Lake Allatoona Fishing Report – September 2010

Allatoona: Level: 1.1 feet below full pool. Temp: High 80s to low 90s. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Tough. Mike Bucca reports, “Fishing is fairly tough for spots. If you can choose between fishing at night and during the day, fish at night. Your best bet is to fish brush. More specifically, fresh brush. Drop shots, underspins (Road Runners) and spoons are doing well. Also, weedless Screwball rigs are my go-to rig for fishing brush. Start off by casting at it with your underspin. Try to pick off the fish suspended above the brush before moving in to fish the brush vertically. Best brush depths are about 25 to 30 feet. Just rotate through your GPS coordinates, and hit as many brushpiles as you can. You’re doing good if you can get three fish per pile, but usually one or two fish is the norm. The other option is to find some schooling fish. This pattern is more luck than skill, but there are some active schooling fish in certain areas. It’s typically a first-light bite and lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on cloud cover. I’m throwing 5-inch Bull Shad swimbaits, Splash-Its and Senkos for these fish. When they go down, keep an eye on your sonar and have a spoon ready. For September — unless it cools off — I would expect much the same as in August due to the heat. Keep a close eye on your electronics, especially off the ends of long points and on the channel ledges in the mid lake. Try fishing the ends of points in the 25- to 30-foot range with drop shots and 1/2-oz. spoons.”

Linesides: Good. Robert Eidson said the striper bite is slow, but there is a great early and late schooling bite for white bass and hybrids in the 2- to 3-lb. range. Robert said the fish are coming up in quarter-acre schools to bust 2-inch threadfin on the north and south ends of the lake. On the north end, look in the Little River, Delta and S-turn area, and look on the south end from Bethany Bridge down to Tanyard and Clark creeks. The morning schooling bite lasts from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., and then the fish will start up again from about 7:15 p.m. until dark. Fish Rooster Tails, Fluke Jr. and Zara Pups. When you’re fishing these baits, light 6- to 8-lb. test line is extremely important.