Lake Allatoona Fishing Report March 2017

Allatoona: Level: 9.4 feet below full pool. Temp: 56-58 degrees. Clarity: The south is clear; stained up north.

Bass: Tournament angler and radio host Matt Driver reports, “Fishing on Allatoona has been great and will continue to be great for the month of March. Bass are a few weeks ahead of schedule and are in a prespawn mode. Most bass are staging and preparing for the spawn. Due to the extremely warm, stable weather, the water temperatures are several degrees over where they should be at the first part March. There has been a good shallow jerkbite bite, and the 95 series Spro McStick has been producing good numbers of Allatoona bass. I throw the McStick on a medium 6-foot Cashion rod with 10-lb. Sunline sniper. Most of the time the bites are very violent, and it feels like the rod is getting yanked out of your hand. The football-head jig is starting to pick up and will get really good toward the end of the month. Try a brown-colored Chattahoochee Jig Company living-rubber skirt finished on a 1/2-oz. football-head jig around ditches and points leading into spawning areas. Red-clay banks are also a good area to try. Red-clay banks tend to warm up faster. The tried and true Carolina rig tipped with a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog in green pumpkin with a chartreuse tail is always a solid choice this time of year. The south end of the lake is producing the best right now. Toward the end of the month, keep an eye out for schooling activity as bass really feed up before the spawn.”

Linesides: Good. Guide Robert Eidson reports, “The white bass bite is fantastic right now. The striper and hybrid bite has been extremely good. The water temps are a good 7 degrees warmer right now than they were at this time last year. I really don’t think we will be seeing a shad kill this year. With that being said, I believe fishing will stay strong throughout the winter. The live-bait bite right now is great. Shad, threadfins, shiners and trout fished on freelines and planer boards right at sunup will get you bit right now. After the sun comes up, I have been changing over to all downlines. The fish are starting to stage early for the spawn run. Look for the white bass run to start in very early March, with the hybrids and stripers to be close behind. The fish are migrating north. The better bite right now is from Kellogg Creek north to Fields Landing. The south end of the lake is also starting to heat up. Iron Hill is starting to produce some really nice fish right now. The numbers are better mid-lake north, but if you’re after size, then head south and pull big gizzard shad.”