Lake Burton Fishing Report October 2014

Burton: Level: Full pool. Temp: 73 degrees. Clarity: Slight stain. The lake is turning over.

Bass: Guide Wes Carlton reports, “The bass are biting sporadically. The early morning largemouth bite around the shoreline brush and timber is great. We have been catching the bigger fish on plastic swimbaits and hard-jointed swimbaits in the 6-inch range in herring or yellow-perch colors. This bite is usually over around 9 a.m. We have been moving out over main-lake points and humps around 9 a.m. This seems to be where the biggest concentrations of spotted bass are. Last week, we dropped an underwater camera down on a 26-foot bottom, and to our surprise saw hundreds of spotted bass in the 2- to 3-lb. range. This was exciting with the exception that we were not catching these fish. This past week these fish started feeding a little. The peak feeding time for most of these schooling spots has been midday/afternoon. We have been catching most of these fish on white jerkbaits and chrome Super Spooks. Once you get the school excited, they all come to investigate. Look for the topwater bite to really pick up over the next few weeks as these fish will start pulling up shallower.”

Brown Trout: Wes reports, “The brown trout are concentrated on the south end of the lake. They are holding on a 50-foot bottom. Most of the schooling fish (1 to 2 pounds) are on the move. These younger fish are migrating back and forth up and down the main-lake channels. They seem to be sticking close to the blueback herring schools. Try scanning the surface for these fish early in the mornings. We have been able to cast a small Little Cleo spoon or a Super Fish Spin with a small fluke and have had good success. Using live bait on these schooling fish has not been productive due to the amount of water they are covering chasing the bait. The trolling bite has been producing the bigger fish. We have been trolling Lucky Craft Pointers in herring colors 20 feet deep at 2.6 mph. This pattern should continue to be successful for the next several weeks until the water temps fall into the upper 60s.”