West Point Fishing Report – December 2006

West Point: Level: 2.8 feet below full pool. Temp: 57-58 Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Fair. “It’s real tough right now after the first few cold fronts blew through,” said guide Paul Parsons. Spotted bass were biting on main-lake points in good numbers, but even though the fish were fighting unusually hard, the average size was small. Paul is catching them using Carolina-rigged finesse worms, and said they should be following the same pattern into early December. In the afternoons, when the shad move into the backs of the creeks, Paul said the largemouth bite should heat up. He suggested cranking a 1/4-oz. Rat-L-Trap around schooling baitfish to pick up a few largemouths. “Find the bait, and you should find the fish,” he said. The spoon bite for largemouths and spots should pick up on into December. “The spooning pattern should get real good as it starts cooling off,” Paul said. “They were catching them in November, but it should start getting really good on into December, and that will stay good all winter, especially when the shad start dying.” A 1/4-oz. white Flex-it spoon jigged in 15 to 25 feet of water around main-lake humps and flats should be the ticket.

Linesides: Paul said hybrids can be caught right now using the same spooning technique he described for bass. He also said they are taking live bait down the lake on humps and flats. “You can catch some over standing timber at about 15 feet, but you get hung up a lot,” he said. “It’s time for the striper bite to pick up big time,” said guide Bobby Wilson. He suggested downlining threadfin or gizzard shad in 25 to 35 feet of water on humps and points. He also said trolling Rat-L-Traps or Bandits is a good way to pick up a few stripers or hybrids this time of year. “You just got to go down there and go looking,” Bobby said.

Crappie: Bobby said he isn’t catching many, but they are big. Downlining small shad in 15 to 20 feet of water in tree tops and brushpiles has been producing crappie from 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 pounds for Bobby. “You’ve got to keep moving your bait to where they want it, then lock it in,” he said. You can pick up a few crappie in a mixed bag using the same spooning technique as described for bass and hybrids, Paul said.