West Point Fishing Report – January 2007

West Point: Level: 6.8 feet below full pool. Temp: Low- to mid-50s. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Fair. West Point guide Paul Parsons warns that with the water down so low, boating can be treacherous, with unmarked obstacles being a concern for boaters who don’t know the lake. He said the largemouth aren’t biting too well right now except on jigging spoons on the main-lake flats and humps. A white 1/4-oz. Flex-it spoon will produce some fish. However, Paul is catching some nice spotted bass, right now. “While fishing for hybrids, we’ve been catching quite a few spots on live bait,” he said, “really nice spots, in the 2- to 3-lb. range.” The fish are holding near the bottom in 25 to 40 feet of water, and they’re biting downlined live bait.

Linesides: Good. “There’s a lot of big schools of shad 20 to 25 feet deep, and the fish are hanging down underneath them,” Paul said. He is catching mixed bags of hybrids and spots downlining shad, and he is also catching some of the stripers that were stocked a few years ago. “They’re dropping a lot of them in there, and they’re growing fast, too,” Paul said. “We’re going to have some really good striper fishing as soon as they get bigger. People need to be putting those baby stripers back.” Paul and guide Bobby Wilson both said they are picking up hybrids in the 1- to 5-lb. range trolling either Rat-L-Traps or No. 7 Rapalas. “Trolling is a good bet right now, if you can’t catch any shad,” Paul said. “I caught 15 fish in about 30 minutes of trolling last week (December 11-15).” Rat-L-Traps in chrome/blue or crawfish, and Rapalas in natural shad or black/silver are both catching fish trolled at about 12 feet deep. The fish are hanging below the bait in the creek and main-river channels. Paul said he has caught fish recently at White Water, Half-moon, Yellow Jacket and Turkey creeks. “There are also big concentrations of fish and bait fish around the pumping stations on the main Chattahoochee River channel above Highland Marina,” Paul said.

Crappie: Fair. Bobby said the crappie are taking one- to three-inch grubs in black/chartreuse with a 1/16-oz. red jig head or flies around the mouths of the creeks right now. “We’re getting them trolling as slow as we can move,” he said. The fish are holding above structure eight to 12 feet deep.