West Point Fishing Report – October 2009

West Point: Level: 1.3 feet above full pool. Temp: High 70s. Clarity: Stained to muddy with some clearer pockets in the creeks.

Bass: Good. Ken Bearden said the secret to West Point right now has been to find clear water. Pockets of trapped clear water are showing up in the middle of the creeks where stained water from the main lake is pushing back against stained water coming in from the creeks. Find these areas, and the largemouths are up very shallow on structure on the banks and in the cuts. Ken likes to throw a spinnerbait in these conditions, and he’ll also swim a jig. He likes a 3/8-oz. Bo’s Jig tipped with a Zoom Speed Craw in green pumpkin. Dye the claws chartreuse. If you want to swim it a little faster, go with a 1/2-oz. jig. There has also been a decent frog bite in the backs of cuts where trash has piled up. If you get hit, but can’t hook up with the frog, come back later with a spinnerbait or swim a jig.

Linesides: Tough. Bobby Wilson said strong current from the dam running continuously has messed up the patterns for the last week or so, but that the water should come back down in the next week. Once it does, the normal patterns should turn back on. Hybrids and stripers should bite downlined shad during the day following an explosive morning topwater bite. First thing in the morning, look for schooling fish from the pumping station down to the dam. The majority of the fish will be from the railroad trestle down. Bobby said to ease into the fish so as not to put them down. They will hit a popping-cork rig with a Thing Popper, a Pop-R, Rooster Tails or a Little George. Once the schooling bite dies down, look on the lower end of the lake on humps, roadbeds and flats in 20 to 25 feet of water. Drop shad to them, and catch all the hybrids you want. You can also catch linesides trolling the same types of areas with a Bandit 200 or 300 in white/chartreuse or a No. 7 Shad Rap in black/silver. Paul Parsons also points to an excellent down-lake bite. “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. Overcast mornings are usually best. Once the sun gets up, usually around 10 a.m., it starts slowing, but you should still be able to catch some fish in the same areas on live shad.”

Crappie: Tough. Same as for linesides, Bobby Wilson said high water has messed up the bite, but it should return to normal soon. Crappie should bite night or day on minnows fished around bridge pilings or brushpiles. He also said crappie will follow shad up into the creeks and a trolling bite will start. Troll a double 1/16-oz. jig rig with black/chartreuse jigs. Look for flickering shad, and troll right through them to load the boat.

Catfish: Tough. At presstime the river was blown out from the flooding rains, but the catfish bite should return to normal soon. Paul Parsons reports, “Blue and channel cats will be biting great all over the lake. The best bait is cut shad. Flathead catfish are biting great up the Chattahoochee River on live bait. Big flathead catfish are being caught from the Highway 219 bridge all the way up to above Franklin. The best bait is big gizzard shad, but bream are also good if you can’t get gizzards,” Paul said.