Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – September 2006

Allatoona: Level: Down 8.3 feet below full pool. Temp: 83 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Excellent. “Fishing was phenomenal on Allatoona for big fish in August,” guide Mike Bucca said. “Lots of big largemouth were roaming in the main lake due to the creeks drying up from our lack of rainfall. The biggest pattern was throwing a big eight-inch swim bait. The bites are certainly less, but the quality more than makes up for the lack of bites on the big swim baits. The key to the swim bait is making very long casts and sticking with it for the entire day and covering a lot of water with the trolling motor. Sometimes they are on the bluff walls, sometimes they are on the wood.” You can pad your numbers right now with small bass by taking advantage of some early morning schooling action. Mike recommends a Bama rig or a popping cork with a small doll-fly. “Also, around midday once the sun gets up, there are a lot of fish hitting blue-pearl Senkos and drop-shot rigs along the bluffs,” Mike said. “For September, I expect the swim-bait bite to get stronger as fall approaches. Once the cooler temps get here the shad will start to migrate out of the main lake and back into the what’s left of the creeks, and the bass will follow them. Expect the Senko bite to become very strong in September as always. Whenever there is falling water, there are always fish around the bluff walls on Allatoona.”

Linesides: Fair for hybrids, great for white bass, said guide Robert Eidson. “We’re still catching hybrids — 10, 12, 14 fish a day if you work hard,” he said. Robert recommends the mid-lake from Kellogg Creek up to Stamp Creek. “The Allatoona Creek arm and Little River are dead right now,” he said. In the middle section of the main lake, fish right on the edge of the river channel either trolling single jigs up in the water column or with downrods 18 to 35 feet down, depending on where you’re marking fish. “The schools are real tightly bunched. If you get the downrods in the right place, you can quadruple, but the depths of the schools are varied.” Meanwhile, the small white bass are schooling all over on top. “Those 1/2-lb. to 1 1/4-lb. whites are coming up in big schools,” he said. Use popping corks with a Junior Fluke rigged on a 1/0 Octopus hook. “It’s all day long. It doesn’t matter if it’s sunny or cloudy,” Robert said.