West Point Lake Record Striped Bass

A new lake record for striped bass on West Point Lake was set on May 24, 2009 when Daniel Eldridge boated a 35-lb., 8-oz. fish. Daniel, who lives in Thomaston, said he was fishing with a cut bait — a bream — when the big striper hit.

West Point was traditionally a very good hybrid bass lake, producing awesome catches of hybrids in the mid 1990s. The state fishery agencies then began a push toward native fish, and hybrids were phased out from West Point stocking programs in favor of stocking Gulf strain striped bass from 2007 to 2010.

In a lake where many thought it got too warm in the summer months for striped bass to do well, West Point has produced some good-sized stripers. Many of the West Point stripers make a summer run up the Chattahoochee River all the way to trout waters north of Atlanta, presumably in search of that cooler, well-oxygenated water they need. In 2011, Georgia again began stocking hybrids in West Point, albeit far fewer than were stocked in the 1990s and early 2000s.