with Chandler Holt
Catch big largemouth and Coosa spots in grass or go a little deeper for them on ledges, points and bluffs. Both patterns will produce good limits of fish this month on Lay Lake on just about any bait you like to throw, so you have a lot of options right now.
Lay Lake is an Alabama Power lake on the Coosa River south of I-20, just downstream of Logan
Martin. The upper end is riverine but downstream there are big grass flats, shallow creeks and pockets and river ledges and bluffs to fish. It is a fertile lake and produces fat largemouth and spots with 20-pound tournament limits common.
Chandler Holt is a senior at Briarwood Christian
High School and has been on the fishing team for all four years there. His parents didn’t fish but have fully supported him after he got into tournament fishing. He started fishing farm ponds around his home but got hooked on bass fishing and tournaments, and his parents got him a boat when he was 16. His fishing team coach is Curtis Gossett and the team has done well.
Over the past ten years as a high school bass team coach, Curtis’s teams have won four state championships, one southeast championship and one national championship. His fishermen have placed third once and fourth three times in the national championship tournament.
During his time coaching, Curtis has had two BASS High School All Americans, including his son Zeke, a Jacksonville State senior fishing team member. At this year’s Bassmasters Classic, Zeke won the college championship on Lay on Sunday and got to weigh in on the Classic stage.
On Saturday, Chandler fished the high school championship on Lay and got to weigh in on the Classic stage, placing second just nine oucnes out of first place. Chandler has done well fishing at the high school level and just signed a scholarship with University of Montevallo to fish on that college team next year.
Although he is just starting his fishing career, he has had great support from his parents and coaching from Curtis, as well as studying everything he can find on-line about bass fishing, to make him and excellent young fisherman. He considers Lay Lake his home lake.
“Some big bass spawn in March, but most Lay largemouth spawn in April. Most spots spawn from mid-
March through April,” Chandler said. So right now you have some of both species post spawn and spawning, and many still on a pre spawn pattern. That gives you lots of options.
A wide variety of baits will work on all three patterns, but Chandler has his favorites. He loves to throw a swim jig, bladed jig and spinnerbait in grass, and flip a punch bait into it. For fishing bluffs and and open water areas, he will have a spinnerbait, a big worm Texas rigged, a big crankbait and a drop shot worm ready.
Chandler and Curtis took me fishing on Lay the first week of March, and it rained like it did every day then. The river current was fast and the lake was full and stained to muddy except back in some creeks. He was trying to find a good pattern for the highs school championship the following Saturday.
The following places were already good, producing two four-pound largemouth and a 3.5-pound spot as well as several more solid keeper bass in the five hours we fished. And while we fished Curtis’s son Zeke practiced for his College tournament on Sunday. He mostly fished the following bluff bank pattern and caught five spots weighing 20.17 pounds on his scales!
1. N 33 10.657 – W 86 31.141 – Put in at Beeswax Park and there is not need to crank your big motor. There is a good grass bed running along the bank downstream of the ramp and many released fish go to it and hold and feed there. We started here and Chandler quickly caught a 3.5-pound spot on a Z-Man Jackhammer, his favorite chatterbait. He was using a white bait with a silver blade in the muddy water. He will also throw black and blue in stained water but goes to a green pumpkin bait in clear water.
Fish from the ramp downstream, working all the grass. It looked dead, and Chandler said it might have been sprayed this year, but hopefully it will come back. Both largemouth and spots will hold and feed in this grass both pre and post spawn, and will spawn in the grass, too.
Hit any variation or transition in the grass like points, holes and cuts here and in all other grassbeds you fish. Try a swim jig and spinnerbait in the more open grass, and punch the thick places with a punch bait, especially on sunny days.
2. N 33 10.779 – W 86 30.771 – Across Beeswax
Creek a small island sits off the upstream point of a big cove. There is a huge house on the point with a rock seawall then a steep wall further back. Go back into the creek to about half-way between the house and garage behind it. Grass runs out from the seawall here that holds good fish.
Fish the grass on this side then work further back into the creek, hitting all the cuts, points and holes with swim jig, bladed jig and spinnerbait. We caught a long skinny largemouth here on a Z-Man Chatterbait that weighed about four pounds.
Chandler says he reels the Jackhammer along steadily then gives it little pauses and speeds it up, making it dart with an action the fish love. He also fishes a Dirty Jigs swim jig with a matching Baby Paca Craw on a Temple Fork Outfitters seven-foot three inch heavy action Pacemaker rod. You need the heavy rod to get the fish out of the grass. In stained to muddy water like we fished in most areas he likes a dark jig, but the water was much clearer back here and he used a white or bluegill color bait for it.
3. Go out to the long point running out from the left bank near the mouth of the creek and stop out from the Greek style gazebo on the bank. It looks like a big mushroom on pillars. The seawall running along this bank out to and around the point is an excellent feeding and staging area for bass moving in and out of the creek.
Keep your boat out a long cast from the bank and cast your baits right against it. Where the grass is thin, a spinnerbait or bladed jig is good. Chandler likes a white War Eagle bait with white blades in the muddy water but goes with something chartreuse and blue with silver blades in clear water.
Work around the point to the pocket on the downstream side. Hit the thick grass near it with your punch bait and swim jig. Fish the dock in the pocket, the downstream point of it and the grass on that side, too.
4. N 33 10.712 – W 86 30.242 – Go out to the river and look downstream. Green channel marker 39 sits way off the downstream point of Beeswax Creek and a good ledge with brush on it is upstream of it. Idle over the river ledge from even with the mouth of
Beeswax going downstream toward the marker to find the brush in 5 to 15 feet deep. Both pre and post spawn largemouth and spots hold in it this month.
Early in the day Chandler fishes the shallower brush but goes deeper as the sun gets bright. He stays off the brush and cast a 6XD crankbait in shad colors if he sees fish holding over the brush. If the fish are showing up down in the brush he uses a watermelon candy Ol’ Monster worm behind a three sixteenths to one half ounce sinker, a three sixteenths ounce shaky head or a drop shot worm to fish the brush.
Current moving through the brush helps the bite, as it does on all river places. Some breeze ruffling the surface of the water will help fishing everywhere. Try to cast up current and work your bait with the current in a natural movement way.
5. N 33 10.179 – W 86 29.705 – going down the river, Sally Branch enters on your right where the river channel swings to the left. Just downstream of the branch the bank is a steep rock bluff running downstream a couple hundred yards. At the end of the bluff it flattens out a little and has some grass on the edge just upstream of a small pocket.
Stop at the pocket and fish the wood cover and grass back in it, some fish will spawn in these small pockets. Then fish the rocky point on the upstream side, working a shaky head on it as well as a crankbait and spinnerbait. When the current is strong like it was the day we fished, largemouth will often pull inside the point out of the current while spots will stay on it in the current and feed.
If the current allows, come out of the pocket and work upstream, fishing the grass with swim jig, bladed jig and spinnebait. When you get to the bluff wall watch for little rock points, outcroppings that break the current. Cast a half ounce spinnerbait or jig and pig into these eddies.
This is a good pattern for big spots. Zeke caught most of his big limit doing this and had a five-pound spot. The current was so strong when we were here we went up almost up to the branch and let the current carry the boat downstream backwards, with Chandler pitching a black and blue jig into the eddy then Curtis, on the trolling motor, would hit it with his spinnerbait.
6. N 33 12.005 – W 86 29.303 – Going up the river past Bulley Branch on the left, red channel marker 48 sits off the right bank. Behind it is a flat running to the bank where a riprap point with grass on it is on the upstream point of a small cove.
Stop out from the marker and idle close enough to the point to fish it with your grass baits. Then work into the cove and fish there. Bass feed on the point pre and post spawn and move into to the cove to spawn. Largemouth will also pull back into the coved to get out of strong current, but spots will stay out in it and feed.
Chandler says the Jackhammer is worth its high cost because it has an action better than other similar baits. He says when he gives it a little jerk while working it through the grass it darts in an action that is irresistible to bass.
7. N 33 11.408 – W 86 29.892 – Across the river and downstream, the mouth of Bulley Creek has a ledge across it where bass hole both pre and post spawn. Green channel marker 43 is on the upstream end of this ledge but it runs across the mouth of the creek downstream.
Stop out in 20 feet of water and cast a big crankbait up into the mouth of the creek, bumping bottom with it from 12 feet deep out to the drop. Also fish it with your Ol’ Monster worm and shaky head. Chandler puts a black Trick worm on his three sixteenths ounce shaky head.
8. N 33 11.054 – W 86 29.891 – Going down the river past the mouth of Pope Branch, watch for a yellow and brown house on the upstream point of a small cove. Stop out from the point and you will see a private ramp in the cove behind the boat house. That ramp is actually the old road and you can see the bridge piling on the right bank. The roadbed is on a ridge that runs across the mouth of the cove and holds bass.
Stay a long cast out from the ramp and work across the cove, casting a shaky head, spinnerbait and jig and pig across the roadbed and point. Work it up the inside drop, across the top then down the outside drop.
9. 33 09.219 – W 86 29.175 – Run down the river to the mouth of Flat Branch on the right. Paradise Point Marina is back in it. The upstream point of the branch is a steep rocky point and there are two signs on it, one for the marina and one for land for sale. Both spots and largemouth hold on the point pre and post spawn.
Chandler says this is a “twofer” point. First you can fish the grass along the edge with your grass baits. Then you can work around the point with shaky head and jig and pig, targeting fish holding in seven or eight feet of water. There are big chunk rock on the bottom at that depth the spots love.
10. N 33 09.927 – W 86 29.060 – Going back up the river the right bank is steep and there is no development on it. Where it opens back to the right you will see some low brown buildings marking part of the Alabama 4-H Youth Development Center. Downstream of it a bluff bank runs out to a couple of small points on the river.
Depending on current, stop on the downstream point and fish it with crankbait, shaky head, jig and worm. Then work up the bluff, casting spinnerbait and jig and pig into eddies behind any protrusion on the bank. Rocks and blowdowns will break the current and offer a feeding spot for bass to hold.
If the current is strong, go up to the end of the bluff and fish it drifting backwards with the current, using your trolling motor to control speed and boat position.
Fish were hitting on these spots a few weeks ago, our best five from them weighed about 14 pounds. Zeke, fishing similar places, had 20 pounds. You can catch Lay Lake spots and largemouth like that for the next six weeks.