Category Archives: Map of the Month – Alabama

How and Where To Catch April Lay Lake Bass with GPS Coordinates

April Lay Lake Bass 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. This year 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 ounces 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.

How and Where To Catch March Neely Henry Bass

March Neely Henry Bass with Peyton Nance

Pre-spawn bass in the grass and feeding on points leading to bedding areas, eating just about any bait you cast. Neely Henry can’t be beat for March fishing, where those hard fighting Coosa spots are fighting with quality largemouth for your lure.

Neely Henry is an 11,235-acre lake on the Coosa River at Gadsden running 77 miles from its dam to the Weiss dam upstream. The upper lake is mostly river, with some oxbows and sloughs. The lower lake has big flats and creeks to fish. The whole lake has extensive shallow grassbeds, docks, rocks and sandy bottoms that are important in the spring.

Peyton Nance grew up right on the lake in Attalla. His father and grandfather took him fishing as far back as he can remember. His father entered them into a tournament on Neely Henry when Peyton was ten years old, and he fell in love with bass tournament fishing.

Peyton’s uncle, Brian Colegrove, was a well-known tournament fisherman in the area for years. He also taught Peyton a lot about bass fishing.

He fished some high school tournaments but concentrated on playing football and made the Auburn football team. He has been on the football team and the fishing team at Auburn the past three years.

Peyton also fishes local pot and buddy tournaments on Neely Henry as often as his college schedule allows and does well in them. As we fished, he constantly pointed to places and said things like “we got a limit there weighing 18 pounds,” or “thats where we won the tournament in the last hour, catching five weighing 19.5 pounds.”

Two days after Peyton and I fished Neely Henry, he and his dad won the big ninth annual Rat-L-Trap tournament at Guntersville with five bass weighing 22.79 with a 7.03 kicker!

“By the end of February, water is warming enough, and days have gotten long enough that both spots and largemouth are concentrating on spawning,” Peyton said. They are positioning themselves near spawning flats and feeding heavily to get ready. They may move some with changing conditions day to day, but they will be near the spawning flats all this month.

“I usually keep it simple in March with just five baits out, and three of them are crankbaits,” Peyton said. He always has a DT 4 and DT 6 as well as a Little John squarebill in shad colors rigged. Those baits cover the water depth he fishes this month.

To back them up, he has a white swim jig and a white and chartruese bladed jig ready to fish in the grass. Although those five baits will cover almost all situations, he will also be ready to pull out a rattlebait, bladed jig, shaky head and jig and pig if the situation calls for them.

Peyton and I fished the first Friday in February, the day after the flooding rain. The river current was ripping as the Alabama Power Company released water trying to get ready for all the new water coming in, and it was muddy everywhere. The lake dropped four feet from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, making it tough for us.

The following places are good all month long. You may have to adjust some based on daily conditions, but you can have great catches of both spots and largemouth right now.

1. N 33 56.624 – W 86 01.221 – Going up the river just upstream of the Highway 77 bridges, a slough enters the river on your right. AS you enter it splits to the left and right. To your left two small pockets are full of grass where March feed heavily. The point coming off the left bank at a blue pumphouse runs way out across the slough and holds staging bass.

Peyton eases into the slough and stops in the middle of the left side, out from the point between the two arms. But that is not the point he fishes; the point to fish comes off the left side across the mouth of the left pocket. It has big stumps on it the bass use for cover, ambushing shad moving into the coves.

Sit in about eight feet of water at full pool and make long casts across the point. Depending on water level, you want to bump the bottom two to five feet deep, and Peyton chooses the DT right for that depth, a four for hitting up to four feet deep and the six for up to six feet deep.

After fishing the point, go into the grass and fish around both pockets with swim jig and bladed jig. Watch for birds in the grass, indicating baitfish is present. When we fished white cranes were feasting on shad that had gotten trapped in the grass by the rapidly dropping water.

This short pocket right on the river gives early bass fast access to the shallows. There were a few bass chasing shad here, and a couple bumped Peyton’s bladed jig out in front of the grass, but the muddy water made it tough to hook up.

2. N 33 57.048 – W 86 00.885 – Going up the river from the bridges, a roadbed runs right along the edge of the water on the left. Go to where the bank swings back to the right and leaves the roadbed. There is a brown fishing dock with blue chairs on it, in front of two camping trailers. Start at that dock.

The river channel swings in right on this corner and largemouth, with a few spots mixed in, feed on the riprap alone the bank. Cast your squarebill right on the rocks and bump them as you reel out. Peyton likes a shad colored bait most days, but if the water is stained up bad, he will go with a red color.

Fish up to the first small point past the dock and fish it hard. It is rocky and worth a few casts with a shaky head or jig and pig after using your crankbait. Sometimes fish on the point just want a slow-moving bait.

3. N 33 56.846 – W 86 00.379 – Going upstream past the big pocket with the marina but before you get to the small island, a white wood fence is on a point on your left. The point out from it is pea gravel and holds pre-spawn bass going into the cut behind it to spawn, but spots will spawn out on the point.

Peyton will fan cast it with his crankbaits, bumping the bottom with them. He will also try a rattle bait and likes a chrome with blue back Rat-L-Trap, buzzing it across the point. Some days the bass just seem to want that noisy vibrating action more than a wiggling crankbait.

4. N 33 57.096 – W 86 00.453 – Go back into the big pocket with the marina in it. The water in the mouth of it is very shallow but a channel is marked with poles to get into it. Big grass beds all around the back hold feeding fish all month, and some will spawn in here in March since the shallow water warms fast.

Peyton says he starts at the marina on the right side of it and fishes all the way around the back. He says if you hit every blade of grass in here with a swim jig like a three-eights white 6^th Sense jig with a white Rage Craw trailer on it, you will catch a limit most days. He normally uses a half ounce swim jig, but this shallow water calls for the lighter one.

You will be fishing shallow water, most less than two feet deep, and you will have to trim up your motor to keep it from dragging. But the fish are hear even in the very thin water. Toward the end of the month in warmer water, a frog like a Ribbet, reeled over and through the grass, will also catch fish here.

5. N 33 56.101 – W 86 02.090 – Going back down the river under the bridges, a development with rainbow colored houses is on your left. At the end of them is the opening to the slough that runs back up parallel to the river. The upstream point of the opening is a major staging area for bass moving into the slough to spawn.

Peyton says there are big logs and stumps on this point that the fish use. Stop out on the end of it on the river side and fan cast it with crankbait, bumping bottom at different depths, then buzz a rattle bait on it. Work upstream covering the end five or six feet deep all the way up to a foot deep at the bank.

Since this slough runs upstream, muddy water does not push into it fast and it will be clearer than the river when it first muddies up. There was a definite mud line across its mouth the day we fished. When this happens, shad and bass will often move back into the clearer water.

Under those conditions, go back into the slough and fish the grass with swim jig and bladed jig. We tried that, but the fast dropping water must have pulled the fish out with it. Under stable conditions, this pattern will work on tough days.

6. N 33 54.707 – W 86 04.031 – Going down the river channel marker 12 sits on the downstream point of one of the islands in the string of them out from the bank. Behind it is an old sand quarry and big spawning flats, and Peyton says the point is a place many bass hold on moving in during the month. Late in March there may even be some post spawn fish moving back out during a warm month.

Stop out on the river side. With the water down we could see the point of the island behind the marker drops down into a saddle that comes back up onto a hump with a big log on it. Peyton says that saddle is the key spot for holding fish.

Get your boat in close to the marker and cast toward the bank, across the tip end of the island in close to it in a foot of water. Use both crankbaits, bladed jig and rattle baits. Work them all the way across the saddle, bumping bottom until you get to the log. Unless the water is real high you should be able to see them. Work a jig or shaky head through them.

Peyton chooses his jig based on water color, using black and blue in stained water and green in clear. But with both he uses a green pumpkin chunk trailer. Work the log carefully with it.

7. N 33 51.527 – W 86 05.733 – Canoe Creek is a big creek on the right downstream where the river makes a sharp turn to the left. It is wide and shallow, so be careful back in it. Go in to where is swings to the right. Straight ahead is Permeter Creek and a bridge crosses near the mouth of it.

Peyton says bass hold on the riprap and move to the bank on the downstream right end of it to spawn back in the flat there. Start at the bridge and cast your crankbaits along the rocks, bumping them from right on the bank down to six feet deep. Sun on the rocks will warm them and make the bite better, especially early in the month. And Peyton likes a little breeze in all the places he fishes, enough to ruffle the water and break up his baits silhouette. That improves the bite.

Fish to the end of the rocks and the area at the end of them. Bass bed back in here so later in the month, drag your shaky head and jig on the bottom in likely bedding spots.

8. N 33 51.686 – W 86 05.678 – Just upstream of the mouth of Permeter Creek a long shallow point runs out. If you have a good GPS map on your electronics, or a paper map, you can see how the Canoe Creek channel hits the bank upstream of it then turns and runs a long way along it. Fish hold all along the channel drop and move up it to spawning areas.

Leaving the riprap you have to swing way out, it is only a couple feet deep going across the point. Get way out on the end of the point with your boat in the channel in 10 – 15 feet of water. You will be a short cast from the top of the point that is three to five feet deep. Cast your DT 6 up on top then bump it along the bottom until it clears the drop. Your bites will usually be right on the lip of the channel.

Also work your shaky head the same way. Peyton rigs a green pumpkin Big Bite Baits finesse worm on a three sixteenths ounce Spot Sticker head and crawls it along the bottom. When it gets to the drop, feed it line so it falls down the slope on the bottom.

This drop is long enough you can spend a lot of time fishing it, and going back over places you catch fish is worth it.

9. N 33 51.768 – W 86 06.077 – Going up Canoe Creek a big ramp, Canoe Creek Park, is on your left. There are a few houses downstream of it with a riprap bank in front of them. Stop downstream of the last house from the ramp and fish upstream to the pocket above the ramp.

This bank is an outside bend of the creek. The riprap and docks along it hold bass as does the wood cover along the bank. Just downstream of them there are a lot of blowdowns that are good to fish and there are stumps all along the bank, too.

Fish your squarebill crankbait, bumping rocks and wood, then follow up with your jig and pig, fishing it close to all the cover. Released fish refresh this bank every weekend.

10. N 33 52.343 – W 86 06.223 – Muscadine Creek enters Canoe Creek on the left a little further upstream. A big house with some big tall trees in front of it sits on the point between the two creeks. It is a big, flat, shallow point where spots and largemouth stack up pre-spawn moving into both creeks.

Peyton says you can have your best day ever for spots right here in March. To prove his point, he hooked a spot that looked like it weighed about five pounds but came off right at the boat.

You should sit on the Muscadine Creek side in about seven feet of water just off the end of the point. Fan cast it with your crankbaits, that is what the big spot hit. Also try crawling your bladed jig on the bottom. We got a good three pound largemouth here on one.

There are some big stumps and gravel on the point.
A shaky head will catch fish here, too. Fan cast all over the point, hitting water three to five feet deep.

These places are producing spots and largemouth right now. Check them out and catch some!

How and Where To Catch April Bartletts Ferry – Harding Bass

April Bartletts Ferry – Harding Bass

with Tyler Morgan

Bass fishing is fantastic on all our lakes in April, but you should consider a trip to Bartletts Ferry/Harding. The bass are up shallow in pockets and creeks, with some spawning and others ready to go on the bed or feeding after spawning. You can catch a lot of spots and largemouth on a variety of baits.

Bartletts Ferry/Harding is a small Georgia Power lake on the Chattahoochee River downstream of West Point. It is an old lake, with a lot of wood and rock cover and docks lining the banks. Both Georgia and Alabama fishing licenses are valid on all waters of this border lake.

Many bass moved up to spawn in late February after the couple of warm weeks we had, but cold fronts drove the bigger fish back out when the water temperature dropped. All those fish are shallow and ready to be caught right now. You can catch them on your favorite lures for shallow water fishing around wood, rocks and docks.

Tyler Morgan has lived in Columbus all his life and started fishing pot tournaments with his dad, Stan, when he was six years old. He fishes up to five tournaments a week on Bartletts Ferry/Harding and Eufaula now, competing in local pot tournaments and charity tournaments on both lakes.

A few years ago Tyler started fishing BFL tournament as a co-angler and won the Bulldog Division Co-Angler of the Year twice. Last year he changed to fishing the boater side and won the BFL at Lanier. He has fished 33 tournaments on that trail, winning four and finishing in the top ten 16 times.

Tyler impressed me with his ability to skip a swim jig into the thickest cover, places most fishermen never hit. He is like many younger fishermen, with skills and knowledge of fishing at 21 years old that far exceed my own, even though I am more than three times his age and have been fishing club tournaments more than twice as long as he has been alive. He is well equipped to further his fishing career.

“Bartletts Ferry/Harding is full of spots, some of them good size, but it has more quality largemouth than most fishermen realize,” Tyler said. He focuses on catching those big largemouth since they are what he needs to win tournaments, and his tackle selection and places he fishes reflects that goal.

For April, Tyler will have a square bill crankbait, a Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait, a Spro Popping Frog, a swim jig and a jig and pig rigged for fishing shallow pockets. He will throw a spinnerbait but finds he catches more fish on a swim jig than on a flashy bait. He likes to fish shallow year-round since he can catch big largemouth that way. He does catch some spots in the places he fishes and baits he uses, but they are not his goal.

We fished in early March, right after a cold front came through after two warm weeks the end of February, and dropped the water temperature several degrees, pushing the bigger fish back out. We caught a lot of bass but not the big ones hoped for.

1. N 32 41.588 – W 85 09.767 – Going up Halawaka Creek upstream of the Highway 379 “Long Bridge” past the small island on your right, there is a creek entering on the right at some condos. Go to the left bank across from the condos and start fishing the riprap in front of a brown house.

This creek is a good example of the kind of place Tyler fishes in April. He will fish fast, covering water looking for active bass. Start on the riprap with a square bill and parallel it. Sun on them warms the rocks and draws in bass to feed on baitfish and crawfish.

Tyler fishes a red crankbait since it imitates crawfish in April. He fishes it fast to see how active the fish are, but pauses it during the retrieve to stimulate a bite. He wants it bumping the rocks. If fishing it fast does not get a bite, especially early in the month, he will “count rocks” with his crankbait, slowing it down and bumping every rock with it.

Fish all the way around this small double creek. There are docks with brush piles, especially on the left bank going in, and Tyler with throw a jig and pig around the docks and brush. In more shallow area he will try a swim jig and chatterbait.

2. N 32 41.235 – W 85 09.993 – Going upstream and across the lake, where the creek narrows, a small cove is on your left. The upstream point is a grassy hill with a concrete seawall with posts in it and riprap at the base of it, going around the point.

Start on the outside of the point and fish around it with your crankbait. Also try a chatterbait, fishing it parallel to the rocks, too. Tyler likes a red and black chatterbait with a black Baby Brush
Hog trailer for the same reason he chooses a red crankbait.

When you get to docks, skitter a jig and pig under them. Also run a swim jig along the posts.
In the shallows, especially where there are grass patches, fish a swim jig through it. Also run it through any wood cover, from brush to blowdowns, in shallow water.

Fish all the way around this cove. Fish bed in the back and side ditches in it and the other places marked. Slow down some and look for beds in shallow water if it is clear enough to see them. If stained a swim jig over them will often make a big female show herself.

3. N 34 41.151 – W 85 10.388 – Go under the old railroad trestle and stop on the round point just upstream of the first pocket on your left. The point goes around to a bigger creek. Stop at the big concrete ramp and boat house pad and fish your crankbait and chatterbait parallel to the riprap around the point.

There is brush here on the rocks and that sometimes concentrates the fish. Fish it all, working both baits into the upstream creek. Use your jig and pig and swim jig around thicker brush and docks. Bass stage on the point both pre and post spawn and feed, then move back to spawn. Fish in the creek for the ones already in there, too.

4. N 32 41.256 – W 85 11.146 – Going up the creek the Prince Road bridge is to your left as the creek turns. On the right another smaller creek enters the bigger creek and is a good spawning area. It has a good bit of grass and a lot of wood cover in it so fish it all.

Stop on the point on your left going into the smaller creek, the one with a dock, boat ramp and light pole near the water. This flat point has a good bit of grass on it, so it is a good place for the swim jig as is the other grass and wood cover in this creek. You can spend a lot of time fishing here since the creek is fairly big and has several ditches and small arms in it.

Tyler uses a Dirty Jigs swim jig since it has a big, heavy hook needed when fighting a big bass on braid line in cover. He likes a white jig and puts a Zoom Fat Albert white twin tail trailer on it in stained water. If the water is clear, he will go to a more translucent jig and trailer.

Skitter the jig across the top of the water as far back into cover as you can. Be ready for a hit as soon as it stops. Start reeling immediately. Tyler twitches his rod tip constantly making the jig jerk and twitch on the retrieve. He says he loves the way bass slam a swim jig and inhale it.

5. N 32 40.772 – W 85 11.204 – Under Prince Bridge the creek goes to the right and a smaller creek enters on the left. Go into the creek on the left to the first point past the main creek point and start fishing. The point has a bleached out wood dock in front of a wood seawall. Fish from the dock around the flat pocket past it.

This shallow flat warms fast and has a lot of wood cover and some grass on it. Tyler says it holds a surprising number of fish, even though it does not look like much. A swim jig is good all around it since it comes through the grass without hanging and goes over wood cover even if it is on the surface.

If the bass don’t seem to want the faster moving swim jig, pitch a jig and pig to all the wood cover here. Let if fall by the dock posts and logs in the cove. Tyler uses a black and red or solid black three–eighths ounce jig with a matching Strike King Rage Craw on it.

6. N 32 40.605 – W 85 11.260 – Ahead of you a long flat point comes out and points to a steeper bank with a green shed, single and double boat docks on the opposite side. This is an old pond dam across the creek and it has rocks and some brush on it. It is a great staging area for pre and post spawn fish.

Fish across the dam, keeping your boat off it and running your crankbait over the top and bumping rocks with a jig and pig. You can also fish a Carolina rig or shaky head on it, but Tyler does not usually slow down enough to work those kinds of baits.

After fishing the dam work the steeper rocky bank on the other side, then fish around the back of the creek with swim jig and crankbait for fish back in there spawning. In April Tyler will always have a Texas rigged white Zoom Speed Craw ready to throw into beds when he sees them.

7. N 32 41.353 – W 85 10.260 – Going back down the lake under the railroad trestle the first fairly big cove on your left has a small dock in front of a brown brick house. The point has riprap around it and is a good feeding area for staging fish that spawn back in the cove.

Start on the riprap with crank bait and chatterbait. Go around the point into the cove, fishing wood cover and any grass with a swim jig. It is worth trying a frog on grass here and any other of these places if the water is 62 degrees or warmer. Tyler likes a black and yellow Spro Popping Frog but warns it is a big fish bait. You won’t get many bites, but those that do are likely to be big. Throw it for a kicker fish around grass, wood and docks.

8. N 32 40.991 – W 85 09.472 – Down the lake on your right a narrow point comes out and points downstream. It is on the upstream side of a narrow cove. On the left side going in, across from the point, is a rounded cement seawall that leads to a block boathouse on the bank with boat rails coming out of it.

Stop at the boathouse and fish the rails and seawall, then skip a swimming jig or frog under overhanging brushes along the bank. Not far down this bank is a small ditch where Tyler says he caught a five pounder off the bed last year.

Fish the back of the cove in the shallows with swimm jig while watching for beds. Pitch your Speed Craw to any you see and try to get the big female on them to hit. A frog over the beds and shallow wood will also get bites.

9. N 32 41.386 – W 85 09.182 – Down the lake behind the island on your left just above the bridge a small cove runs back a short distance. The left bank going in is steeper rock and concrete rubble and there is wood all along it. Start at the upstream point and fish around this cove.

The rocks and rubble offer a good feeding area for bass to eat crayfish so your crankbait and chatterbait are good. Tyler says a lot of bass bed back in the cove, more than you would think for such a small cove. Fish it carefully, working the dock and wood cover back here, and casting to places where beds should be even if you can’t see them.

10. N 32 40.940 – W 85 09.342 – Straight across the lake a small cove goes back from the lake and makes a short dogleg to the right in the back. It is just upstream of the big creek that enters closer to the bridge. There is green roof dock on the right bank and an underground house and shed in the back. Start at the green roof dock and fish around the cove.

Work the right and left sides with crankbait and chatterbait. The left bank has two concrete and rock piers and Tyler says bass often hold right on them. Work both sides carefully, and fish the very back in the shallows for bedding fish.

We caught small buck bass on almost every one of these places in early March. By now the females have joined them. Give them a try.

You can follow Tyler on Facebook and see some of his catches at https://www.facebook.com/tyler.morgan.980967

Do you find these Map of the Month articles helpful? If so visit http://fishing-about.com/keys-to-catching-georgia-bass-ebook-series/ – you can get an eBook or CD with an article for each month of the year on Clarks Hill and Lanier.

How and Where To Catch August Bartletts Ferry Bass

August Bartletts Ferry Bass

with Brandon Carraway

There is no way around it; bass fishing is tough in August no matter where you go. Hot days make you drip with sweat and hot water makes bass feed less, especially during the day. But you can catch fish, and Bartletts Ferry is a good choice for a trip right now.

Bartletts Ferry is a small Georgia Power lake on the Chattahoochee River not far downstream of West Point Lake. It is an old lake lined with docks and has many grassbeds, wood cover and rocky banks. The lake has a high population of spotted bass but largemouth seem to be increasing in numbers and size according to the DNR and local fishermen.

Brandon Carraway grew up in Upatoi in Muscovy County and part of greater Columbus now. He started fishing Bartletts Ferry as a kid and his grandparents took him camping at Blanton Creek Park as soon as it opened. He has fished it all his life.

Now Brandon fishes with the Fishers of Men trail and doesn’t miss many pot and charity tournaments on Bartletts Ferry. His dad fished tournaments for a while and Brandon got the bug, and does well in tournaments near Columbus.

“Bartletts Ferry is tough in August, with the hot water and all the weekend boat traffic,” Brandon said. He usually fishes early in the morning until the traffic gets bad, or fishes at night.

“There are several patterns that work this time of year,” Brandon said. He will have a frog, a buzzbait, a jig and pig, a Texas rigged beaver bait, a weighless Senko, a Trick worm and a crankbait ready to fish. A shaky head will also catch fish right now.

First thing at daylight or at night Brandon will fish the grassbeds for active bass. As the sun gets above the trees he goes to seawalls, especially those on the shady side of coves, and gravel points.

“The grassbeds can produce a lot of quality fish at times during August,” Brandon said. Mayfly hatches can be good or bad. The bass are feeding on bream and Mayflies will make them active in the shallows, but it seems sometimes the bass gorge so much on bream that the fishing gets tough later during a hatch.

Brandon fishes fast, trying to find a feeding fish by covering water. There may be a few feeding in a cove one morning then nothing the next day, so he searches for them, fishing as many places as he can during a tournament to catch a limit.

“The largemouth do seem to be coming back,” Brandon said. Tournament weigh-ins often show this with more largemouth than in the past few years. And Brandon got his best ever largemouth from Bartletts Ferry this year, landing a seven pound, one ounce fish. He has also had a five fish limit weighing 19 pounds, 3 ounces from the lake.

Brandon took me to Bartletts Ferry in early July to catch some bass and mark the following spots that will be good this month. The Mayflies were so thick that morning it was dangerous to take a deep breath, and bream were feeding on them everywhere we fished.

But the bass fishing was tough. We think they had gorged on the bream all night and stopped feeding before we got there. Brandon had fished the Tuesday night pot tournament two days before we fished and the winners had 18 pounds, but they ran way up the river above the shoals where it is dangerous to go in a bass boat. Second place was only nine pounds.

The following places are all spots where Brandon fishes during a tournament and you will find fish feeding in them in August.

1. N 32 41.415 – W 85 09.155 – Go up Halawakee Creek under the first bridge. Ahead of you a small island sits just off the right bank. The small cove just downstream of it is full of brush and has good deep water and holds bass. Brandon says he watched another fisherman catch five weighing 18 pounds here.

Go into the cove and stop before you get to the first dock on the right. A brushpile starts here and runs all the way down to the small private boat ramp on that side. Keep your boat out in 14 feet of water and cast to about ten feet from the bank and work your bait back. You can see one limb sticking out of the water but there is a lot more brush you can’t see.

Brandon likes to throw a Texas rigged Reaction Innnovations beaver bait behind a one quarter to three eights ounce sinker. If the water is stained he uses a black and blue bait but goes to watermelon red in clear water. Brandon dips the tails of all his plastics in JJ’s Magic, using different colors depending on water color.

He works the bait fairly fast until he hits a limb, then raises it up to the limb and lets it fall back. You can also fish the brush with a jig and pig. The brush runs down a ledge parallel to the bank where it drops off deeper, making it even better.

2. N 32 41.061 – W 85 09.666 – Across the creek and upstream there is a cove running off the channel almost parallel with it, with a long narrow point on the upstream side. Just upstream from it the next cove is a small deep creek that has good overhanging bushes, docks and brush piles to fish. There are no houses on the upstream point of this cove.

Start on the left going in before you get to the first dock on that side. You will be in 18 feet of water off the dock. It has a covered boathouse with a deck on top. Fish your beaver bait and jig and pig all around the brown dock. Skip a weightless Senko back under the boathouse as far as you can get it to go. That often works when sun runs the fish to the shade.

Then fish the shady bank past it to the back of the cove with topwater, Trick worm and jig. Across the back of the small creek is a good blowdown to fish. As you turn and come back out a small dock will be on your left. Fish all around it, there is a good brush pile on it.

3. N 32 41.515 – W 85 08.005 – Run back down under the bridge and stop just before you get to the power lines crossing the main creek. They come off a long point on your right. Just upstream of the main point a smaller point comes off the bank just before you get to the first pocket. It drops off fast on both sides and has a good gravel bottom.

Brandon keeps his boat in 25 to 30 feet of water off the end of the point straight out from the pine tree near the bank with two gray stripes on it. The point runs out in front of the tree. Cast a jig head with a Junebug Trick worm on it near the bank and work it back out to 15 feet deep. Brandon says he seldom catches fish deeper than about 15 feet.

Also work a jig and pig or beaver bait along the bottom, bumping the gravel. Brandon likes to hop his jig off the bottom and let it fall back when fishing rocks. Current moving across this point helps make the fish bite 100 percent better, according to Brandon.

4. N 32 40.989 – W 85 07.609 – Go downstream around the point with the power lines and past the first creek on your right. The second creek on your right has power lines crossing it as does the first one. Go into the second one and stop on the left bank just past the power lines.

Brandon says this is a everything bank that produces some quality fish. It is a muddy flat with some gravel and there are blowdowns and brush on it as well as overhanging bushes. And it stays shady late in the morning so the bass stay shallow longer here.

Keep your boat a long cast from the bank and start fishing down this bank into the creek. Throw a crankbait that runs six to eight feet deep to bump the bottom and brush. Fish a Trick worm under the overhanging bushes and around the wood cover. A buzzbait will also catch fish on this bank. Brandon likes a white bait with silver blade in stained water and goes to chartreuse in clear water. Fish around the small pocket on this bank and work the grass bed on the point where the bank goes back into a small ditch.

There is one small dock on this bank. Fish around it but watch past it for an old foundation in a couple of feet of water. Bass often hold against the edge of this old foundation like they do on a seawall so fish it good. There is also a big rock out in the middle of the ditch just past the old foundation that often holds fish.

5. N 32 40.868 – W 85 06.638 – Head down the creek past where the Chattahoochee River joins Halawakee Creek. As you go around the first point on your right, with a danger marker on it, you will see a small island not far off the bank and a much bigger island past it.

Go into the creek just upstream of the small island past the first few docks and the boathouse on the bank. Past the boathouse there is a big tan house with a brown roof up on the hill. The small dock in front of it has good deep brush pile to fish.

Start just downstream of the dock and work around it with beaver, jig and pig and jig head worm. Brandon uses a Stan Sloan seven sixteenths ounce brown jig with a Zoom black chunk with red flake. He slides it along until he hits brush then pulls it up and lets it fall back down.

Fish just past the dock to the rails coming from the boathouse up on the bank, fishing around the rails with jig head worm, jig and pig and beaver bait. The brush around the dock is in 15 feet of water and holds big fish, and the rails run out to deep water, too.

6. N 32 41.090 – W 85 05.094 – Run across the lake past the big kudzu covered island into the big creek on the Georgia side. Go up the creek until you see it split with a long narrow point between two arms. There is a boat club on this point, with a ramp and picnic tables on it.

On your right across from the tip of the point is a small cove with a no wake buoy in its mouth. The cove is deep and has docks in it and some overhanging brush. Fish all the way around this cove, starting on the right on the rocky bank.

Skip a Senko under the docks, work the rocks with jig and pig, beaver bait and jig head worm, and run a buzzbait or frog in the shade. This is where Brandon caught the seven pounder earlier this year.

7. N 32 41.115 – W 85 06.139 – Go out of the creek and start up the river. Behind the kudzu covered island you will see a sail boat club in a small pocket between two bigger coves. Brandon says an unusual pattern works here all summer to catch keeper size spots.

Idle in from the no wake buoys and have a white Super Fluke ready. Fish it around all the sail boats. Spots hold under these boats and feed on shad that come in to feed around them. Brandon says you probably won’t catch any big fish, but you can catch a lot of spots around a pound and a half.

8. N 32 41.850 – W 85 06.532 – Head up the river and you will pass a big island on your right not far off the bank. The next cove upstream of it has a very small island with a ridge running toward the upstream point of the small creek there. There are danger markers on the ridge and one sits not far off the main point.

This point is round and has riprap all the way around it. The water drops off to 20 feet deep around this point and it is a good place to fish a crankbait. Brandon likes the DT10 since it gets down deep enough to cover the water where he expects the bass to hold.

Fish all the way around this point, keeping your boat in at least 15 feet of water and making angle casts right to the bank. Your crankbait should stay near the bottom back to near the boat. Brandon likes a shad colored crankbait in clear water or one with some chartreuse in it in stained water.

9. N 32 42.222 – W 85 06.463 – Going up the river the right bank swings way out and a small creek enters on the right just before you get to it. There are two no wake buoys in the mouth of it. As you go in you will see a seawall on the right running along the bank in front of a gray house where the creek starts to really narrow down.

Brandon has put out cane brush piles along this bank, and lined them up so he can fish a crankbait around them without getting hung up. They are in shallow water and he uses a shallow running crankbait like the DT 4 or DT 6. Keep your boat a long cast off the seawall, throw right to it and fish your bait back straight out to run along the cane without hanging up in it.

10. N 32 42.654 – W 85 07.074 – Going up the river not far upstream you will see two grassbeds and some logs hung up in the shallow water right in the middle of the river. If you come in from the Alabama side the channel swings in close, with 40 feet of water not far off the grass. This shallow flat will cover with grass by late August and bass feed around it, especially when current is running down the river.

Brandon will fish the edge of the drop with a crankbait then fish the grass and logs with a frog or spinnerbait. You can also fish your beaver bait around the grass if the fish are not real aggressive. Bream bed out on this flat and bass move in to feed on them, and to ambush shad that current moves to them.

Give Brandon’s spots and baits a try then you can find many similar places all over the lake to catch fish. Just keep moving until you find them.

How and Where To Catch September Bartletts Ferry Bass

September Bartletts Ferry Bass

with Bo Talley

Frustrated with late summer fishing? Tired of hours of casting in hot waters and not finding fish? Head to Lake Harding, known in Georgia as Bartlett’s Ferry, if you want some fast action all day long.

Bartlett’s Ferry is a small Georgia Power Lake on the Chattahoochee River just downstream of West Point Lake. There is good current flow when water is being released at the dam or when power is generated at West Point. The lake level changes a foot or so rapidly due to its size but is usually near full pool until the winter draw down in October.

It is an old lake, full of docks, grass beds and best of all, spotted and largemouth bass. You can catch large numbers of keeper size bass there right now, with a chance for much bigger fish.

Bo Talley grew up in Bibb City, within the city of Columbus, and has fished Bartlett’s Ferry for many years. He works on motors in Phenix City for Randall Marine, which he says has the best selection of bass fishing tackle in the area. They specialize in working on bass boats and cater to the fisherman.

His job puts him in contact with a lot of area fishermen and Bo fishes many tournaments, including the Bulldog BFL trail and most pot tournaments on Bartlett’s Ferry and other area lakes. He plans on fishing the Everstart Series next year and has acquired some sponsors, including Quantum Rods and Reels and JJ’s Magic. His boat is being wrapped by John Allen at Pestey John’s Pest Control.

Bartletts Ferry is one of Bo’s favorite lakes and he does well there. In one tournament he caught two six pound spots and his biggest largemouth from the lake is a 6.9 pounder. His best five-fish limit weighed 26 pounds.

“In September bass are in a transition, holding a little more shallow and feeding in the shallows longer,” Bo said. He targets shallow grass beds for both spots and largemouth this time of year, and also catches bass on bluff walls.

A wide variety of baits work right now, including a Strike Zone Grinder Buzzbait in white or white and chartreuse. Bo likes a smaller bait this time of year and a quarter ounce is standard. Bass will also hit a Spook and a Spro Frog on top, Bo’s favorite way to catch fish.

A KVD Sexy Shad crankbait is also one of his favorites now. It works well for bass holding off the shallow grass beds, waiting to move in and feed. He says you can fish faster now than you have the past few months and catch fish.

For slower fishing a Zoom green pumpkin Swamp Crawler with its tail dipped in JJ’s chartreuse on a three sixteenths ounce Buckeye Spot Remover is his go-to bait. He will also cast and flip a Tommy Gunn half ounce Jawbreaker jig in the blue/green color trailed with a green pumpkin chunk.

We fished Bartletts in early August and caught a lot of keeper size bass. The bigger bass just did not hit that day but they will be hitting better now on these spots. Fish them and you will catch a lot of bass and have a good chance of catching some quality bass as the water starts to cool a little.

1. N 32 44.660 – W 85 08.069 – If you put in at the free Georgia Power ramp at Idlehour or at Blanton Creek Park, you can stay in the river and catch fish all day without running around a lot, an important factor with the price of gas. Run up the river from either ramp to where the river makes a bend back to the right upstream of Blanton Creek. Just before the bend there are houses and docks on your left and they end right at the bend.

On your left you will see two openings into a shallow lake area behind an island running parallel to the river. The second opening is where Bo usually starts first thing in the morning. Stop out in front of it and fish a buzzbait and Spook around both sides and in the middle of the ditch. Work from the bank and opening out to a long cast from the bank.

Bass will hold along this ditch and opening before moving into the shallow grass to feed. Fish the grass at the ditch with a frog or buzzbait then work into the lake area, fishing the grass on both sides. It is very shallow in there so you can’t always fish very far into the lake area on either side, but work the edges and the bank at the back straight in where you can reach it.

Fish back out to the opening and fish the mouth of the ditch on both sides with a crankbait. Fan cast the whole area before leaving. Bo says this is often a good way to pick up a quality fish holding here this time of year.

2. N 32 44.570 – W 85 07.939 – Fish downstream, casting to the bank with topwater and crankbaits, to the next opening. The mouth of it is full of grass under the water that looks like hydrilla and along the edges above the water. There were a lot of baitfish here when we fished and that is the norm that draws in the bass.

Fish into the lake area working your bait over the submerged grass and through the grass sticking out of the water. Fish your buzzbait, Spook or frog all the way to the boat. We got several hits near the boat from bass holding in the grass that goes all the way across the mouth.

Fish into the pocket as far as you can go. Watch for any activity and cast to it with a topwater bait. It is so shallow in here bass will often give themselves away when they move. Fish back to the seawall with lot numbers on it on your left, then fish back out to the river.

3. N 32 44.517 – W 85 07.737 – You can fish the shoreline all the way downstream from this pocket, hitting shallow wood and grass, to the point of the next small creek downstream, or idle down to the dock with a deck on top. When you get near the dock the water gets a little deeper.

Fish topwater around the grass then try a jig head worm from the grass edge out to the boat. Bo says this is a good area for spots and he caught a good keeper on his jighead here. Cast to the edge of the grass and work your bait back to the boat since you may get a hit anywhere out from the grass from bass holding well off it. You can also fish a shallow running crankbait through the area, too.

Fish to the mouth of the small creek and work both sides of it and back into it about 100 feet. The docks on the upstream side are worth skipping your jig head under, especially if the sun is on the water.

4. N 32 46.005 – W 85 08.242 – Run on up the river to where the channel swings back to the right. You will see an island in the main channel and several cuts on your right. One of them is the “false river” that runs around and joins back with the main channel well upstream.

Look to your left before you get to the island and you will see the mouth of a double pocket, with a big shallow lake to the right and a more narrow opening straight ahead. It opens up in the back and there is big new house behind it.

Stop out from the upstream point of this opening. A good ledge runs across it parallel to the river. Keep your boat out in deep water and fish across the top of the ledge with topwater, fishing from the bank down past the mouth of the opening.

After fishing it on top go back over it with a crankbait. Start by casting from the river side across the top, then work to the end of it and into the cut, fishing from the river side into the ditch mouth. Also cast a jig head worm on this ledge. Fish school up on this ledge so it is worth a lot of casts.

After fishing the ledge fish the grass in the mouth of the right hand pocket and the shallow wood around the mouth of the left side with a buzzbait before leaving this spot.

5. N 32 46.027 – W 85 07.947 – Run across the river and upstream. You will see three openings on your right going upstream. Bo goes to the third one, a cut that runs back a short distance into Johnson Island. Starting on the upstream point, fish the grass and wood on both sides with topwater.

Fish on down the bank downstream of the cut. Bo says there is a good ledge here so keep your boat well off the bank. Cast a topwater bait, crankbait and jig head worm under the overhanging brush and work back out across the ledge. Bo got a keeper spot here on a Spook when we fished.

The second opening you will come to is an opening into the false river and current comes out of it, making good eddies when it hits the river. The same thing happens at the next opening, the main mouth of the false river.

The ledges off the upstream points of both openings are good so cover them carefully. Then work into the openings, flipping a jig and pig to the bank and fishing the wood cover along it. The downstream bank and point of the last opening going downstream, the main opening, is deep and a very good place to flip a jig and pig.

6. N 32 44.541 – W 85 07.153 – Head back down the river to where the houses are on your right going downstream. On your left is a long island running parallel to the river. Where it ends a very shallow ledge runs downstream so be careful, but idle in to the upstream point of the second pocket downstream of the end of the island.

Fish the grass on both sides of this opening down to the next small cut. The water is very shallow here but it holds a lot of bass. The wind was blowing into this grass when we fished and Bo says that usually makes for a better bite. We got several bass along this grass on top and on a jig along the edge of it.

7. N 32 44.514 – W 85 07.036 – The upstream point of Blanton Creek is not far downstream. Start on it and fish the grass here back into the creek all the way to even with the no wake buoys. A buzzbait and frog are both good here but also work a jig head worm or jig and pig along the edge of the grass, too.

8. N 32 44.174 – 85 06.662 – Go across the mouth of Blanton Creek to the grass bed between it and the next small creek on your left going downstream. Start fishing the grass about 100 yards upstream of the small creek and fish to it. The water is a little deeper here since it is the beginning of an outside river bend and Bo says he catches a good many good fish here.

Keep your boat out in about nine feet of water and cast back into the grass with a buzzbait or frog. Current will hit this grass and make it better, too. Work anything unusual in the grass like cuts, points and holes in it.

Bo will fish a buzzbait all day long. Sometimes sunny days seem better and others cloudy days are better, but fish all day either way. It was cloudy the day we fished and we caught several bass on top right in the middle of the day.

9. N 32 44.037 – W 85 06.656 – For a change of pace stop on the downstream point of the small creek just downstream of Blanton Creek. It is a bluff wall dropping almost straight off into the river. Keep your boat out in about 23 feet of water and flip or pitch a jig and pig to the bank. Work it slowly down the drop.

Bo likes a half-ounce jig and pig for this fishing. He moves it very slowly so it hits every small outcropping on the bluff on the way down. When your bait falls a foot or so and stops, shake your rod tip without pulling the bait off the small ledge or rock.

Try to show your bait to a fish holding in any crack or hole in the rocks. Fish slowly, making a pitch every few feet. Bo says he catches some pretty decent fish doing this here and on other bluff walls. This is how he got the two six pound spots.

10. N 32 43.254 – W 85 07.289 – Run down to where the river opens up and the channel splits. Right where it opens up there is a small creek on your right going downstream. A narrow grass covered point runs across them mouth of this creek from the downstream bank and Bo says it is called the “Hog Pen” since there was a hog pen here. You can still see some of the posts on the point and there are cypress trees on it.

Bo likes to start on the outside end where it comes off the bank and fish upstream. He fishes a buzzbait in the grass along it and flips a jig and pig or pitches a jig head worm to the edge of the grass. Fish all the way around the end of the point and into the creek, working that side to you get to the bank opposite of where you started.

These ten spots all held bass in August and will be even better now. There are many bluff walls on the lake and a lot of grass beds in other areas to fish, too. Head to Bartlett’s Ferry this month and you will have a lot of fun catching bass.

How and Where To Catch March Bass at Bartletts Ferry/ Lake Harding with GPS Coordinates

March Bass at Bartletts Ferry/ Lake Harding

with Nick Roberson

March is a great month to go fishing just about anywhere in Alabama. Warming waters turn fish on and they move shallow and feed. It is hard to pick one place to go but Bartletts Ferry/Lake Harding on the Chattahoochee River just south of Lanette offers a variety of kinds of fishing for both spots and largemouth that is hard to beat right now.

Lake Harding is a 5,850 acre Georgia Power Lake not far downstream from West Point Lake. It was filled in 1926 and the waters near the dam are deep and rocky. Up the river above the Hawalakee Creek junction it is mostly river channel with some big creeks and a good many old oxbow lakes off the channel. Both Alabama and Georgia fishing licenses are good on all the waters.

Bartlett’s Ferry has been known as a good producer of both spots and largemouth for many years. Last year there were large numbers of keeper size 12 to 14 inch bass and this year those fish will be in the two pound range. In the 2007 Creel Census Report Bartlett’s Ferry ranked sixth in Bass Weighed-In Per Hour and seventh in Percent of Anglers With Five Or More Bass, and there are more keeper bass now than there were two years ago.

Nick Roberson lives near Opelika and fishes Harding often. He started going fishing with his father when he was old enough to walk. About 14 years ago he got into bass tournament fishing when a group at his work place started having tournaments. For the past few years he has fished with the West Georgia Bass Club, a team tournament trail that fishes a variety of west Georgia and east Alabama lakes and is Triton Gold certified, and other tournament on area lakes.

Last year Nick and his partner won the West Georgia Bass Club tournament on Harding with 14 pounds and ended up 5^th overall in the point standings for the year out of 170 teams. Nick has also won both the Diehard and Lazy Days tournaments on Harding and had done well in other tournaments there. His best Harding bass was an 8 pound, 8 ounce hawg caught in a tournament and his best five fish in a tournament weighted just over 22 pounds.

“Last year I found fish on the beds in February here,” Nick told me. After a warm winter bass were spawning up the river in oxbow lakes in February and Nick expects to find them there every year from late February to early March. He says bass in the river spawn a lot earlier than most folks realize. Nick says bass on the main lake spawn a little later but he normally finds bedding fish there by mid to late March.

Nick plans his fishing on Harding around the spawning bass. He will start in the mornings on the main lake, hitting points and banks near spawning pockets for the prespawners and will always watch for spawners, too. Then after lunch when the sun has been warming the water all morning he will head up the lake to fish there. In the river he goes into spawning areas and fishes for the bass on the beds and any cruising the spawning areas, too.

A variety of baits work well on the lake and Nick will have a Jawbreaker jig and pig, a jig head worm, a spinnerbait and a crankbait tied on. He will also throw a topwater bait much earlier than most folks and a jerk bait rounds out his lake arsenal.

Up the river Nick relies on Senkos and spinnerbaits. Most of the oxbow lakes are very shallow and full of grass so the Senko works best most of the time. He will pitch and cast his bait to visible beds but will also work the grass, dropping it into holes where a bass might be bedding. That works best when the water is murky and you can’t see the beds as well.

Nick fishes all his baits on baitcasting outfits and his reels are spooled with Suffix line. He fishes with Tommy Gunn, maker of Jawbreaker jigs, a lot and he likes Tommy’s jigs and jig heads. For the jig and pig he will use black and blue combinations with a black or green trailer. His favorite worm for the jig head is a Zoom scuppernong Trick worm.

Colors for crankbaits and jerk baits depend on water color, with natural colors best in clear water and bright colors used when the water is stained. Nick uses a pink spinnerbait a lot and says it is his best color. He likes two gold willowleaf blades on it.

A Boy Howdy, an old topwater lure with spinners on both ends, is Nick’s favorite. He surprised me by throwing it in early February in water temperatures at 50 degrees, and caught a bass on it the day we fished. He says bass will hit on top even in the winter if you fish the right bait the right way.

The following ten holes will produce bass from now through the end of March on Harding. We fished the lower lake spots the second week of February on a cold, rainy day and fish were already on them and will be on them even better now. We landed about 20 bass that day and our best five would have weighed between 11 and 12 pounds. That shows Harding has a lot of bass in the two pound range for us to catch that many on such a bad day. The bass had not moved into the spawning areas up the river in early February but they will be there now.

1. N 32 41.321 – W 85 08.142 – This main lake point and bank is a good place to start. Nick won a weekly tournament here and it holds fish year round. Heading down Halawakee Creek from the bridge the creek bends back to the left. Straight ahead the bank runs out from your right and you will see a point with a seawall around it. Trees on the bank have faces on them and there are post with ropes around them and black metal light poles around it.

Start on this point and work to your left. There are three good docks to fish and bass hold on them and on the block seawall. The first dock has three metal park benches on it. Fish the seawall then the dock and the pocket behind it. Be sure to hit the rails coming from the boathouse. Bass often hold on rails like these.

This pocket runs out to a natural rock point that holds fish, too. Fish it and the next two docks. Try your jig and pig and jig head worm around the docks, probing for brush, and on the rocks and rails. Run a crankbait or spinnerbait beside the docks and along the point. And don’t hesitate to work your favorite topwater plug slowly in this area, too.

2. N 32 41.486 – W 85 08.347 – Back across the creek and slightly upstream, the last point where the creek opens up has riprap around it and a small dock on the upstream side. There is a yellow cabin on the point and there are palm trees planted near the water. The point comes up shallow then drops off. There are some stumps and rocks around this point that hold March bass.

Start out in front of the small upstream dock and work a jig and pig or jig head worm slowly down the bottom. Cast up near the seawall and make short hops. When you hit a stump pause it there for a few seconds then hop it away from the stump. Sometimes a bass holding by the stump will react as the bait jumps away from it.

Work all the way around the point then try your crankbait and jerk bait over it, too. Jerk baits work better when the water is clear and this creek is usually clearer than the river or the main lake.

3. N 32 40.893 – W 85 06.636 – Run down past the mouth of the river and watch for a rocky point on your right. It is between two long deep coves and a brown top gazebo sits under a big pine on the downstream side. The upstream side of the point has a big pine and a big hardwood leaning a little over the water. Start at the small wooden seawall on the upstream side at the leaning pine and work around the point and into the downstream pocket a short distance.

There are a lot of big rocks under the water on this point and bass stack up on it all during the winter. They will start to move into the coves to spawn but some will be out here all during March. As you fish past the gazebo there will be riprap on the bank and a house with a screen room on it.

Fish around the rocks down the steep bank. Keep fishing down this bank, working the riprap and docks. Some of the docks have brush around them and there is a lot of brush around the dock in front of the big house a short way down the bank. Nick says he has caught some big bass from this brush over the years. Fish all your baits here but your jig and pig is the best bet for bigger bass.

4. N 32 40.299 – W 85 04.650 – Run into the big creek to your left right at the dam. Toward the back there is an island in the middle with a house on it and it is before you get to the condos in the bank of the creek. Just before you get even with the downstream end of the island you will see a small pocket on your right. Start fishing at it and work toward the condos.

The first little pocket will hold bedding bass as will the next one and other bass will hold on the steep bank around rocks, docks and brush. Nick and I both caught bass in this area in February. Work all your baits here, running a crankbait beside the docks and off the rocks on the bank. Hop a jig and pig or jig head worm down the bank. Fish rails coming out of boathouse and brush around the docks.

As you work into pockets here fish slowly and watch for signs of bedding bass. You may see a light spot marking a bed or just see the black tip of a bass’s tail. If you spot a bass on the bed throw a jig into it and let it sit. Fish slowly with a jig for bedding bass here you don’t spot, too. Nick says bass will bed in this pocket even in early March.

Work all the way to the little peninsular with the picnic stuff on it at the condos. Nick says you should have a limit of keepers just along this bank in late February and March.

5. N 32 40.568 – W 85 04.668 – Run across the creek on the upstream side of the island and you will see a big cove on the other bank. On the right going into this cove is a seawall then riprap on the outside of a small cove. Start fishing at the end of the seawall and work around that little point into the cove.

Fish around the cove, watching for bedding bass and fishing slowly for the ones you don’t see. If you spot bass on the bed work all the way to the back of the pocket. Fish on around past the dock with a winch and crane to pull in a fish barrel. There is some brush around that dock to fish.

6. N 32 44.477 – W 85 06.688 – Head up the river to Blanton Creek and go to the boat ramp on your right. Bass move in here first as they start moving back to spawn up the river and hold here until everything gets right. Start fishing where the riprap starts just outside the ramp and work around the pocket past the three docks out to the point in the campground.

There is some brush here and rocks for the bass to hold on as they move up the creek. Nick likes to work a jig and pig slowly through the rocks and brush for bigger bass. This is the spot where he caught his 8 pound, 8 ounce fish. He says there will be “quadruple” the number of bass here than down on the main lake.

Nick says he will work this bank and other places several times. If he catches a fish on the first pass he will go back over it with the same bait. If he does not catch one on the first pass he will often go back over it with a different bait like a spinnerbait to offer them a different look.

7. N 32 44.672 – W 85 08.053 – Come out of Blanton Creek and head up the river. When the river makes a bend to your right, straight ahead on the outside bend you will see a house on your left then no houses. A good oxbow starts here and runs up parallel to the river.

You can enter near the last house but you are better off going upstream a little and finding the opening not much wider then a couple of boats that goes in. Be careful in this area, there is a hump off the bank that is under water when the lake is high. You can idle in if you are careful or put your trolling motor down and work your way in.

When you get back in the lake or old oxbow there will be lots of shallow water and grassbeds. This spot and others here are better if the lake is full. The day Nick and I looked at it the lake was almost two feet low and it was hard to get in here.

Nick likes to pitch a Senko to visible bedding bass or work holes in the grass with it if he is not seeing beds. Fish both sides of this oxbow all the way to the upper end. Nick says he gets most of his hits from the middle opening up to the upper end. Water can run in up there, too, but you can’t get your boat in there.

8. N 32 45.109 – W 85 08.219 – Across the river and upstream you will see two openings within a few feet of each other. The downstream one has a tree on the downstream side across the mouth of it so be careful going in. Nick says some folks start fishing here, working the outside edges with crankbaits and jigs, but he usually goes on back into the backwaters.

As you work in you will do downstream parallel to the river. This ditch is not real wide but not far from the opening is a small ditch on your left. Go through it and the oxbow opens up much bigger. Both sides join together and this oxbow opens up downstream so there is a lot of water to fish in here. Work both sides and watch for grassbeds and stumps to fish. There are a lot of stumps to your left when you go through the small ditch.

9. N 32 45.108 – W 85 08.255 – Just upstream of the opening in hole 8 is another opening that is very shallow right at the river opening. It goes in and this oxbow runs up the river channel. Get across the shallow flat at the entrance and you will find deeper water to fish on back in it.

In this one and in others fish until the bass tell you where they are holding. In this one and the others the river side of the oxbow will be more shallow. It usually has willows and grass on it. The bank side will be deeper and often has wood cover to fish. Work both sides until you find where the bass are holding and bedding and they usually are in similar places in all the oxbows.

10. N 32 46.000 – W 85 08.275 – Up the river and on the left just as the channel goes slightly to the right is another small opening. As soon as you go in you can go into a lake to your right. The channel also runs straight ahead and the point between the two is covered with stumps. Go into the right one and work around it hitting the grass and stumps in it.

If you go straight back you will go a good ways in a ditch then it opens up into a lake to fish. The Senko is Nick’s best bait up here this time of year but try a spinnerbait, too. The bass will sometimes be active enough to hit it and sometimes will give their location away by swirling at it without taking it. You can then work a Senko around that spot for them. Also watch for movement in the grass or baitfish jumping to show you where bass are holding.

These spots give you five to fish on the lake and five up the river. Nick will be fishing them this month and they are all good places. Check them out and you can then find some more similar spots, especially on the lake, to fish.

The West Georgia Bass Club is a Triton Gold Certified Team Tournament trail that fishes west Georgia and East Alabama lakes. There is an annual $25 membership fee per team and the entry fee is $50 per team in each tournament. They pay back one in seven boats and have a classic at the end of the year. For the schedule and rules go to http://www.westgeorgiabassclub.com/

How and Where To Catch September Smith Lake Bass with GPS Coordinates To Ten Spots

September Smith Lake Bass

with Rex Chambers

Night time is the right time most of September for catching the big spots on Smith Lake. But if you don’t like fishing at night, the good news is September is also the end of the summer doldrums of daytime fishing. As the days get shorter and the water starts to cool a little, those bass start schooling more and you can catch them on ledges and points in the daytime, too.

Smith is a 21,200-acre lake an hour north of Birmingham, near Cullman and Jasper. It has more than 500 miles of mostly steep, rocky shoreline and has a good population of largemouth. But it is becoming famous for its big spotted bass. Since the introduction of blueback herring the spots have grown fast, with many quality fish.

Rex Chambers has lived near Cullman all his life. After a 25-year career with the Cullman Police Department, the last three years spend as a water patrolman on Smith, he retired and started guiding full time. He has been guiding part time for over 35 years, helping other guides on corporate trips even before he was a teenager.

In addition to guiding Rex has fished tournaments on Smith since his teen years. He won his first tournament as a teenager and has fished many charity and pot tournaments on the lake over the years. Now he fishes many of the Tuesday night three-hour tournaments as well as both North and South divisions of the Alabama Bass Trail and some BASS Opens.

“In the three hour, three fish limit Tuesday night tournaments, often with 100 people entered, it usually takes at least nine to ten pounds to win,” Rex said. In five fish tournaments if you have less than 17 pounds it usually will not get you a check. The lake is full of three pound plus fish.

“Smith is a horse of a different color, you have to be able to do it all to be consistent,” Rex said. It has it all, both largemouth and smallmouth and all kinds of structure and cover. If you aren’t versatile you can’t consistently catch quality fish here.

In early September the big fish are still deep on their summer holes. Early in the month they feed mostly at night but start responding to changing conditions by feeding more during the day, chasing schools of baitfish on top and setting up in more shallow water. But they are still close to very deep water and hold deeper than most fishermen like to fish, even later in September. Early and late in the day is the best time to catch them.

Rex relies on a variety of baits to catch September Smith bass. For schooling fish and to draw them to the top he will use a walking bait like a Spook, Sammy, Sexy Dawg or Gunfish. And the Whopper Flopper will draw some vicious strikes. Some fish can be caught on crankbaits like a Black Label Balsa in shad colors as they move up and feed.

The staple bait is always a shaky head for numbers of fish and it will catch quality fish, too. Rex likes a one quarter ounce head with green pumpkin worm on it. A Carolina rig with anything from a four inch lizard to a Baby Brush hog, three feet above a half ounce sinker is good. But a V and M jig with a Wild Craw trailer in greens and browns will usually catch bigger fish than the other two bottom baits.

Rex showed me the following ten places to catch September bass in late July. As he predicted, fishing during the day was very tough. We did see a few fish chasing shad on top. But the weekend before we went, Rex and his partner had won a night tournament with some quality fish. Daytime fishing has improved now and will get better and better all this month.

1. N 34 04.760 – W 86 57.758 – If you put in at Smith Lake Park all these places are close by, and the first one is right at the park. Going downstream from the ramp there is a small cove just past the open field at the park on the left. A point runs out in the middle of it and has a big tree near the water. The point splits and runs out on both the left and right when you are facing the tree. These points drop fast into very deep water and have brush piles on them.

Keep your boat out in 30 plus feet of water and cast a shaky head or jig and pig up to eight or nine feet of water. Work both with short hops between sliding them along the bottom. You will catch more fish on the shaky head but get fewer bites and bigger fish on the jig.

Work both points from the ends, casting up on top of them. Work your baits out to at least 25 feet of water. When you hit brush work it carefully with both baits. Watch your electronics for brush under the boat and fish it even if it is 30 feet deep.

This point and others are good both night and day. Fish them any time but in early September night fishing is best, followed by low light conditions early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

2. N 34 04.282 – W 86 57.970 – Across the lake the Ryan Creek channel hits Goat Island, runs along the upper side of it and turns at the end, creating a long channel ledge. There is a sycamore tree on the point and a shelter on the point in the trees. The channel is 50 feet deep just off the point.

Keep your boat out in deep water and cast a topwater bait over the point from a couple of feet deep out to 25 feet deep. A walking bait will pull bass up from brush on the point as well as draw strikes from suspended fish. Then work a crankbait over the same area for fish that don’t want to come all the way to the top.

Probe the bottom with your jig and pig, working from shallow to deep. Watch your line and feel your bait carefully and let if fall straight down when it comes off the ledge where it drops into the channel. Work the jig from a few feet deep out to at least 25 feet deep.

3. N 34 04.059 – W 86 57.511 – Back across the lake and a little downstream Devil’s Den is deep cut going back from the outside bend of the Ryan Creek channel on the left. On the downstream side of it is a riprap point with no house on it. The riprap drops down then flattens out to a ledge that runs out to about 22 feet deep before dropping into 70 feet of water in the channel.

Stay out in 70 feet of water and cast both a shaky head and a Carolina rig up to 10 feet deep. Work them back until they drop into the channel. There are rocks and brush piles here to hold both daytime and night time fish. Probe the brush carefully when you hit it.

4. N 34 03.436 – W 86 58.775 – Further down this same bank you will pass Nip-I-Diddy Slough then the bank turns into more of a bluff bank. Watch for a for-sale sign near the water on a tree and start fishing here. A small point runs out to the channel that is not far from the bank. Rex said there is all kinds of timber on the bottom here and we could see the logs lying on the bottom on his Hummingbird side imaging unit.

Along this bluff the point forms a small ledge that holds a lot of bass. There are rocks and brush along it. Fish it both night and day with shaky head and jig. Rex will also fish a big spinnerbait here and in other places at night, slow rolling it close to the bottom just over the brush and other wood cover.

5. N 34 03.224 – W 86 59.107 – A little further down the bluff bank there is a small point where the bank turns a little and goes back into a small pocket. The channel runs along the outside of this point forming a good ledge that is loaded with timber, rocks and some brush piles on the bottom.

Stay out on the end of the ledge and throw up onto it shallow. Rex almost always fishes his baits from shallow to deep on these places. Work your shaky head, jig and Carolina rig along the bottom, bumping the cover out to at least 25 feet deep.

6. N 34 02.350 – W 86 59.030 – Just downstream Simpson Creek joins Ryan Creek, forming the “T” area. Going up Simpson Creek a long narrow creek is on your right near the junction. The upstream point of this creek drops off fast and is good topwater spot all month long.

Keep your boat in 40 to 50 feet of water and cast up to the bank, working your bait back to the boat. Rex caught a small spot here as we talked about this place. Although it was early for schooling fish we did see a little activity on top during the morning. Fish all around the point from deep water with topwater.

7. N 34 02.176 – W 86 59.137 – Going into the narrow creek on your right is a small double cove. The bank on the point between the two coves has been cleared and there are docks on either side of the point. The ditches coming out of the coves makes this point drop fast on both sides and the end drops off into very deep water.

There are rocks on this point that hold fish. It is a good place to find fish moving in and out of the small creek following bait as they hold here. Stay out on the end of the point and fish your shaky head and jig from 10 feet deep out to 30 feet deep.

8. N 34 02.148 – W 86 58.723 – Going up Simpson Creek a small cove has a house up on the hill on the upstream point. There is a wooden staircase going up to it and a red roof docks is in the water on the point. The creek channel runs parallel to this point and it comes up to a few feet deep out from the dock then drops back into deep water on the cove side. The point drops almost straight off into 90 feet deep on the creek side.

Sit on the creek side and cast to the top of the ledge. Move bottom bumping baits very slowly to follow the rocks down the sharp drop. Keep them in contact with the bottom down to 30 feet deep.

Smith Lake has very little current so it is usually not a factor, but wind blowing in makes these places better, especially for top water. Rex says the more wind the better for topwater so don’t let the wind keep you from fishing these places.

9. N 34 01.599 – W 86 58.130 – A little further up Simpson Creek the next bigger creek on the right had Mallard Point Marina on the upstream side near the mouth. The marina has been torn down and houses are being built on its old site. There is still an old no-wake buoy off the old marina boat ramp.

A big flat run out near this buoy along the left bank going in. There are stumps and rocks on it and it drops off into 35 feet deep water on the edge at the creek channel.

Go in near the old buoy and idle over the flat to see how it run out then drops. Fish your jig and Carolina rig, keeping your boat out in the creek channel and casting up onto the flat. Work your baits all over the flat to the edge, probing for the rocks. This is a big flat so take time to fish all over it, fish feed here.

10. N 34 04.344 – W 86 58.790 – Back up Ryan Creek behind Goat Island, on the left side going up the creek, Church House Point is the upstream point of the second narrow cut on the left. There is an old wooden church almost completely hidden in the trees on this point. The point has a steep rock ledge with brush on it.

This is a good spinnerbait hole at night. During the day fish your shaky head, Carolina rig and jig and pig on it. Fish will hold in the rocks and brush here and feed both day and night. This is also a good place to fish a crankbait. Get it down as deep as possible, bumping the rocks and brush.

All these holes are good day and night. Give them a try with the baits Rex likes or the ones you prefer. They will show you the kind of places you need to find to catch Smith lake bass this month.

To book a trip with Rex to see first-hand how he fishes Smith Lake, call him at 256-736-3763, email him at rex@smithlakebass.com or visit his website at https://www.smithlakeguideservice.com/

Where and How To Catch January Lay Lake Bass with GPS Coordinates for Ten Spots

How To Catch January Lay Lake Bass with Matt Herren

Its cold outside, the rut is making it a good time to go deer hunting and you might not be thinking much about fishing. But the big spotted bass at Lay Lake are on a very predictable pattern and you can catch some of the biggest spots of the year right now.

Lay Lake on the Coosa River east of Birmingham is known for its big spotted bass. The Alabama Power Lake dammed in 1914 produces three and four pounds spots consistently and bigger fish are caught each year. There is also a good population of largemouth but in the winter the spotted bass fishing is more consistent.

Matt Herren grew up fishing Lay Lake and other Coosa River lakes in the area. His father took him fishing in ponds and on Lay Lake as a kid and they watched some tournament weigh-ins and got interested in tournament fishing. They started fishing wildcat tournaments on Lay Lake in 1988.

From his success there he entered the Redman tournaments in 1989 and came in second in the points standings in the BAMA Division that first year. By 2003 he was fishing the FLW Tour and now fishes the BASS Elite trail.

Since turning pro, Matt has qualified for six BASSMaster Classics, including the 2016 tournament, and six FLW Championships. This past year he tied for 10^th place in the Angler of the Year point’s standings in BASS. In his career he has won over 1.2 million dollars in tournaments.

“In January the shad are moving up the river an into the creeks and the big spots are following them and feeding,” Matt said. He prefers to go after quality spots up the river if possible rather than fishing further down the lake. He said you can catch fish any day in January further down the lake but for the big ones he wants to fish up the river from the Locust Creek area to the Neely Henry Dam.

The day we went in early December the river was not fishable. We checked the Neely Henry Dam and all floodgates were open and all generators running. The river was three or four feet high and the current extremely strong. When it is like that the fish hunker down and are very hard to catch since you can’t even control your boat very well. So we made lemonade, fishing from the Highway 280 Bridge downstream, and Matt caught some fish under very tough conditions.

No matter which way he goes Matt will have the same baits rigged. His prime bait is a three eights to one half ounce Santone Lures Texas Finesse Jig tipped with a Reaction Innovations Petite Twerk or Smallie Beaver trailer. He goes with browns and greens if the water is clear or darker colors like black and blue if the water is stained.

A Santone three eights to one and one half ounce white or chartreuse and white spinnerbait is good for covering water faster, and he uses heavier baits the deeper he is fishing. A DT 6 or DT 10 crankbait in shad colors is also good for covering water and finding fish.

A Megabass 110 jerkbait and a Santone Piglet Shaky Head round out his arsenal of lures. The shaky head will have a Reactions Innovations Pocket Rocket worm on it. With those lures fished on a Kistler Rod with the action for that lure, teamed with Gamma fluorocarbon line, covers all the types of cover and structure he wants to fish in January.

The following places give you a variety of kinds of spots to fish, no matter what the conditions. If the river is high and fast fish the first six and similar places downstream. If it is normal, with some current but not so fast you can’t fish effectively, fish upstream from the Highway 280 Bridge.

1. N 33 17.626 – W 86 21.462 – We put in at Pop’s Landing in Tallaseehatchee Creek in Childersburg and started fishing at the mouth of it. When the current is strong the fish will often hold in the mouths of sloughs and creeks like this and feed in the eddies there. Start by casting a spinnerbait right to the rocks on the riprap bank on the downstream point since the fish will often be right on the bank.

As you get out into the river work downstream on the same side and fish all the way to the Highway 280 Bridge. If the current is strong point your boat upstream and let it drift downstream holding it as slow as you can with your trolling motor. Cast at an angle upstream, letting your bait work back to the boat with the current. Fish a crankbait and spinnerbait here, then follow up with a jig and pig.

Cast the jig right to the bank and use a heavy enough jig to keep it on the bottom in the current. If the water is high try to get your bait down to the rocks along the edge of the normal full pool channel. Bass will often hunker down behind those rocks and feed on baitfish and crawfish washed to them.

When you get to the bridges work the eddies behind the pilings on both the railroad and highway bridge. Matt got a keeper spot on his jig behind one of these pilings when we fished.

2. N 33 16.711 – W 86 23.289 – Running down the river the houses and docks stop and you will go a good ways down to the mouth of Bailey Creek opening on your left without seeing any docks. There is a picnic pavilion on the point and a dock just inside the upstream point, with riprap around it.

Stop on the upstream side of the slough and work the point as you go downstream. Cast into the slough and work a spinnerbait, crankbait and jig and pig back out to the eddy of the current. Also fish the downstream point of the slough.

If the current is real strong you can position your boat inside the mouth of the slough and cast your bait out, working it into the eddies on both points like a baitfish coming from the river into the slough.

3. N 33 16.353 – W 86 24.664 – Running down the river just before it starts a bend to the right you will see some big rocks on the bank on your left. This marks the start of a bluff outside bend of the river and is an excellent place to catch spots in January.

Start at the first visible rocks and fish downstream, keeping your boat in about 25 feet of water and casting to the edge of the water. Work your bait back out to about 15 feet deep. A jig and pig and a shaky head worm are both good here.

You can fish a long way down this bank since it is a sweeping outside bend and the rocks run all along it. Rocks are the key this time of year, if they have baitfish on them. Watch your depthfinder and if you are not seeing balls of bait don’t spend a lot of time in the area.

It is good to fish your bait with the current no matter how fast the current is moving. Some current is good and will make the fish bite better, even if the water is very cold. If the current is normal work upstream, casting ahead of the boat at an angle as you work into the current.

4. N 33 16.976 – W 86 25.636 – Across the river and downstream Deer Lick Creek enters the river as it starts a big horseshoe bend to the left. This big creek has a house trailer on the downstream point well back from the river. The upstream point of it has a defined underwater point coming off it and bass will feed on it in all current situations.

Stop upstream of the slough and fish the upstream point as you go past it. Then swing around into the slough and fish across it, casting your jig and pig and jig head worm out into the river and bringing it up and across the point. There are some stumps on the point that hold fish so probe for them with your baits.

5. N 33 14.547 – W 86 27.443 – Run on down the lake to the power plant on your right. This coal fired steam plant discharges warm water into the river and that warmer water draws shad and bass to it in January. Stop just upstream of the discharge and fish downstream.

Cast a spinnerbait or crankbait into the discharge and let the current carry it downstream as you fish it back. The river current and the discharge current will make eddies here that the bass hold in to feed so concentrate on them.

Also, fish a jig and pig or jighead in the discharge and downstream of it, too. The warmer water will say near the bank going downstream, making it better this time of year.

6. N 33 13.382 – W 86 27.840 – Further down the river the channel splits into three parts with islands separating them. The main marked channel is to the left side going downstream. Just upstream of the first marker where the channel goes to the left is a bluff bank. There is a house trailer sitting on top of the bluff upstream of the channel marker.

Stop out in front of this trailer and fish downstream, letting the current take your boat downstream backwards. Fish to the shallow gravel point where the bluff runs out and there is a small cove.

Fish the bluff bank and the big rocks on it with a jig and pig and jig head worm. Your boat should be in 25 feet of water a short cast off the bank. The current was almost too strong to fish here the day we went, even this far downstream, but Matt got a good keeper spot and we both missed fish in the current.

When you get to the shallow gravel point near the channel marker fish all over it with your jig and pig and jig head worm, too. Fish will run in on this point to feed.

7. N 33 19.766 – W 86 21.839 – The following places are all upstream of the Highway 280 Bridge and you can fish them for big spots as long as the floodgates are not open. One or two generators running produce enough current to improve the fishing but more than that makes it tough.

Go to the water intake tower on the right going upstream. It is just downstream of the golf course. This big structure breaks the current and bass will stack up on the downstream side of it as well as in front where pipes or indentions create an eddy.

Keep your boat downstream and cast a spinnerbait and crankbait up past the building and let them come back with the current. If you can hold your boat on the downstream side just downstream of the structure cast a spinnerbait to the wall and let if flutter down it. Also fish your jig head worm and jig and pig down the walls in the eddies.

8. N 33 20.157 – W 86 22.112 – Across the river and a little upstream is the mouth of Locust Creek. If the current is very strong you can fish it like the ones downstream but if the current is right start at it and work upstream.

Matt likes to slowly work up the river bank, casting at an angle ahead of the boat, all the way to the powerlines. He will work a crankbait or spinnerbait from the edge of the water back to the boat. If the fish are holding deeper along the bank he will go to a heavier spinnerbait to get down to them. He will also work a heavier jig and pig or jig head worm to keep it on the bottom deeper.

9. N 33 22.176 – W 86 20.567 – Something different that is always good in the winter, no matter what the conditions, is the back end of Flipper Creek where there is a big spring. The spring keeps the water a steady temperature, must warmer than the river water in the winter, which draws shad and bass, and it will be clearer if the river muddies up.

Go in the mouth of Flipper Creek and to the very back of it. You will be right beside the road and railroad that are in the back end of it just up the bank. Fish all the way around the area in the back, working all your baits around the wood cover here. Also cast right down the middle of the area to cover the bottom there.

10. The following spots are between the upstream railroad bridge and the Logan Martin Dam. Most of them are very similar and they are easy to find. The first is the railroad bridge itself. Matt says to fish all the pilings on it with spinnerbait, crankbait and jigs. Work the eddies caused by these pilings, just like at the downstream railroad bridge and the Highway 280 bridge.

Rateliffes Island is a big island that splits the river upstream of the railroad bridge. Just upstream of it is the mouth of Kelly Creek on your left and you can fish the mouth of it like the other creek mouths if the current is strong. If the current will let you, Matt says fish the banks on either side of it for a half mile both ways. Work up the current casting ahead of the boat and fishing all your baits back with the current.

Just across from Kelly Creek and a little upstream the right bank going upstream is an outside bend of the river Matt says fish it for a mile going upstream, as long as the rocks hold up on the outside bend. This is a typical bank that drops off fast and has rocks that you need to fish. Baitfish in the area makes it much better.

A little further upstream there is a small island not far off left the bank. Fish the banks on both sides of it and behind it, too. As in all places, look for current breaks to hold fish.

Matt warns that you should always wear your life jacket when up the river. The current is dangerous and the cold water can make you lose control of your muscles fast. Don’t take chances.

You can catch some quality spots right now on Lay Lake. Follow Matt’s suggestions for baits to use and kinds of places to fish and you will soon forget it is winter.

Matt does not guide but he is setting up an on the water electronics school. He will show you how to set up your Hummingbird electronics like his boat is equipped and show you how to use them to find fish. He can do the same for Lowrance units. You can contact him through his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/matt.herren.52

Where and How To Catch March Lake Demopolis Bass

with Will Ayres

Grass and bass go together in March like liver and onions on Lake Demopolis. Longer days and warming water both draw bass to the shallows to feed and get ready to spawn. They chase bait in the grass and you can catch them with a variety of baits.

Demopolis is a river lake with its dam just downstream of the junction of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers. It is the second largest lake in the Black Warrior-Tombigbee system and runs 48 miles upriver on the Black Warrior River and 53 miles up the Tombigee River. Both rivers have creeks, sloughs and ditches running out from them. These calm waters are where largemouth head to spawn so they can be found in or near the mouths of them this month.

There are spots in the rivers, too, and you can catch some big ones, but you need to have rocks for spots. So you have two good patterns in March, grass for largemouth and rocks for spots. Some baits are good for both and some are better for one or the other, but your bait choice is controlled more by the cover than the species you seek.

Will Ayres grew up in Demopolis and has lived there all his life. When he was 12 years old he got his first boat and his dad would pick him up from school towing the boat and take him to the river where he would fish until dark. He knows it well and fishes as many tournaments on Demopolis and Millers Ferry as he can.

When he was 16 Will joined the River City Bassmasters. He also fishes the McNider Marine trail, Bass Addiction team trail and other local and pot tournaments. Since he has a young son with a daughter on the way, Will sticks with his local area. When the kids are older he hopes to move up to bigger tournaments but last year, fishing just two lakes, he won $26,000!

“Baitfish are the key especially early in March,” Will said. Warmer days kick in the largemouth pre-spawn feeding spree and the bass want a lot of food. And they will be near the spawning areas. To catch them you need only a few baits. Will rigs a Rat-L-Trap, a spinnerbait, a jig and pig and a Texas rigged worm to cover all his fishing bases.

For spotted bass fishing Will with have a 5XD crankbait in sexy shad color and a Davis three eights ounce shaky head jig with a green pumpkin or Junebug Trick worm on it. He likes to dip his worms in clear JJs Magic to give them a strong garlic smell and sometimes dips the tails in chartreuse for a flash spots love.

Will took me out the first week of February. The weekend before we went, he and his partner landed a limit of bass weighing 17.6 with a 5.5 pound kicker. The fish were already on the pattern they will be on in March and were feeding when we went. We caught about 40 keeper bass on the following holes and the best five weighed about 16 pounds.

N. 32 32.081 – W 87 51.192 – Going upstream the Black Warrior River splits to the right and the Tombigee River goes straight ahead. Go into the Black Warrior and just a couple of hundred yards upstream on your left sawgrass starts lining the bank. In the middle of it a slough opens behind the grass. There are two ditches coming out of the slough with the one downstream much wider.

Stop just downstream of the lower opening and fish upstream. While fishing watch for birds feeding along the edge of the grass and baitfish action against it. If either are present it means bass are likely to be feeding or holding just off the bank waiting to feed.

The morning we fished there were a couple of birds on the bank and we saw baitfish dimpling the surface, and a few swirls as fish had breakfast. In the next hour we landed at least a dozen keeper largemouth. The fish were hitting a red Trap for Will but he said the weekend before his spinnerbait worked better here, so try both.

Throw your Trap and spinnerbait right against the edge of the grass as you fish to the first opening. At the opening throw into it across the points on both sides. Fish on up to the mouth of the second ditch and a little way past it. Some current moving here helps.

Watch back in the slough, too, for baitfish, birds and bass activity. The water is very shallow but it is the kind of place bass spawn so they will be back in here, especially later in March. Go into it and work all three of your baits in here, fishing the grass edges in the slough.

2. N 32 31.088 – W 87 48.981 – Running up the Black Warrior you will see a big cement plant on the right bank. It is on an outside bend of the river and there is a barge landing there. Downstream of the landing a tall bulkhead wall rises from the edge of the river. Just downstream of the bulkhead is a small ditch and on the right side of it you can see an old railroad causeway.

This is a good place to catch spots but some largemouth feed here, too. There are rocks on the bottom and current hits the bulkhead and old railroad causeway debris in the water, moving baitfish along the bank and drawing in bass.

Stop just downstream of the ditch and cast a crankbait or Trap right to the edge of the water around it. Work up to the bulkhead and get you boat in close to it and fish crankbait and jig head parallel along it. There are rocks and other cover along the base of the wall. Will stops when his boat gets to the upstream end of the wall, making a few casts to the bank past it.

3. N 32 31.430 – W 87 48.302 – Run upstream to French Creek on the right and go into it. It is a huge creek but the opening is very small with a no wake buoy in the mouth of the ditch and another one back where the ditch opens up. Idle past the second one then go to the point on the right side just downstream of where the houses on the bank start.

This point has grass along it near the bank and some stumps out on the flat bottom. Will says this is a good place to catch big largemouth and spots in March. They move in off the river and stop on this point as they work into the creek to spawn, holding here and filling up on baitfish.

Keep your boat out a long cast from the edge of the water and cast your Trap and spinnerbait close to the bank. Run both baits by any patches of grass out from the edge. Keep your bait moving slowly all the way to the boat since there are scattered stumps off the bank to hold fish. Fish all the way around the point to the bank of it near the fist house.

4. N 32 31.546 – W 87 48.097 – Across the creek one docks floats way off the bank. Go across just upstream of it. Be careful until you lean this creek, it is shallow. Just upstream of the dock a flat anvil shaped point runs out and has big oak trees on either end of it.

Start out from the upstream end and fish downstream around that end of the point. Throw your Trap and spinnerbait against the bank and run them past clumps of grass just like in Hole 3. Bass hold and feed along this bank, too, as they move in to spawn.

5. N 32 31.403 – W 87 47.725 – Carefully going up French Creek, you will come to where it splits into two arms. The left arm goes back under a powerline. Go into this small creek and stop on the outside of the first point in it on your left, before you get to the powerlines. It is covered with grass and is a good stopping point as the bass move into this creek to spawn. The point is fairly deep and has some rock on it, too.

This point is better from the middle of the month to the end. More and more fish will move back as the water warms and you can catch numbers of fish. But fish it early, too, since the bigger bass often move in to spawn earlier than the majority of bass. You may not get many bites on your Trap or Spinnerbait but could be grown one.

6. N 32 31.320 – W 87 47.720 – Go across the mouth of the small creek to the upstream point of it. This flat point runs out to a small island and has grass all along the point, gap between the bank and island, and the island itself. Fish the point and out to the island and around it with Trap and Spinnerbait.

Some wind blowing in on places like this helps move baitfish to the area and position bass to feed on them. A gentle wind will also move the warmer surface water to banks like this, warming them a little deeper than the main lake or points out of the wind. That can make them even more attractive to bass.

7. N 32 33.422 – W 87 47.580 – Go back out to the river and head upstream. You will go under a set of big powerlines over the river then a straight before it makes a right bend. While you are running up the straight stretch, when you see an orange roof house and dock ahead of you in the bend on the left bank, slow down and watch to your right. You will see a small ditch that leads back to a big oxbow lake just off the river. We had to go through the ditch with the trolling motor since the lake was down a little. Go through it and when it opens up the water will get deeper. This oxbow runs way back along the river and is a big spawning area.

Go in and ease to the point on the right where the oxbow bends to the right. A lot of standing timber starts at this turn and bass will hold in it. The point on the right is a prime feeding place for big fish and numbers of fish this month. We caught several keepers along this point and on the bank across from it, too.

Fish the whole area with all your baits. Work the grass as well as the stumps sticking out of the water. You can fish all the way to the back and Hole #8 or fish around the point, the key area, then idle through the stump field to the point in the back.

8. N 32 33.329 – W 87 47.542 – Almost in the very back, where the oxbow makes a left then right bend, there is another very good point on the left. It is one of the last feeding areas before the bass bed, and they will bed all over this area. Fish all around it on both sides and the outside bend across from it with all your baits.

I caught a couple of bass in here on a black and blue jig and pig. Will makes his own jigs that come through the grass and he gave me one. I put a blue Zoom Fat Albert twin tail on it but Will prefers a black or blue Little Critter Craw. He fishes the jig or a Texas rigged green pumpkin or June Bug Trick worm behind a three sixteenths ounce sinker

Both jig and pig and Texas rig are fished around the grass and wood cover, moving them slowly along the bottom until you hit cover, then shaking them before hopping the baits over the cover. Feeding bass will hit both as will bass already on the bad that you cannot see due to the stained water.

9. N 32 34.342 – W 87 47.004 – Run up the river and watch on your right for red channel marker 226.8. The numbers are on a small, faded sign near the red marker and hard to see. Upstream of the marker a ditch goes out on the right and opens up into creek that is an excellent spawning creek and fills with feeding bass in March. Will says it is a great place to catch numbers and size.

This creek is small enough to fish all the way around it, and we did. Start on the left at a cut going back – there is a matching ditch on the other side. Fish the grass all the way to the back and out the other side. You could stay in this protected creek all day.

Will picked up an individual fish as we worked around this creek on both Trap and spinnerbait, then we hit a small pocket behind a little point on the left going out. The wind was blowing into the creek and the calm area behind the point held a school of fish.

Will caught fish after fish on spinnerbait and I caught a couple on a Chatterbait. We would see baitfish dimpling regularly and a swirl of a feeding fish every so often. We sat in one place and caught at least a dozen keepers without moving. You can hit a school like that at any time on any of these places.

10. N 32 35.169 – W 87 46.844 – Way up the river the Alabama Power Green County Plant sits on the left side of the river. There is a canal going off the river on the left running up to the plant, and it has an outflow of warm water from the plant. The right side of the canal is natural rock and the left side is riprap up to the barge unloading piers. The plant changed from coal to gas so there are no longer lines of barges with coal waiting to unload along this side.

Start on the downstream point of the canal. Spots love this point and the canal itself. Will says so many tournaments were won with limits of big spots from this area the canal was put off limits by some groups.

Fish the point with Trap and crankbait if current is moving, then fish it with your shaky head. Work into the canal, fishing up all the way to the plant. Stay in near the bank and cast a crankbait up ahead of your boat to make it come back with the current as you go upstream. The current and warmer water both attract fish.

Will caught a couple of small spots here on a crankbait, but there was no current moving when we were there. If the current is not moving you can stay in the area and wait on a discharge to turn on the fish, then load the boat when it happens.

All these places were already holding bass a few weeks ago and will be better now, and get better and better as March progresses. Check them out and you can find many similar places on Demopolis to fish this month.

Where and How to Catch April Bass at Lake Martin with GPS Coordinates

April Bass at Martin with Kelley Jaye

April is the month most bass fishermen dream of, with big sow bass in shallow water on the bed and bass of all sizes roaming the shallows feeding. It is a dream month for bass fishing, and you can make your dreams come true at Lake Martin.

Martin is a big clear water lake north of Montgomery on the Tallapoosa River. It is known for its spotted bass but it has a good population of largemouth, too. By late March many largemouth buck bass will be in the shallows scouting for bedding spots and the big females will be close behind.

Spotted bass will be feeding on deeper points and will start looking for bedding areas in April. They bed deeper and are hard to catch by sight fishing but are aggressive and will hit many baits fished where they are holding. Spots are fun to catch and you can catch a bunch of them right now, but for tournament fishermen you want to fish for largemouth for a heavy stringer.

Kelley Jaye has lived in Reeltown since he was 12 years old and has been fishing Martin since then. He has done well in tournaments on the lake, finishing second in the BFL Super Tournament there a couple of years ago. This year he is fishing the FLW Everstart and BASS Open tournaments as well as local tournaments on Martin.

On March 5 he came in 5^th in the BFL on Martin with five spotted bass weighing 14.9 pounds. Since the largemouth were not bedding yet he stuck with a jerk bait all day and caught the big spots.

“April is a great month for both spotted bass and largemouth,” Kelley told me. Spots are concentrated on points and can be caught on topwater baits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, jig head worms, a jig and pig and a Carolina rig. Largemouth will slam a topwater bait early in the morning then you can sight fish for them on the beds with a jig head worm, Trick worm and a lizard.

In tournaments Kelley will go to the bedding pockets first thing and go around them with a buzzbait or big stick bait like a Spook. He works around the shallows fast looking for a reaction strike. After the sun gets up he goes back around the shallows and throws a Trick worm or weightless lizard to bedding bass.

To catch a lot of bass Kelley will fish secondary points in the bigger creeks and coves, looking for schools of spots. A spinnerbait or jerk bait worked across the point early will get hit, as will a topwater bait. After the sun gets up a jig head worm, jig and pig or Carolina rig will catch them.

Kelley does not have any sponsors at this time so he uses baits and equipment he likes best. He prefers a G Loomis rod and a Johnny Morris DBS reel with BPS fluorocarbon line for jigs and jig head worms or Suffix Monofilament line for topwater.

For April Kelley will have a peanut butter half ounce Chompers jig with a twin tail brown trailer and a BPS quarter ounce jighead with a Zoom green pumpkin Speedworm tied on for spot fishing after the sun gets up. He likes a Rogue jerk bait, a Spook and a one half ounce white and chartreuse spinnerbait with one gold and one silver blade for early fishing on the points.

For largemouth the Spook works early as does a buzzsbait. For later fishing he ties a five-0 hook and threads a Zoom Green pumpkin Trick worm on it. He also likes a Zoom six or eight inch lizard rigged weightless for throwing around visible beds. He expects to find largemouth bedding down to about four feet deep. If he needs the lizard to go a little deeper or if it is windy he will tie a swivel ahead of it to get it down.

We fished in early March the day before the BFL and Kelley showed me the following spots for April fishing. We caught about 15 spots, they were already feeding on points and they hit spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, jig head worms and jig and pig. By now even bigger spots will be feeding and the largemouth will be moving in.

1. N 32 43.104 – W 85 50.155 – The very back of Spain Branch has a good spawning flat and is the kind of place you want to look for largemouth. Go back to the powerlines where they cross on the right side and start fishing. There are a lot of stumps on the point that comes out just past the powerlines and all over the flats in the back of the creek.

Work around it before the sun gets bright with a topwater bait like a Spook or buzzbait. Make long cast and work the baits fast. You want to cover as much water as quickly as you can, searching for a reaction strike from a big largemouth. If you can see stumps cast to them but it will be hard to spot cover or fish under water before the sun gets up.

After sun up go around the cove watching for bass on the bed. Throw a weighless lizard to bass that don’t run off when you cast to them. You don’t need to waste time casting to beds when the fish swims way off when you spook it. Kelley says they are ready to hit when they stay within five or six feet of the bed, come right back, and pay attention to your lizard.

2. N 32 45.145 – W 85 51.456 – Across Blue Creek just upstream of the point with Union Ramp on the South Side of the creek and the long point coming toward it on the other side, there is an island just off the bank. Downstream of this island is a shallow spawning pocket where bass move in early. There are a few stumps and some brush in it and it has a hard bottom, a requirement to draw bedding fish.

Start on the right side at the metal roof dock with a kids slide on the bank to the right of it facing it. Work the brush there and around the next small red dock. There is a good bit of brush the left of the red dock that will be in six or seven feet of water at full pool, and bass will hold in it before bedding.

When the water temperature is 60 to 62 degrees first thing in the morning and warms to 65 to 67 in the afternoon Kelley says he knows he will find largemouth back in these pockets. He expects to find two to four beds in a small pocket like this when the spawn is on.

3. N 32 43.624 – W 85 51.043 – Go back across to Cooper Branch and go past the two long points on your left going in. Just past the second one the very back of the cove where Center Port Road bends around it is a good spawning area. It is protected and lined with docks all the way around it.

You will see twin houses with tin roofs on the right side going into the cove. One is brown and one is green. Start working the docks in front of them and work around the cove, fishing topwater early around the docks and brush then coming back and looking for bedding bass.

Bass like to bed beside a stump or dock post so look closely at those kinds of areas. Bass on the bed can be hard to spot but practice helps. Look for the black tip of the tail or any movement. Watch them to see if they hang close to the bed or move off so you will know if they are ready to hit.

4. N 32 42.878 – W 85 50.901 – In the back of Cooper Branch a point comes out with small cabins on it. This is Lake Martin RV Resort. A good creek enters on the left side of it, facing it. This long narrow creek splits in the back and holds a lot of bedding bass.

Go in and you can fish the steep bank on your right, there is a good bit of brush on it. Start across from the cabin with a patio house down the slope from it then a dock. All three have green roofs. Work around both sides and the back for bedding bass.

Where the creek splits past the green roof dock the cove straight ahead, the left fork, has a good channel coming out cutting through a flat. Channels help draw bass in and coves with a ditch or channel are best. Kelley says bass will stage on the ditch and work in to the bedding spots, the use it working back out, too.

5. N 32 42.797 – W 85 41.503 – Come out of the cut above and go past the RV Resort, following that bank to your left. You will round a point and see a big gray house with lots of tin roofs at different angles on it. It sits on a narrow rocky point that is a good example of the kind of places spotted bass hold and feeding in April. They may bed on these points, too.

Kelley likes to sit on the channel side of the point and throw across it, working it from shallow to deep. Start with a spinnerbait, jerk bait or topwater bait early in the morning. If fish are hitting the jerk bait Kelley will often keep throwing it all day. He says sometimes big spots will eat the jerk bait all day. You won’t get m any bites but can catch some quality spots this way.

Drag a jig head worm or jig and pig across the point, too. Kelley says he seldom uses a Carolina rig because he seems to catch bigger bass on the jig head worm, or jig and pig, but if you use one try a half ounce sinker with a green pumpkin lizard or Finesse worm following it.

Kelley likes a quarter ounce BPS jig for his shaky head worm fishing and a half ounce Chompers jig with a twin tail trailer. Work both slowly across the point with small hops and drags, covering the entire bottom on the point.

6. N 32 42.527 – W 85 51.333 – Keep going toward the back of Cooper Branch and it splits to the left and right. Stay to your left going in and this narrow channel goes way back. There is a no wake buoy in the mouth of it and a danger marker in the center near the back. The danger marker is on a flat point that comes off the right bank.

A good channel comes out of this cove and the flats on both sides of it are good bedding areas. It is very shallow back in here, especially if the lake is down some. Bass will bed anywhere in the back of this creek so fish all around it.

7. N 32 43.127 – W 85 51.665 – Come out of the above cove and past the danger marker. Watch to your left and when you pass three coves running back to the left, there is a big point with some big new houses on it on your left. Watch for the point with the gray house and you will see a big stump on the right tip of that point just off the seawall.

Way off this point a hump comes up to about ten feet deep with the lake down six feet like it was when we were there. There is a big log and some trees on this point and it is a good place to work a jig head worm, jig and pig or Carolina rig.

Kelley keeps his boat out in deep water and works all the way around the hump, throwing up on top of it and working his bait out to deeper water. Probe for the log and brush and concentrate additional casts when you hit cover.

8. N 32 43.452 – W 85 52.246 – Go toward the mouth of Cooper Branch and into the last big cove on your left. Ahead and on the right side of this big cove are several points. One with a “For Sale” sign on it has no house but there is a sculptured concrete sea wall around it. This point has shale rock on the downstream side and two flat points run off the upstream side, across the cove above it. These points have smaller rock on them.

All three areas hold bass. Fish them will all your baits. Stay out in deeper water and cast toward the bank, working your bait from shallow to deep. Also go past the point and cast back across it bringing your bait at a different angle.

Some wind blowing in on this and other points makes them better for spinnerbait and jerk bait but more difficult to fish with a jig or jig head worm. Heavy wind will make them almost impossible to fish because you can not hold the boat in position. Choose your bait based on the wind.

9. N 32 44.896 – W 85 51.930 – Go back across Blue Creek and into the bog pocket across from Union Ramp. It is behind a big island. The pocket splits into two arms running north. Go in the left one and start fishing just inside the right point. It has a smaller side cove to the left and a bigger cove to the right. It has a big brown house on the main point and a dock inside the point on your right going in.

Fish all around this pocket with a Trick worm and watch for beds. Fish the points, especially the one between the two coves, with jerk baits, jig head worm and jig and pig. The smaller left hand cove has lots of trash in it from cleaning the lots so fish it carefully.

10. N 32 44.889 – W 85 51.762 – Go around the big main point between the two big coves and watch for a flat secondary point on your left. It is in front of a brown house with a rock patio. Just past the house the dock has two orange floats in front of it.

Stay well off the bank and fish the point with a jig head worm and a jig and pig. Hop and slide both baits down the slope of the point. Keep your boat out in deep water and throw shallow, and fish all the way around the point.

These places all are holding bass right now on Martin. Check them out to see the kinds of places Kelley fishes and you can find many similar places all over the lake to catch spots and largemouth.

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