West Point Fishing Report – November 2009

West Point: Level: 0.6 feet below full pool. Temp: High 60s. Clarity: Slight stain, but clearing in the backs of some creeks.

Bass: Good. The bass are moving up to feed up on shad for the winter months, said Charlie Baldwin. He said to concentrate on wind-blown main-lake points, and throw medium-running crankbaits. He said he likes Bombers or Bandits, and he wants them to get down into 7 or 8 feet of water. Any crawdad or shad color will work. There has also been a pretty good frog bite in the backs of the pockets in grass flooded by the rising water level. Guide Paul Parsons said the bass are moving shallow. “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,” Paul said. “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, try fishing the blowdowns with Texas-rigs and jig ’n pigs.”

Linesides: Wide open, said Bobby Wilson. The hybrids and stripers are still downlake near the dam on flats and humps. They are feeding up on shad, and the bite has been very good. Look for them on your graph, or watch for schooling activity if the wind is down. The bite will only get better as the water temperature drops. Bobby said to find the suspended schools, and drop your bait a foot above the school. If they are on the bottom, give it two cranks off the bottom. Take a variety of bait in your tank. Some days the fish want small threadfin, and some days they want a 6- or 7-inch gizzard shad. If you don’t have a good bait tank, you can also catch these fish trolling crankbaits like a Shad-Rap or a Rat-L-Trap over the points and humps. Paul also reports a great downline bite on live bait. “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. There also has been a topwater bite first thing in the morning down near the dam, so you may want to have a popping-cork rig ready.”

Crappie: Smokin’, said Bobby. The crappie have moved up shallow, and they’re sometimes right up on the banks in blowdowns, and some are on brushpiles in 10 to 15 feet of water. For either bite, Bobby said he likes to fish a minnow under a cork, adjusting his depth to find the fish. You can also catch them trolling the backs of the creeks with a 1/16-oz. jig. John Deere green, acid rain and chartreuse/chartreuse are all good colors.