West Point Fishing Report – December 2009

West Point: Level: 1.9 feet below full pool. Temp: Low 60s. Clarity: Heavily stained, but clearing.

Bass: Good. Micah Frazier said the largemouths should be up shallow following the shad and busting bait in the backs of the pockets. He said now is a good time to target them with numerous baits, from shallow-running crankbaits to spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits. Look for any type of wood or rock cover or a channel swing next to the banks. Fish a small, shallow-running crankbait, like a Shad-Rap or a Bandit 200, in natural-shad colors. A Rat-L-Trap is also a good choice. For the spinnerbait, Micah likes a white Buckeye bait. He’ll fish double willowleaf blades in stained or clear water. He will change to tandem willowleaf/Colorado blades in muddy water, and he’ll also throw in a little chartreuse in dingy water. Especially in muddy-water conditions, a Chatterbait will catch fish anywhere a spinnerbait will. Fish a white or white/chartreuse Chatterbait, and trailer it with a white Zoom Speed Craw. The spotted bass can be caught on a green-pumpkin shaky head fished on brushpiles on main-lake points. This bite is better downlake. Paul Parsons also reported a good bass bite. He said, “Bass are moving in shallow with the cooling water temps. There has been a good topwater bite first thing in the morning. We have been catching a lot of spots and some good largemouths back in the pockets on Pop-Rs. Bass are also biting good on the old roadbeds and around shoal markers. Most of the old roadbeds and shoal markers have brush on or around them. There has also been some good topwater action for spotted bass down around the dam. After the topwater bite slows down, fish the blowdowns with Texas-rigged.”

Linesides: Good. Bobby Wilson said the water is so muddy and covered with debris right now that running can be dangerous, but he’s had some luck trolling wherever he can find water clean enough that he can pull his baits. He said some of the creeks, like Wehadkee, Stroud and Veasey, are clearer than the rest. Bobby likes to put out a spread of four No.7 to No. 9 Shad Raps, and he’ll fish them 40 to 60 feet behind the boat at a slow troll over humps, roadbeds and timber. He’s catching a mixed bag of stripes, white bass, hybrids and spots, with the biggest fish weighing in around 8 or 9 pounds. Paul reports, “Striped, hybrid and white bass are now biting good down on the main lake on live shad. Good areas to try are the railroad hump, the flats around the mouths of Wehadkee Creek and Indian Creek and the humps in the mouth of Maple Creek.”

Crappie: Very good. Before the rains, the crappie were biting like crazy, and Bobby said they’ll be back as soon as things settle down some. The fish are in 8 to 12 feet of water on brushpiles and blowdowns in the creeks. They’re taking minnows, and they’re also hitting jigs. Bobby said chartreuse is the color of choice for stained water, but if it clears up some, the fish will hit a pearl/white or black/blue jig. The fish people have been catching have been good eating-sized fish, from 3/4 of a pound up to 1 1/2 pounds.