by fishing a float-n-fly with a 10- to 12-foot leader. Fish the main-lake steep rock banks and points with a Red Rooster rainbow-shad colored fly,” Craig said. “As we get warmer days, this is a great time to break out your crankbaits. Fish small crankbaits in crawfish and red colors. Cast these baits to main-lake flats and mouths of creeks where the big female bass should start to show. As the month ends, you may also want to fish lipless crankbaits in shad and crawdad colors on these same areas of the lake.” Matt Driver said fishing has been less than desirable in late January, but he expects vast improvement in the months to come. “Lately any bite is a good bite with cold, muddy water and a large shad kill due to the extreme cold snap in mid January. Right now a white 3 1/2-inch Big Bite Bio Tube with a 1/4- or 1/8-oz. Gamakatsu tube head is a good choice. Locate baitfish with your fishfinder, and make long casts and let it fall almost to the bottom in 30 to 40 feet of water. Work the bait slow using a yo-yo type movement,” Matt said. “As the water clears, it will be hard to beat the Red Rooster float-n-fly in shad and chartreuse.”

Linesides: “It’s not worth your waste of time,” said Robert Eidson. There was a massive shad kill going on at Allatoona at presstime. Robert said thousands of birds and dead shad were everywhere, making the linesides difficult if not impossible to catch. “There’s just too much for them to eat,” he said. If you want to give it a try, Robert said your only options for catching fish are to fish the birds with either jigging spoons or medium shiners. Fish the edges of the dead and dying shad balls with a vertically jigged 1/2-oz. jigging spoon, or rig up medium shiners on floats and slow troll the same edges just like you would troll for crappie. Robert also said you can sometimes get into the hybrids pulling minnow-tipped crappie jigs in the same situation. The bright side to the shad kill is that the fishing should get good quick once it’s over. When the dead shad decompose to the point where the fish won’t eat them, Robert said there will be less forage for the fish, and they’ll have to start hunting for bait in order to feed up for the spring run. About the last week of February or the first week of March the planer-board and flatline bite will get going from Allatoona Creek all the way up to the mouth of the river, said Robert.