West Point Fishing Report – April 2006

West Point: Level: 3.0 feet below full pool. Temp: Low 60s. Clarity: The Chattahoochee River is muddy, the main lake has a light stain, and some of the creeks have a significant stain.

Bass: Guide Paul Parsons said the full moon should get the bass on the bed at West Point. Paul won the West Georgia Bass Club Team Tournament on West Point, Sunday, March 26, with a sack of bass that went over 16 pounds. Paul caught all his fish on a Carolina rig using green pumpkin and watermelon seed finesse worms. “The lake is filling up, so the pockets are getting some more water in them,” Paul said. “As it warms up, the fish are going to move to shallow water.” Paul said on cool days, throw a small crankbait like a Shad Rap. If the bass aren’t willing to chase a plug, fish points with a Carolina-rigged finesse worm. Paul likes to use a 1/2-oz. weight. Toward the middle of April, start throwing Texas rigs with a lizard, a Zoom Brush Hog, trick worms, or tubes. Back in the pockets, the water might be a little stained, but if you are around beds, you should catch bass. If you can see a fish on the bed, Paul said a split-shot rigged lizard can be deadly. He’ll also fish a weightless trick worm some. “When a bass is on the bed and that worm comes right over them, they’ll grab it a lot of times,” Paul said.

Hybrids: By the time you read this, Paul said the hybrids should be up the river, and the bite should be wide open. Paul said the fishing should be good from Potato Creek up to Franklin. Fish the mouths of creeks, sloughs, around sandbars, or on inside bends on the downstream side, with live shad or cut shad. Carolina rig the bait with a 1-oz. weight, a No. 2 Eagle Claw wide-gap hook and a two- to three-foot leader. “Fish the slow water,” Paul said. Guide Bobby Wilson agrees. “Find water that’s not moving quite so fast, and a lot of times that’s where the fish will be,” Bobby said. He says to use live bait and cut bait on the bottom as well. Bobby will look for flat areas near channel ledges where the current slows down.

Crappie: “The crappie ought to be tearing it up,” Bobby said. Bobby will fish with jigs and minnows in April. “If it stays warm, the fish will be up with the full moon.” Bobby will look for schools of crappie in water three- to six-feet deep, and he’ll troll with jigs or pitch minnows or jigs fished under corks to brush. Bobby said the trolling bite has been hot lately. “They have been biting good,” Bobby said. “And I’m talking big ones.” Bobby usually trolls with light jigs, like a 1/24- or 1/32-oz. model, but lately, he has been bottom-bumping with 1/8-oz. lead. “As it warms up, we’ll go back to the smaller jigs,” Bobby said. “Sometimes we’ll even fish a 1/16-oz. jig under a cork.”