with Brian Randall
September can be a mean month for bass fishermen. The water is as hot as it gets all year and the oxygen content is at its lowest level. Bass are often sluggish and not feeding much. But some lakes like Logan Martin give us a chance to have good catches even now.
Built in 1965 by Alabama Power on the Coosa River east of Birmingham, Logan Martin is 48.5 miles from dam to headwaters and has 15,263 acres of water filled with river ledges, grass beds and docks. Water releases and power generation at the Logan Martin dam as well as from the Neely Henry dam upstream create current that helps make the bass feed.
There is a good population of largemouth in the lake but spotted bass seem to dominate tournament catches. In the BAIT survey for 2007 Logan Martin ranked first in percent of angler success and third in bass and pounds landed per angler day. The average bass weight and hours to catch a bass over five pounds ranked 19th. So expect to catch a lot of keeper bass but bigger bass are harder to come by on Logan Martin.
Brian Randall grew up in Tuscaloosa and is a fire fighter there now. He is also sales manager of Grammer Marine in Vance and sells Champion, Blazer and Express boats on the days he is not on duty at the fire station. He has fished Logan Martin all his life.
In the mid 1990s a friend got Brian started tournament fishing and he has done well. In 2001 he won the Neely Henry BFL and the Bama Division point standings for the year. In 2002 he fished the Stren Series and finished 8th in his first tournament on that trail and then finished 15th at Eufaula after leading on day two. He got married the next year and took a year off from tournament fishing but is getting back into it now, fishing the Dixie BFLs, where he is in 10th place overall for the year, and the Grammer Marine trail.
Brian took me fishing on Logan Martin the last day of July, showing me how to catch bass there. He said the bass are on their summer patterns from now on through most of September and you can catch them on ledges, brush piles and docks. Near the end of September the bass will follow the shad back into the creeks and coves but you can still follow them and land them from docks and grassbeds.
Logan Martin is a very versatile lake where you can always catch bass shallow, according to Brian. The abundant cover and shallow structure mean bass don’t have to go real deep and current helps keep them in easier to fish areas. From now to the end of September Brian expects to catch bass 10 to 15 feet deep during the day on ledges. He also catches fish on top early each morning and around docks during the day. Those three patterns will serve you well.
For topwater fishing Brian had a Spook, Jr., a Rico popper or a buzzbait tied on. He fishes them around grassbeds, rocks and docks until the sun get on the water. Cloudy days will hold the fish shallow longer and fish will hit topwater around docks later than they will on open grassbeds or rocks.
For ledge fishing Brian likes a big crankbait like a Norman or Poes. For the shallow ledges 10 to 12 feet deep he goes with a Deep Little N then switches to a DD 22N for deeper fish. He says the Poes is a forgotten crankbait that will still catch bass and he likes it on the more shallow ledges. All his crankbaits are shad colored with gray backs, like the citrus shad or gray ghost. The gray back is a key for all his crankbaits.
Crankbaits are thrown on 10 pound P-Line spooled on a bait casting reel. All his rods are Castaway Rods, one of his sponsors. He makes long casts and the 10 pound line helps the plug get down deeper.
A Castaway spinning rod with a reel spooled with eight pound PLine Fluorocarbon line is kept ready with a shaky head jig and a Net Bait worm for fishing brush when the fishing is tough. He will also throw the shaky head around docks.
Sometimes the fish on the ledges just don’t seem to want a crankbait and Brian will throw a Net Bait worm on a Caroliana rig to them. He will also keep a football head jig ready to drag on the ledges for those tough days.
The following ten spots will hold bass for you this month. Brian and I fished them and caught about 15 bass, all but two were spots. Brian’s best five that day weighed 13.5 pounds and included a 4 pound, 1 ounce spot. We quit early in the afternoon and missed some of the good bite, but it was still a very good day.
1. N 33 31.765 – W 86 17.015 – In Cropwell Creek the peninsular that separates the cove at Lakeside Landing and the creek itself is a good place to start early in the morning. Run around to the creek side and you will see a series of seawalls and small coves. Start fishing on the point between the creek and the cove in front of the brown house with a weather vane on top and work up the creek side at the seawall.
This rock seawall runs along the bank and there are rocks out from it. You will fish a variety of seawalls, docks and cuts with some grass. Fish all the way up to the point that runs way out, Be sure to cast your topwater right to the seawall and work it out. When you got to grassbeds throw a buzz bait in them, working all through them. Fish along the outside edges of docks, too.
2. N 33 30.862 – W 86 17.767 – Run down past the opening to the river, staying inside the creek, and watch on your right for a long dock running upstream on a point. The dock is on an island that has a causeway to it and is in front of a white cabin with a screen porch and a chain link fence. Start on the back side of the island near the causeway and work toward the point, casting topwater right on the bank. Fish this side, hitting the docks there and the brush in the water. Work around the point and fish the dock on it.
As you round the point you will see a big cement ramp. Fish it and then start working the docks down this bank. We missed several fish here and Brian got a solid spot that weighed just under three pounds and I got a two pound keeper spot. We also saw some schooling fish here.
The first dock past the ramp has a lot of brush around it. Fish over it with topwater and work on down the bank until the fish quit hitting on top. Fish between the docks, casting near the bank and working back along the edges of the docks. Be sure to cast to any rock or grass on the bank between the docks.
After fishing the docks go back to the brush around the first dock and try your shaky head or Carolina rig. Brian likes a light jig head to work through the brush without hanging up, and be ready to set the hook and reel hard to get the fish out of the brush.
3. N 33 32.202 – W 86 16.522 – Head to the back of Cropwell creek and you will see some ball fields right in the back. To the left of the fences you will see a roadbed entering the water. That roadbed runs down the creek and makes a perfect ledge with cement rubble on top. Brian runs back to the little island on the left across from the area they are clearing for a new subdivision on the right bank and starts fishing.
You will see two danger markers ahead of you, toward the back of the creek. Keep your boat on the outside of the roadbed in about 10 feet of water and work toward the back of the creek. Stay where you can cast all the way across the roadbed and bring your bait up one side, across the top and down the other.
Brian fished a Norman’s Deep Little N here and warned you will get hung a lot on the rubble from the road. He keeps a spark plug with a clip on it to drop down his line to shake the plug loose and also keeps a Hound Dog type plug knocker with short small ropes on it to run down his line to pull his plug off hang-ups.
I caught a two pound spot on a Texas rigged worm here and Brian got a slightly bigger spot on his crankbait the day we fished. Both of us missed several hits but we did not stay very long.
4. N 33 29.720 – W 86 14.641 – Run out of Cropwell Creek and head up the river. Go through the big “S” bend past Powell’s Campground and watch for another area that is being cleared for a new subdivision on your left. In front of it is a cove with an island on the upstream side. Stop out off the downstream point of this island in about 21 feet of water. A ledge runs along the island and the downstream side of the point and comes up to about 14 feet deep. Stay out and cast up on top of the ledge and work a deep running crankbait, Carolina rig or football head jig back down the drop.
This ledge is a hard clay bottom without much cover on it so you won’t get hung up much. Fish from the middle of the cove upstream until you are even with the island. Make very long cast so your bait has a chance to get down deeper. You need to hit bottom for the best results, and Brian will sweep his rod when his plug hits bottom, making it dig along and draw a strike.
Brian likes to sit deep and cast up shallow on all the ledges he fishes. He is looking for active fish that have moved up to feed and thinks he does better fishing in that direction. He says he is also less likely to get hung up fishing from shallow to deep.
5. N 33 30.353 – W 86 13.605 – Heading upstream around the next bend you will see the bridge ahead of you, a house on a steep cleared hillside with a big cement wall between it and the water on your right, and a small creek entering on your right upstream of the house. A roadbed crosses the mouth of this creek, creating a ledge, and it has concrete rubble on it from the old bridge or a house foundation.
Stay out in 20 feet of water and cast up onto the roadbed that tops out about eight feet deep. Brian will break off rather than go get his bait in a tournament because he feels getting on top of the shallow water spooks the fish. If you need to get your bait, or if you want to idle over the spot to see how it looks, it is a good idea to leave and come back later to fish it.
6. N 33 33.732 – W 86 10.774 – Run up into the mouth of Choccoloco Creek, staying in the channel past the islands on your left. Straight ahead is a steep bank where the creek runs right by the shore on and outside bend. There is a big house up on the hillside with several turrets and roof pinnacles. There are some big white rocks on the bank on the left side when you are facing it and granite riprap on the right. Stop out in front of this house.
Here you want to fish the ledge on the inside bend of the creek channel. Keep your boat in the channel and throw your baits downstream toward the river. There is a shallow point just to your left if you are facing out from the big house and dock and you will be casting up into about 12 feet of water while sitting in 25 feet.
Work all along this ledge. Brian keeps a marker buoy on the edge of his casting deck and kicks it over the side as soon as he hooks a bass to mark the spot. That way he can go back to the exact same spot. That is important because bass stack up on these ledges in small areas and you should catch several anywhere you get one.
Brian told me he caught a bunch of 1.5 pound fish here in the recent BFL and finally just gave up and left biting fish because they were not culling anything he had. He caught three here on crankbaits the day we fished, all about 1.5 pounds.
7. N 33 33.533 – W 86 10.215 – Go up the creek around the bend and the creek runs straight for a long way. Stop about even with the point on your left out in 25 feet of water and start casting toward the bank on that side, fishing up the creek. You will be downstream of a white house with red shutters. There are a lot of stumps along this creek ledge.
Work up the creek, casting up into six feet of water. Brian says he thinks this was the area some of the pros caught fish in a big tournament and he landed the 4 pound, 1 ounce spot here. It hit his Deep Little N crankbait.
Fish all the way up to the last dock on the point where the creek makes a bend again. This is over 200 yards of ledge to fish and they may be holding anywhere along it. You will get hung up on all the stumps but they are why the fish are here.
Brian will start fishing this ledge and others making casts across it at a 90 degree angle. Then, especially if he catches a fish or two, he will move in and change the angle he is fishing a little, casting up or down the ledge and coming across it at a different angle to show the fish something a little different. This will often trigger more strikes.
8. N 33 34.451 – W 86 12.834 – Heading up the river you will come out of a fairly narrow stretch of the river and Dye Creek will open up on your left. Ahead you will see a power line crossing. On the left will be a danger marker sitting way out from the bank. This hump has rocks on it and it a good place to fish a crankbait, Carolina rig or football head jig.
Work all around this hump probing for rocks and bass. When you catch one mark it and fish that spot hard. If the current is running the downstream side of the hump is usually better. Current and wind blowing across this spot make the fish bite better since both move bait across the hump. Both help on any of these spots.
9. N 33 34.989 – W 86 13.120 – Go up to the power line and stop out from the small island with the power line tower on it on your right. A good ledge starts just downstream of this pole and runs up to the island on that side. It is a sloping ledge without a steep drop and Brian says it is usually better in the morning. Most sloping ledges seem to pay off for him better in the morning.
Fish from the power line tower upstream, working crankbaits, Carolina rigs and football head jigs from shallow to deep. Bright sun actually helps this and other ledges. Cloudy days seem to make the fish scatter more and Brian says he does better on them when the sun is bright. It positions the fish in one area and they are easier to catch.
10. N 33 36.943 – W 86 11.362 – Run up the river above the three bridges and watch to your left. There is a small creek with some houses on the downstream side and one of them has a tower. There is a green roof and an orange roof dock in front of these houses. On the upstream side of the small creek you will see a white post of some kind in the water near the bank.
Start fishing out from the upstream point of the pocket and fish up past the white post working upstream. This area of the river has steep ledges and drops fast. There are a lot of stumps along this ledge. I hooked two small largemouth here, the only two we saw all day. Both hit a worm.
11. N 33 37.348 – W 86 10.160 – A little further upstream you will see a brush top out way off the bank on your left. A good ledge runs along this side from the brush top all the way to the next creek entering on that side. It is covered with big stumps. Fish it the same way as the others, casting crankbaits, Carolina rigs and football head jigs from deep to shallow.
Give these spots a try to see the kinds of places Brian fishes this time of year. Once you get the idea you can find many other similar spots all over the lake. Catch bass on these then find others all your own to catch bass. It is hard to beat Logan Martin this time of year.
Water levels http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=al&prodtype=hydro
Water release info – 1-800-525-3711