Lake Allatoona Fishing Report October 2011

Allatoona: Level: 6.8 feet below full pool. Temp: 74 degrees. Clarity: Stained up the lake; clear at the dam.

Bass: Excellent. Matt Driver reports, “October is one of the best months on Allatoona. This month temps are cooling, and the winter drawdown is under way. Bass are really feeding up and getting ready for the cold winter months. Right now fish can be caught pretty much any way you like to fish. My top choice is topwater and shallow cranking. Start the days off with a buzzbait right against bluffs or rip-rap in the Etowah River arm of the lake. The rest of the day fish shallow crankbaits in creeks and on secondary points. Use baits like the Spro Little John and the Fat John in natural-shad or crawfish patterns. Make sure to hit all visible cover. Shaky-head worms tipped with Big Bite Shaky Squirrels in green pumpkin with a chartreuse-dipped tail and brown finesse jigs will also work great for numbers or when the bite gets tough.”

Linesides: Good. Robert Eidson said there is good schooling activity going on all over the lake in the mornings and afternoons and all day on cloudy days. Look for hybrids and small stripers busting the top in the Fields Landing and Delta area, at the island in front of Kellogg Creek and Harbortown, between Bartow Carver and Illinois Creek, and the biggest school is between Bethany Bridge and Stamp Creek. Fish big, white Rooster Tails, Jr. Flukes and anything on a popping cork. Robert said to fish 6- to 8-lb. test or you won’t get bit. If they’re not coming up, pull U-rigs. Robert said they’ll out-fish live bait 5 to 1. He likes a Mack Farr four-arm umbrella rig with nine 1/2-oz. white bucktails. Chartreuse or white trailers seem to be working equally well. If you don’t like trolling, try dropping a white-with-chrome Flex-It spoon on top of fish you see on the graph.