Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – July 2008

Allatoona: Level: Down 1 foot below full pool. Temp: 84 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Fair to good, with a topwater bite early and a deep-structure bite once the sun gets up. “We are ranging anywhere from 10 to 30 fish a day,” said guide Mike Bucca. “There is a halfway decent schooling bite bright and early. It wasn’t as strong as it could be this week due to the wind and full moon, but when the full moon passes and the wind dies down, it should be pretty good with a mixed bag of hybrids, whites and spots,” Mike said. He recommends a Sammy 100, a Bama rig (a Pop-R with a Doll Fly tied 2 feet behind it) or a Lucky Craft SSR for schooling fish. “That Lucky Craft SSR is the deal for those schooling spots chasing bait on the surface. It’s very castable, and it’s something not a lot of people throw at schoolers,” Mike said. The SSR is a crankbait that runs just below the surface. After the topwater bite early in the morning, Mike said to fish spoons, jigs or drop-shot rigs on main-lake structure. “The main deal for me after the schooling bite is offshore humps, long points, channel ledges, brush and deep rock piles in the 15- to 25-foot range. Just hit as many of those as you can during the day, and you will hook up. For July, I expect things to pretty much remain the same. The fish should concentrate more toward the 25- to 30-foot range as we get more heat throughout the month of July. Stick with the topwater bite at sun-up, then work your way toward the deeper brush, points, humps and rock piles as the day progresses,” Mike said.

Note: There are two different tree-cutting projects going on at Allatoona right now to create shoreline fish habitat. “If you are interested in participating in these tree-cutting events to help put cover in the lake, visit the General Fishing section on the Allatoonabass.com forum. All of these projects are DNR and Corps of Engineer approved. “We are slated to cut more than 1,500 trees this year, and we cut more than 800 trees last year,” Mike said.

Linesides: Excellent, according to guide Robert Eidson, and he’s catching most on deep downlines. “Two days ago we had two boats working and boated 84 fish in a half day. They are 42 to 50 feet deep. I’ve never seen fish this deep on Allatoona in June. They’re deep like they are on Lanier. The low levels last year changed the dynamics of the lake. Usually they’re 18 to 24 feet deep. If you see them deep, go get them,” Robert said. Most of the fish are in the mid-lake section to the south, from Clear Creek to the 75 bridge, and he’s been catching a lot of fish within sight of the dam. The mouth of Stamp Creek has been good, Coopers Branch is good at sunup, the Allatoona Creek arm and Tanyard Creek are good,” Robert said. “You can flatline at sunup, but you’re better off throwing a Sammy and a Fluke because it’s only a 15-minute window to catch them on top, then it’s time for downrods. After the sun gets up good, go to U-rig from right in front of the dam to Stamp Creek. The key is a loaded Mack Farr U-rig with nine 1/2-oz. jigs. We’re dragging the umbrella rigs and catching six to 12 doing that to wrap up my trips,” Robert said. For lots of action for small white bass, go to the Harbortown Marina area in the evenings and throw a Rooster Tail.