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Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona is a 12,010-acre reservoir in the north Atlanta suburbs located primarily in Bartow and Cherokee counties. The major tributaries are the Etowah and Little rivers and Allatoona and Stamp creeks, although numerous other creeks flow into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundment. Allatoona is known as a good lake for catching numbers of spotted bass, and it's also known for good striped bass and hybrid bass. Allatoona is a very busy lake for recreational boaters during the summer, when many bass anglers opt to fish at night.
Lake Allatoona Map
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Allatoona: Level: 1.2 feet above 840. Temp: 66-72 degrees. Clarity: Clear to a light stain. Bass: Tournament angler Matt Driver reports, “Fishing for the month of May is great. This month bass are postspawn and keying on shad and the shad spawn. The shad spawn occurs at night and usually ends shortly after daybreak. Threadfin typically spawn on hard surfaces, like rock and rip-rap. Blueback herring will spawn on red clay banks. During these times, fishing a jerkbait and walking-style topwater bait is the way to go. Fish are super aggressive and feeding up. Once the shad spawn bite is…
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Despite Hurricane Michael sweeping across most of south and central Georgia, the 2018 Georgia Kayak Bass Fishing State Championship was held Oct. 13-14 on the Etowah River and Lake Allatoona. The two-day tournament hosted 40 anglers representing four clubs—Chattahoochee Kayak Anglers (West Point/Columbus), East Central Georgia Kayak Anglers (Augusta/East Georgia), Peach State Kayak Anglers (Atlanta/Statewide) and…
On Saturday, Sept. 29, Wildlife Action of Georgia hosted a fishing day for about 25 girls on Lake Allatoona. The American Heritage Girls, a national development organization for girls aged 5 to 18 that embraces Christian values and encourages family involvement, were taught how to bait their hooks, catch and clean fish by Mike Chastain,…
As summer hits us Georgians in full force this month, you can bet anywhere you decide to fish it’s going to be hot, and I mean hot. About the only thing in the northern portion of our state that you can expect to be hotter than the sweltering daytime highs is the striper fishing. As…
For many years, Lake Allatoona has been jokingly referred to as “The Dead Sea.” Some anglers will recount stories of frustrating days on the lake with little or no bites. Having never visited Allatoona, I wondered if the rumors surrounding the lake were true. I joined Jason Mullinax, a Cartersville native, who serves as a…
Bob Geresti didn’t expect his last-minute decision to go fishing one afternoon on Lake Allatoona to result in catching a rare breed of trout. A tiger trout—a cross between a brook and a brown trout—is a rare find in any Georgia lake, and until now one has never been documented from Lake Allatoona. The fish was…
Allatoona Lake Records
| Largemouth Bass | 16-lbs., 9-ozs. | Greg Rymer | 08/31/82 |
| Spotted Bass | 7-lbs., 11-ozs. | George Clark | 11/18/74 |
| Hybrid Bass | 13-lbs., 9.5-ozs. | Danny Alsobrook | 02/07/90 |
| Striped Bass | 42-lbs. | Clint Hight | 02/15/02 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 7.36-ozs. | Corey Harmon | 03/05/22 |
| White Bass | 3-lbs., 2-ozs. | Darrell Baxter | 05/15/94 |
| Flathead Catfish | 35-lbs., 10.88-ozs. | Sandy Sanders | 06/20/08 |
| Blue Catfish | 52-lbs., 1-oz. | Aaron Churchwell | 10/27/20 |
| Tiger Trout | 2-lbs., 12.8-ozs. | Bob Geresti | 02/01/18 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 1.44-ozs. | David Brewer | 12/02/23 |
| White Crappie | 3-lbs., 4.24-ozs. | Cody Hopkins | 02/10/22 |
| Longnose Gar | 27-lbs., 4-ozs. | Caleb McClure | 06/24/23 |
| Shellcracker | 2-lbs., 5-ozs. | Dan Huizinga | 04/20/24 |
Etowah River Records
| Largemouth Bass | 7-lbs., 7.68-ozs. | Eric Black | 01/27/2016 |
| Flathead Catfish | 38-lbs., 0.8-ozs. | John Morgado | 05/17/2022 |
| Blue Catfish | 50-lbs. | Seth Shoults | 04/21/23 |
| Striped Bass | 38-lbs. | Keith Cole | 05/1994 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 10.2-ozs. | Eric Black | 01/14/2015 |
| Longnose Gar | 19-lbs., 4.64-ozs. | Kyle Williams | 08/08/2018 |
| Spotted Bass | 4-lbs., 0.5-ozs. | Jackson Sibley | 03/21/2022 |
| Rainbow Trout | 2-lbs. | Todd West | 10/01/2020 |
| Channel Catfish | 7-lbs. | Seth Shoults | 04/21/23 |