Lake Allatoona Fishing Report May 2011

Allatoona: Level: Full pool. Temp: 70 degrees. Clarity: Stained and full of trash on the north end; slight stain mid lake; clear on the south end.

Bass: Very good. Matt Driver reports, “May is one of my favorite times on Allatoona. This month is topwater month for sure. Bass are postspawn and are starting to eat. Main-lake areas at daybreak can be real exciting with schooling activity. Baits like the Spro Dawg and Spook Jr. are the ticket. Move the baits fast, using a walk-the-dog motion. Fish may bust the bait several times before the hook-up, and having nerves of steel is the key. Also, May is a good time to target shad-spawn areas. During the full moons in May, shad will spawn on rocky areas, and the bass gorge themselves. I use spinnerbaits, topwater and jig heads rigged with a junebug Squirrel Tail worm from Big Bite Baits. Later in the month, bass start to make their transition to deeper water and head toward brush and summertime haunts.” Craig Miller at the Dugout reports, “Small topwaters such as a Super Spook Jr. and a Sammy 100 in bone or shad colors will work well in the mornings. Fish main-lake points and secondary points in the creeks. If the fish do not react to a topwater, switch to a white Super Fluke or a Trick Worm. Carolina rigs and shaky heads are also producing fish off the points. Any green-pumpkin or watermelon color worm will work. Be sure to dye the tail chartreuse. As we enter into May, the spotted bass should be on any of the steep rock walls. On windy days, you can burn Mini-Me spinnerbaits to catch these fish. The crankbait bite should pick up through out the month. Norman DLNs in lavender shad or tropical shad are hard to beat.”

Linesides: Excellent. Robert Eidson said the river bite is as good as it’s ever been. The bite on the Allatoona Creek arm is fantastic, and so is the mid-lake bite. “The river bite is in full swing right now,” Robert said. “But be careful. If you don’t have a jonboat or a jetboat, you can tear something up real quick.” Anglers are catching a lot of fish on cut shad and live shad fished on the bottom. Chicken livers don’t seem to be producing as well as they have in the past. Be careful up the river. Everyone is catching fish, but there are a ton of boats up there. The bite up the Allatoona River arm is also very good in places like Iron Hill, Clark Creek and Tanyard Creek. Wherever you are, the key is to find the shad. Robert said he is having 15- to 30-fish days mid-lake on main-lake humps and flats at Victoria Landing, the S turns and the flats at Harbortown. The downline bite is far outproducing the freeline bite, and the only bait to fish is shad. Start early on 14- to 20-foot flats, and move out toward the river channel as the sun gets up.

Crappie: Guide Stewart Wright reports crappie are being caught trolling deep around brushpiles. “Good grub colors are electric chicken and tractor green. You can also fish these brushpiles with live minnows under slip floats. Set the bobber as close as you can to the depth of the brush. As the month progresses, night fishing for crappie should become good around bridge pilings and deeper docks.”