West Point Fishing Report – April 2010

West Point: Level: 3.9 feet below full pool. Temp: Mid 50s to low 60s. Clarity: Muddy from Yellowjacket down, but the river is starting to clear.

Bass: Very good. Tim Vanegmond joked that he’s getting tired of Darrell Adams catching 25-lb. sacks and winning all the tournaments. The bite has been very good for prespawn fish. Even in the muddy water, big bass that have begun moving up can find a rattle bait. Tim said to fish a 1/2-oz. Rat-L-Trap in sexy shad one-half to three-quarters of the way into the pockets. These fish will also hit a spinnerbait, but Tim said he doesn’t know why you’d fish anything but a Rat-L-Trap. Red-clay banks are producing the best. In the next couple of weeks there should be a big move to the beds. Then it’ll be time to search for bedding fish with a Senko up in the creeks and on the banks. If he spots a bed, Tim will harass the fish with a Zoom Speed Craw Texas rigged on a 3/8-oz. weight with a 4/0 straight-shank hook. Paul Parsons reports, “The bass are going into prespawn and are starting to move in shallow, especially on warm, sunny afternoons. Look for largemouth and spotted bass to move into the backs of pockets with feeder creeks to feed on shad later in the day after the shallow water has warmed. The best bait to catch them on right now is a Rat-L-Trap. You should work it with a slow, sweeping motion, letting it flutter up and down. Most hits will come when it’s falling. Jerkbaits like Lucky Craft Pointers have also been working, using a slow stop-and-go retrieve.”

Linesides: Excellent. Paul reports, “Striped, hybrid and white bass have started their annual spring spawning run up the Chattahoochee River. Lots of nice stripers and hybrids are being caught right now. Good areas to fish toward the beginning of the run are along the sandbars and cuts, from just above Ringer Access all the way up to Brush Creek Park. The best way to catch them is fishing with live and cut shad on Carolina-rigs. If you can’t get any shad, they will also hit chicken liver. If you prefer fishing with artificial lures, bucktail and curly tail jigs are your best bet. This is by far the best time of the year to catch a boatload of stripers and hybrids.”

Crappie: Excellent. Paul reports, “Trolling jigs has been producing limits of crappie, with some nice slabs. Fishing has been best in the creeks from the railroad-trestle bridge north up to Ringer Access. Black/chartreuse and green/chartreuse jigs have been producing. Trolling for crappie should be good until they start moving shallow to spawn.”

Catfish: Good. Paul reports, “Blue and channel catfish are biting good all over the lake. The best bait is cut shad.” He said the fishing for flathead catfish is still slow due to the colder water temps, but it should start to improve soon.