West Point Fishing Report December 2011

West Point: Level: 11.5 feet below full pool. Temp: 64 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Fair. With lake levels well below normal winter pool, bass and fishermen alike may be a little confused at West Point right now. The standard fall and winter bites should be going on, but your standard hotspots might not be producing. They may be completely high and dry. Local angler Derek Yasinski likes throwing crankbaits this time of year. He’ll fish rip-rap or shallow rockpiles, where the water warms quicker, with a square-billed bait. If that doesn’t produce, he’ll back off and fish a littler deeper with a deeper-running model. Slower-moving baits like jigs or soft plastics can also be productive if the fish don’t want a crankbait. There should also be fish feeding on shad that have been reported in the mouths of the creeks. Find them on your graph, and also look for ditches running off into deeper water, humps and roadbeds. Deep-diving crankbaits can be pretty effective for winter fish on West Point. Chris Bell reports, “On windy days focus on throwing a spinnerbait with a 1/2-oz. double willowleaf silver blades with a white skirt on shoals mid lake. The best shoals will have some form of rock on them. Make long casts bringing the spinnerbait back a long way along these shoal markers. If wind is not present, slow down with a shaky head or football jig. Both are working in green-pumpkin colors.” See page 24 for a feature on Derek’s plan for fishing low-water on West Point in December.

Linesides: Good. Chris reports, “Hybrid and striper fishing is good. Trolling is really beginning to pick up as water temperatures have dropped and shad have begun stacking in the mouths of creeks, pockets and up the main river. The key is finding the bait right now. Once you locate shad, begin trolling medium-running crankbaits that dive from 10 to 12 feet in depth. The best colors are shad patterns.”

Crappie: Good. “Fish have finally pulled up into mid-depth brushpiles in 5 to 10 feet of water,” Chris said. “There will be multiple fish in each brushpile, so slowing down with live bait downlined below corks is working best. When shad migrate into pockets, look for the trolling bite to heat up.”