Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – March 2007

Allatoona: Level: Down 11.6 feet below full pool. Temp: 44-47 degrees. Clarity: Mostly clear.

Bass: February was a tough month on Allatoona, according to guide Mike Bucca. “Most of February I concentrated on the deep, rocky points and steeper banks ranging from 20 to 30 feet with both the spoon and the drop shot,” Mike said. With a major shad die-off ending the last week of February and with milder temperatures, look for bass fishing to improve quickly. “Watch for the big fish to move up on the shallow flats and main-lake points,” Mike said. He recommends fishing the flats and points with hard jerkbaits. “I like to start using my Staysee 90s, Flashminnow 95MR and LVR 300 to search for these active fish on the flats,” Mike said. “Just move these baits along slowly and steadily until we get our temps into the mid 50s. Once we see mid 50s, we shouldn’t have to finesse them into biting. Typically our prespawn feeding binge will start at the very end of March and beginning of April.”

Linesides: Guide Robert Eidson says the big fish are biting on the south end of the lake. “We caught two last week that weighed over 30,” said Robert. He has been pulling live trout and big gizzard shad on flatlines and planer boards around Iron Hill on the Allatoona Creek arm of the lake. “Until April, the south end of the lake is the place to be,” said Robert. “All the way through March, my truck will be parked at (the ramp at) Red Top Mountain.” Once the sun gets on the water, he will go straight to an umbrella rig. “I am pulling pockets with the U-rig,” said Robert. “I like to troll across the pocket between the main-lake points at the mouth of a creek and the first secondary point. Those pockets have been holding a lot of fish.” Robert said he is pulling an umbrella rig only about 70 feet behind his boat. He also noted that the hybrid bite has been nearly nonexistant, but he is fishing deep water on the points, and he says the hybrids are up shallow on the banks.