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West Point Lake
West Point is a great fishing lake, but it has undergone major changes in the past several decades. Once overly fertile because of Atlanta's upstream influence, environmental changes have reduced the flows of nutrients that once created pea-green waters and super largemouth bass fishing. The lake is clearer these days, and the less fertile waters are transitioning from largemouth to spotted bass. Bass fishing is still excellent, just more spotted bass are caught these days. Hybrid bass fishing is very good, especially during the famed spring run up the Chattahoochee River to Franklin. West Point is a man-made reservoir of 25,900 acres impounded by the West Point Dam, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
West Point Lake Resources
I don’t mind sharing with you that my focus is almost always catfish. And, my methods are almost solely toward big fish. Complete honesty… I want to catch the biggest fish in the lake! What is evident over the past two weekends is that the blue cats are most definitely in spawn. Their bite has indeed slowed quite a bit. I hear tell of a couple of monsters caught upriver. My guess is that water temperatures may still be a bit low in those parts. The flathead bite lasted a bit longer, but this weekend proved that they are also on the brink of going to the beds. For the next several weeks, your best bet for finding active, feeding catfish is going to be the main channel ledges where they will be traveling between feeding spots. Expect more “dinks” through the summer as most mature fish are laying…
Read MoreWest Point Lake Articles
Glenn Goodson casts a long shadow. He is a tower of a man who teaches at Callaway Middle School. In addition to his duties as a math teacher, he is a coach for the school’s baseball and football teams. On the water, he is quite a professor as well. His extensive knowledge of bass and…
Level: 5.7 feet below full pool. Temp: 86 degrees. Clarity: Clear down the lake and slightly stained upriver. Largemouth: Good said guide Paul Parsons.“Fish roadbeds, humps and shoal markers 10 to 20 feet deep with DD22s or big worms like a Zoom Ol Monster in green pumpkin or watermelon seed,” Paul said. “Fishing has been…
Donnie Hinkle was bass fishing on West Point Lake in October of 2003 when he witnessed something he’d never seen before; a school of gar began surfacing all around him. Donnie said he could hear their beaks slapping on the water’s surface and knew he had to catch one. He threw cast after cast with…
The Final 4 in the Skeeter Eliminator Series has been set. Tim Vanegmond and Butch Pitts won their Round 4 matchups earlier this month, sending home Walter Green and Jim Windham, respectively. At Lanier, Tim found a great topwater bite on the Little Hall bridge pilings. He threw a Red Fin in 80 feet of…
For catching plenty of crappie at Lake West Point, Yellowjacket Creek is all you need to know, says Jeff Key. Jeff, who travels regularly from his home in Milner to the lake, says he concentrates on one stretch of Yellowjacket no matter what the sea- son. The areas he fishes change little. From February through…
West Point Lake Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 14-lbs., 2-ozs. | Richard Little | 04/15/1988 |
| Spotted Bass | 6-lbs., 9-ozs. | Wendell Young | 02/07/1990 |
| White Crappie | 3-lbs., 14-ozs. | Willie Arnold | 02/15/1989 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 6-ozs. | Edward Cagle | 03/14/1996 |
| Hybrid Bass | 14-lbs., 12.75-ozs. | Dustin Pate | 03/13/2009 |
| Shoal Bass | 3-lbs., 7-ozs. | Danny Swafford | 08/02/1997 |
| Blue Catfish | 61-lbs. | Jerrimie Tolbert | 10/22/2022 |
| Flathead Catfish | 48-lbs. | Mike Felter | 08/22/2020 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 2.4-ozs. | Toney Booker | 11/18/2017 |
| Channel Catfish | 16-lbs., 7.5-ozs. | Owen Knabe | 4/22/2018 |
| Striped Bass | 40-lbs. | Mike Steele | 3/24/2024 |
| Shellcracker | 12.64-ozs. | Todd Garner | 05/06/2023 |
| Longnose Gar | 23-lbs. | April Waldrop | 07/21/2023 |
West Point Most-Read Articles
Many of our lakes and rivers are loaded with large, trophy-sized trash fish that no one really cares about fishing for because they are supposedly not that good to eat. Carp and gar are at the top of that list, and even if their taste and table quotient is questionable, they sure are sporting. Just…
There’s a reason tournament partners Earl Kitchens, of Gray, and Wayne Ard, of Lizella, drive halfway across Georgia to fish West Point Lake. The crappie fishing can be that good. And, in late February and early March, when the first waves of egg-heavy females begin pushing into the shallows to spawn, the fishing gets that…
In July, the days are often long and hot, and the lakes can be crowded with pleasure boaters. Conditions can be tough for bass fishermen. To lower your frustration and catch some fish, head to West Point Lake. The spotted bass and largemouths there feed even on the hottest days, and summer bassin’ at West…
There’s no doubt that amongst the beautiful scenery of West Point Lake there’s a huge population of hungry, eager and hard-fighting linesides. And, as the weather continues to warm this month, the action should only get hotter, according West Point Lake angler and part-time guide Todd Pursley. Now that the crowded spring striper and hybrid…