West Point Fishing Report – October 2008

West Point: Level: Full pool. Temp: High 70s to low 80s. Clarity: Clear; light stain in the backs of the creeks.

Bass: Tournament angler Micah Frazier said it’s pretty tough at West Point for bass right now, but you can still catch some fish by targeting deep roadbeds. He recently fished all the roadbeds between Highland Marina and the railroad trestle that top out between 10 and 20 feet and did pretty well for numbers on a Carolina-rigged Baby Brushhog in green pumpkin. He said he did catch a couple good-sized fish, but most of the bass were small. He also said to crank a DD22 on those same roadbeds. Use chartreuse blue for stained water or a more natural shad pattern for clear water. Micah said he’s looking forward to the drop in water temperature that should come this month. With a few cool nights, the fish should move up shallow, and a buzzbait, Spook or spinnerbait fished in the morning around shallow cover in any of the upriver pockets should produce. He said to look for wind to concentrate the shad and to fish around the bait. Micah said you can also catch some spotted bass around the rip-rap or bridge pilings with a shaky-head finesse worm in a green pumpkin or similar color.

Linesides: Excellent. Guides Bobby Wilson and Paul Parsons both said the hybrids and stripers are biting well down the lake on humps, flats, roadbeds and areas of standing timber. They both said to try downlining live shad on these fish. Good humps and flats to fish are the railroad trestle hump, the flats at the mouths of Wilson Creek, Wehadkee Creek, Alligator Creek and Indian Creek and the humps at the mouth of Maple Creek, said Paul. Bobby said to look for schooling on cloudy or rainy days. He said the schooling activity lasts all day when it’s overcast. “Hybrids have been ranging from 4 to 6 pounds, stripers 8 to 9 pounds on popping corks and 1/2-oz. red-headed jigs with white 3-inch curly tails. You can also catch these fish on 1/2-oz. Rat-L-Traps, 1/4-oz. white Rooster Tails, 1 1/4-oz. jigging spoons and Little Georges,” Bobby said. “Fish are coming up from Wehadkee Creek to the dam. Fish are also being caught on 200 series Bandits and No. 7 Shad-Raps trolling in the mouths of the creeks and river channel.These fish should continue to school into October and move back onto the flats and roadbeds down the lake. Trolling for these fish in October gets better as the water temp comes down.”

Crappie: Good. “We’re still catching fish on the bridge pilings and brushpiles in the creeks,” Bobby said. “Fish are running about a half-pound to a pound-and-a-quarter, just good eating fish. In October these fish will pull out to the middle of the creeks and start feeding on the schooling shad. Try trolling 1/16-oz. Jiffy Jigs and 3-inch curly tails with 1/16-oz. jig heads, and the result should be a good mess of fish.” Paul said the night fishing is still good with Hydro Glow lights under the bridges using minnows. “You can catch crappie under any of the bridges on West Point, but the best ones are the 109 bridge, the railroad trestle and the Cameron Mill bridge on Yellow Jacket Creek,” Paul said. “If you want to avoid the crowds, some other good bridges are up Wehadkee Creek and the bridge in Maple Creek.”

Catfish: Good. Paul said big flatheads are still biting live bream, gizzard shad and crappie up the Chattahoochee River near Franklin. He says they’ve been catching 10-lb. to 20-lb. fish, with a few bigger than that. Some good blues and channels are biting on the main lake down by the dam at night.