Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – January 2024

Allatoona: Level: 12.7 feet below 840. Temp: 46-52 degrees. Clarity: The north end above the S-turns has a heavy stain, the mid-lake was clear, and the south end is green to murky due to turnover.

Bass: Tournament angler Matt Driver reports, “Lake Allatoona continues to be hot, even though the water temperatures are cooling off quite a bit. There is a multitude of ways to catch fish right now. Numbers of fish are coming off the drop shot. Size has not been great with a drop shot, but it is fun to catch quite a few on it. A lot of the bigger fish have been coming deep on a Picasso Little Spotty jig on bluff walls and ditches in the backs of pockets. Brown and orange have been the most successful colors on the jig. We have also caught fish on the jerkbait and by slow-rolling a white spinnerbait off main-lake points. The bite may slow a little in January as the water temperatures may get even colder. As always with Lake Allatoona, bait is key. Stay around the bait and you will find the fish.”

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Linesides: Guide Robert Eidson, of First Bite Guide Service, reports, “The bite on Allatoona is starting to pick up. The north end of the lake from Little River to Fields Landing is holding a ton of white bass and a few decent stripers right now. The white bass will hit a 1/2-oz. spoon, Rooster Tail, Tiny Fluke and a small threadfin shad. The bigger stripers are wanting to eat big. Your best bet for a big fish right now is to pull bigger baits. Large gizzard shad is my first choice, and trout is my second choice. The big school of smaller hybrids are starting to show back up on the main lake. I have found some really big schools of hybrids in Kellogg Creek all the way south to Clear Creek. These fish are eating threadfin shad, small gizzard shad and small trout fished on downlines 18 to 32 feet deep. The water temp is getting right and should be prime by the time this hits the newsstands. Trollers need to keep pulling Captain Mack’s u-rigs 120 feet behind the boat at speeds between 2.4-3.1 miles per hour. This is my favorite time of the year to be on the water, but the water is getting cold, so stay safe this winter.”

Crappie: Robert DeHaas, of Red Rooster Custom Baits and an OG from “Team Geezer,” reports, “January is the big crappie month on Lake Allatoona, with lots of good limits being caught while trolling or throwing to them with forward-facing sonar. If you are trolling, water clarity is the key to determining what size jig heads you need to be pulling. I cannot stress this enough. If your jig is too heavy, you will be under the crappie and your catch rate will be negatively impacted because you will not be trolling where the crappie are. Crappie will be staging in the mouths of major creeks and in the main river near major creeks. This means crappie could be in big open water. The crappie have been scattered in depths of 7 to 10 feet in green-colored water and as shallow as 2 to 4 feet deep in stained water. In the case of stained water, a 1/32- to 1/24-oz. jig head is the one you will want to use. Use 1/16-oz. jig heads in clear to mildly stained water as the crappie will be in deeper water. Keep your eyes on your electronics to see what depth the fish are holding in. If they move closer to the surface or go deeper, your jig head size may need to change. Make sure to visit Redroosterbaits.com and download the ‘Long Line Trolling Guide’ for more accurate details on jig-head size, speed and depths. In stained water, my go-to jig-head color is orange with the next-best color being chartreuse. The best stained-water jig colors are as follows but not in any particular order (color and Red Rooster Baits name for that color): black/chartreuse, gold/chartreuse (gold digger), blue/orange (jive turquee or albright special), white/chartreuse (lemonade), pinks (flo pink or bubblegum), blue/white (Pappy’s magic) and glow jigs (glow white). The biggest thing to remember in stained/muddy water is contrast. Make sure to use at least two different colors so that your jig stands out and catches their attention. I really hope this report will help you catch more fish, but remember to keep only what you need and release those you don’t in order to preserve our great fishery. This new year has me thinking about what the Lord has in store for me this coming year. Remember Jesus loves you and longs to be a part of your life everyday… will you make room for him? 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and what no human mind has conceived—the things that God has prepared for those who love him.’”