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Lake Chatuge
Lake Chatuge is a TVA reservoir on the Hiwassee River that was created by the construction of Chatuge Dam, which was completed in 1942. The dam is located in western North Carolina, and the lake extends southeast into Georgia around the city of Hiawassee.
Lake Chatuge Resources
Chatuge: Level: 1.2 feet above 1925. Temp: 75-77 degrees. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Eric Welch, of Welch’s Guide Service, reports, “Fishing has been good. The topwater bite is picking up. On cloudy days, I like throwing a natural color, like bone or olive; on sunny days, I like pearl or chrome. My choice of baits are: Berkley 110 Cane Walker, Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr., Lucky Craft Gunfish and an Ima Stix. Areas that I’m going to be working these baits on are long points, main-lake flats and main-lake humps—areas that have access to deep water. Lake Chatuge fishes a lot like Lake Lanier, so you need to always keep a couple of topwater baits on the deck of your boat. There are a lot of offshore humps, brush and ditches where I will throw a shaky head, drop shot and Texas rig. Yes, if you’re using forward-facing sonar, the minnow baits…
Read MoreLake Chatuge Fishing Articles
It seems counterintuitive to go north in the winter to catch bass, but Lake Chatuge largemouth and spots are moving from winter holes to prespawn structure and cover, and they offer great catching opportunities. February is a good month to land your personal best largemouth or spot on Chatuge. Chatuge is a 7,000-acre, 13-mile-long TVA…
Lake Chatuge spotted bass are moving from spring spawning areas toward their summer holes. Also in late May and throughout June, the herring are finishing up spawning. The presence of these baitfish can stimulate feeding frenzies. You can intercept the spotted bass as they move out and have great catches if you hit it right.…
A high-school senior from Ellijay drowned when he tumbled overboard while duck hunting on Lake Chatuge just across the Georgia-North Carolina border on Nov. 18. Authorities said 18-year-old Trenton Daniel Johnson, a student at Gilmer High School, was attempting to retrieve a downed duck when he toppled headfirst into the water. His hunting partner, Carson…
A black crappie that weighed 2 pounds on the dot has set a new record for Lake Chatuge. Howard Stimis, of Hiwassee, was fishing on Chatuge April 6 when the big slab bit a 2-inch Hot Grub made by Crappie County Bait & Tackle that Howard purchased at Hammond’s Fishing Center near Lake Lanier. “I…
Lake Chatuge spotted bass are feeding heavily in January, eating shad and herring. They follow the same wintertime patterns as Lanier spots, and you can catch them on ditches and rocks. There is also a good largemouth bite at Chatuge after a heavy rain stains the rivers and creeks. Chatuge is a good choice…
Lake Chatuge Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 16-lbs., 11-ozs. | David Presely | 03/27/1976 |
| Smallmouth | 7-lbs., 2-ozs. | Jack Hall | 03/28/1973 |
| Spotted Bass | 6-lbs., 13.8-ozs. | James Dean | 10/11/03 |
| Hybrid Bass | 25-lbs., 8-ozs. | David C. Hobby | 05/01/1995 |
| Walleye | 9-lbs., 4-ozs. | Carol Owenby | 04/07/1991 |
| Black Crappie | 2-lbs., 3-ozs. | Dillon Phillips | 03/31/24 |
| Rainbow Trout | 2-lbs., 8.5-ozs. | Walker Ross | 06/23/2012 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 2.24-ozs. | Mark McClure | 04/19/2021 |
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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.
Allatoona Links
Temp: 74-80 degrees. Clarity: 5 feet. Bass: Tournament angler Matt Driver reports, “To me, it seems like the water temperature is a little slow to warm compared to most years in the past, likely due to rain and a few cold fronts. We’re now at the tail end of the shad spawn. The bass are on the move, and shad is the primary forage. Bass are holding on main-lake points, and later in the month, brush will be the key to finding better size. I’m using a three-fold approach: a jig, a jerkbait and a jig-head minnow with FFS. Where I find fish positioning on brush or rocks depends on which approach I’m taking. We’ve been seeing fish scattered on cloudy days and buried up in the brush on sunny days. A jerkbait and jig-head minnow are what I’m typically using on overcast days. As they bury up in the brush on…
Read MoreLake Allatoona Fishing Articles
For about 18 years, Pat Ratanajantra has fished Lake Allatoona. These days, his reputation on the lake is for being an excellent jigging-spoon fisherman for linesides — white bass, hybrids and stripers. And unlike most fishermen, a jigging spoon is Pat’s go-to bait year round. “Most people associate jigging spoons with wintertime and vertical jigging…
Mark Massey and Steven Phillips are both one win away from a guaranteed check for $1,000. Both anglers won their first-round matches in The Eliminator Series and look forward to round two, which will take place in the early fall. The Eliminator Series is GON’s head-to-head elimination bass tournament where the winner takes home $2,500…
Like many Georgians, I have been fishing as long as I can remember. Heck, my grandfather was king of the pay-lake catfishermen as far as I knew. I have been blessed with good friends and an experimental streak of my own, allowing me to discover the joys of catching everything from redbreasts to redfish with…
On a windy Wednesday evening in mid-September, we were nestled under the Kellogg Creek bridge at Lake Allatoona. We had planned to fish the following Saturday, but Hurricane Ivan was due to arrive on Thursday and the lake was likely to be unfishable by Saturday. Lyndon Kolb, Cy Grajcar, Gary Holt and I had come…
The day on Lake Allatoona was perfectly suited for duck hunting. A storm had dumped two inches of rain across much of the state for the previous day and a half, and the low, slate-gray clouds overhead continued to open intermittently during the trip. The weatherman had predicted temperatures in the 40s, but I must…
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 | ||
| Redbreast | 10-ozs. | Dan Huizinga | 08/03/24 |