Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – October 2008

Allatoona: Level: 3.8 feet below full pool. Temp: 77-78 degrees. Clarity: Clear except for stain around wind-blown banks.

Bass: Good. Guide Mike Bucca said the bite just before cold fronts is on fire. Last week two clients stopped counting at 40 spotted bass in the 2-lb. and under size range. “We are catching a lot of fish on a lot of different baits — buzzbaits, Sammys, GDS wakebaits, swimbaits, spoons, jerkbaits and drop-shot worms. We are concentrating mostly about halfway back in the creek arms. They were coming off almost every type of structure, and they’re gorging themselves on shad. The post-frontal bites have been a little slower, but as the day warms up things get fired up again. The swimbait bite is developing nicely. It’s not strong yet, but it is getting there. We have had several good followers, and I actually lost a very nice fish on the big baits, and I am seeing lots of good followers. Concentrate most of your efforts in the creeks arms. Some days they are toward the back, and some days they are more active toward the front.” Mike said the coming weeks should fire up the big bass on Allatoona. “October is by far the best fall month of the year to fish for big bass on Allatoona. I get more 5-lb.-plus spots and largemouths in my boat in October than any other month in the fall. The good thing about October is they will hit almost anything you throw at them. As the shad migrate into the creeks and the water falls, concentrate in the areas of the last 20-foot hole in that creek and work your way out from there. The water falling will push the fish out of the shallows from the backs of these creeks and out into the main lake where they are more accessible. For the Allatoona giants, I would recommend using big swimbaits. For numbers, I don’t think you can beat them off a blue-pearl Senko in October, but you can also have luck with other baits of your choice because the fish will be gorging themselves on shad.”

Linesides: Very good, according to guide Robert Eidson. “This is the best September we’ve ever seen on Allatoona,” he said. He gives credit to the effort WRD has put into stocking over the last several years for the mega-schools of hybrids, stripers and white bass anglers are seeing from about mid-lake down to the dam. “When you find them, you’re going to find monster schools of thousands of fish,” he said. “They’re starting to come up some, and when they do, they’re coming up over 2, 3, 4 acres.” If you happen to find them schooling, they’re slamming a hatch of 1- to 1 1/2-inch threadfin shad, so try to match the hatch with the heaviest Rooster Tail you can find or with a pearl Junior Fluke fished about 3 feet behind a popping cork. Robert said you can improve your catch rate dramatically by using 12-lb. fluorocarbon as opposed to mono. The other 90 percent of the time, when the fish aren’t schooling on the surface, look for them deep over the river ledges. Robert said they have been holding between 24 and 34 feet deep in giant schools. Once you find them, downline either live shiners or threadfin shad to them. If that bite slows, go to a Mack Farr umbrella-rig with nine bucktails tipped with chartreuse trailers. Troll them 120 feet behind the boat at 3.1 mph to start, and drop it back in increments to get it deeper if you’re not getting bit. The hybrids are averaging 5 to 6 pounds, and the stripers are running from 5 to 8 pounds, with some big white bass mixed in. The big striped bass should start returning to the lake around Halloween, Robert said.