Category Archives: Map of the Month – Alabama

How and Where to Catch September Lake Eufaula Bass

September Bass at Eufaula
with Dwayne Smith

September is one of the worst months for bass fishing in many of our Georgia lakes. The water is at its hottest and bass are deep and hard to find. But at Lake Eufaula the numerous ledges are full of bass and the grassbeds all over the lake entice some bass to feed shallow. You can take advantage of both patterns and catch bass there this month.

With 45,180 acres of water, there are lots of places to fish at Eufaula. Stretching 85 miles from the dam to Columbus, this long lake is mostly river bottom with lots of shallow areas and good drops into channels. Those are perfect places for bass to hold and feed this month.

Eufaula is a shallow lake with big flats everywhere. Grass grows on many of these flats and points leading to the channels, and willow bushes grow all over the lake, even on some mid-lake ledges. Bass like to feed around this shallow cover and can be found there all year long, but this pattern gets even better in late September when the water begins go cool.

Dwayne Smith won the Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Top Six tournament at Eufaula last April. He won it early, catching a limit of bass on spinnerbaits first thing each morning. Fishing with the Blackshear Bass Club for the past six years has taught Dwayne a lot about the lake since they fish it about four times a year, and he put his knowledge to good use in the Top Six.

Making the Top Six team each year that he has been in the club is something Dwayne is proud of doing, and he likes fishing the Top Six. He also likes Eufaula and can catch fish there most of the year. He says September can be a good month if you know were to fish.

“Start early in the grassbeds, then move to the drops as the sun gets on the water,” Dwayne said. That is a simple pattern but it works well for him most of the year, and September is no exception.

Dwayne will start each morning throwing a half-ounce white Terminator spinnerbait with a gold willowleaf and a silver Colorado blade. He likes a split tail white trailer and says the bait looks so good in the water sometimes he wants to eat it himself! The spinnerbait is fished in the shallows all over the lake, anywhere there is grass or willows.

Dwayne may start out on the main lake on humps but the sun hits those areas early. As the sun comes over the trees he will often move to the shady bank to get some more time with his spinnerbait. But when the sun gets bright, it is time to move to deeper water.

“Look for shallow water near deep water,” Dwayne said. A drop from the shallows to the channel is going to hold bass, and the steeper the drop the better it usually will be. Dwayne will fish a Carolina rig on these places, casting up shallow and working his bait down to deeper water.

A black Trick worm rigged behind a one ounce sinker on a 24 to 30 inch leader is Dwayne’s standard Carolina rig. He likes heavy line on both spinnerbait and Carolina rig, and uses 15 pound Trilene Big Game line on everything, including his leader.

You will often see bass busting shad on top during September, so Dwayne also keeps a chrome half-ounce Rat-L-Trap rigged and ready to cast toward them. And he will have a big Fat Free Shad on another rod to run across shallow drops in case the bass want something moving a little faster than a Carolina rig. He likes shad colored crankbaits if the water is clear and something with some chartruese in it if the water is stained.

I fished with Dwayne in early August to get a look at the way he fishes Eufaula. He showed me ten of his favorite places to fish in September to share here, and he explained how he fishes each. The following ten spots will give you some grassbeds and shallows to fish this month as well as drops to move to when the sun gets bright.

1. N 32 03.171 – W 85 03.321 – The bank straight across from the mouth of Little Barbour Creek has a good grassbed and is on the east side of the lake, so it stays shady for a good while each morning. Dwayne will start right across from the mouth of the creek and fish upstream all the way to the small creek.

Keep your boat out and easy cast from the bank and throw your spinnerbait back into the edge of the grass. Fish it back out, running it by any clumps of grass or any wood cover out from the bank. Dwayne fishes the spinnerbait fast, keeping is down under the water but running it back quickly at a steady speed. Making a lot of cast as fast as possible is important since this pattern does not last long.

2. N 32 01.997 – W 85 03.413 – Head downstream and the channel will make a sharp bend to the Georgia bank, then swing out toward the Alabama side. Right where the channel leaves the east bank there is a small island. A point runs off this island and follows the edge of the channel as it cuts across the lake. There is a red channel marker just off the island.

Dwayne likes to keep his boat upstream of the drop running off the island and casts up onto the flat formed by the point. He will work his Carolina rig or crankbait back to the boat, fishing some of the top of the flat and then covering the edge of the drop.

If there is current moving the lip of the drop is probalby the best spot. If the current is not moving Dwayne will work the Carolina rig down the drop and probe for any wood stuck there. He will work from the island out to the channel marker, fishing the edge all along there.

3. N 32 01.546 – W 85 02.876 – Head on downstream and the channel goes to the Alabama bank then makes a sharp turn back to the Georgia side. The mouth of Rood Creek is where the channel hits the Georgia bank, but just upstream is a small creek with a split near the mouth. The river channel runs near the mouth of it and the double opening has deep water in it.

The point on the split in the mouth of this creek has a hump off it that has stumps on it. It is only four feet deep on top and drops off to 25 feet or deeper all around. Keep your boat out in the deeper water and fish around the hump, making casts up on top of it and fishing down the slope.

This is a good place to run a crankbait across the top of the hump, then fish a Carolina rig on it. You will get hung up on the stumps but there will often be bass holding by them, too. Fish this spot carefully, taking time to cover it from all angles.

4. N 32 00.670 – W 85 03.605 – Downstream of Rood Creek the channel swings toward the Alabama bank and then right back to the Georgia side. A little further downstream it angles across the lake to the Alabama side, and just upstream of where it hits the bank is an opening to a big flat split by an island. This big area is actually the ends of two old oxbow river runs cut off from the lake by an island. Dwayne calls the big flat grassy area behind the island “The Barn.”

This very shallow water has lilly pads and other grass along the bank. Out in the middle you will see clumps of hydrilla. Bass will feed here year round, but move in more as the water starts to cool near the end of September.

Start fishing near the mouth and cast to every cut and hole in the grass and pads. Watch for dark clumps out in the middle of the open water and fish them with your spinnerbait, too. Run your spinnerbait along and through every fishy looking spot.

5. N 31 59.003 – W 85 04.129 – Head downstream past the mouth of the Witch’s Ditch and the lake will open up. The island that runs parallel to the river on the Georgia side, the one that cuts off the Witch’s Ditch, ends and the lake will open up. Just downstream of the end of this island is a red channel marker and there is a good river ledge here where the channel makes a small turn toward the Alabama bank.

Position your boat just downstream of the marker and you will be in about 40 feet of water. You can cast up onto the top of the ledge to 12 feet of water and fish the stumps on it. Fish all long this ledge, trying a crankbait and then the Carolina rig. When you hit a stump, pause your bait and let the bass have a good look at it. If you don’t get bit, cast right back to the same place to fish that stump again.

6. N 31 58.304 – W 85 03.888 – As you go downstream the channel will swing all the way to the Georgia side just below the mouth of Bustahatchee Creek. The red channel marker 103.1 will be near the bank and just upstream of it you will see some small willows sticking up out of the water about 200 feet off the mouth of a small creek called “The Watermelon Hole.” There is a big irrigation pump in this small creek and you can usually hear it running.

This hump was the site of a house before the lake was backed up, and the old brick foundation is still there. Fish all around this hump and the willows with your spinnerbait then back off a little and fish it with your Carolina rig. The river channel is just off the outside of it and the creek channel runs by it, too. Fish the drops into each with your Carolina rig and feel for the bricks. When you hit them fish them slowly.

Watch for schooling fish here. While we were fishing it some big shad scooted out of the water and Dwayne threw his Rat-L-Trap to it. He hooked a stong fish that fought more like a bass than a hybrid, and I was ready with the net when it got close to the boat. Unfortunately, the bass made a strong run and pulled loose before we saw it.

7. N 31 58.221 – W 85 03.924 – Just downstream of this hump, right at channel marker 103.1, the channel makes a sharp bend back toward Alabama and the mouth of Cowikee Creek. The water in the channel is 58 feet deep and it comes up to a shallow flat with a small point running out on it. You can see the small point as a buldge on the bank in the grassline.

Keep your boat out in the channel and cast up onto the flat. Some wood cover sticks here at times but the main feature is the drop. Fish the lip of the drop with crankbait and Carolina rig.

Dwayne told me this was a good spot hole as we pulled up on it, and he caught a small keeper spot here on his Carolina rig. Fish all long the lip of this drop as the channel swings away from the bank.

8. N 31 58.103 – W 85 05.776 – Run into the mouth of Cowikee Creek and head upstream until you get to the island on your right just outside the channel. The channel will make a wide sweeping bend all the way across the creek from the far bank to the end of this island and then back to the far bank. Stop just outside of the red pole channel marker that has a small number 271 on it that is standing off the end of the island. Keep your boat in the channel.

The outside bend here has brushpiles and stumps all along it. Dwayne will fish from this pole all along the outside bend all the way to the next red pole marker downstream. Near the channel marker at the end of the island Dwayne hung a strong fish on his Carolina rig but it got him down in the brush. He sawed it back and forth for a short time before it broke off.

9. N 31 54.845 – W 85 07.082 – Dwayne runs the Alabama side from the mouth of Cowikee Creek all the way to Old Town Creek Park. This is very shallow water and is dangerous if the lake is down any at all, which it may be in September. You are much safer following the channel.

When you get to Old Town Creek Park swimming area, just downstream of the fishing pier, a ledge runs way out from the swimming area toward the Georgia bank. It is called the “Closeline” because it runs so straight and far. Dwayne will keep his boat on the upstream side of this drop and fish all along it, casting up onto the top of the flat and working his Carolina rig down the drop.

There is some brush on this drop and the drop runs about even with the bank at the swimming area. If you look at the bank you can tell how it continues on out in the lake. If there is any current this is an excellent place and you can fish it out 100 yards or more. Current helps here just like on all other holes where there is a drop.

10. N 31 53.025 – W 85 07.843 – The last hole Dwayne showed me is a long point with rocks on it running out from the Alabama side. It is easy to find because there is a railroad on top of this point. The point he likes to fish is the railroad causeway on the Alabama side.

Dwayne will start on the upstream side of the causeway and work around the point with a crankbait or spinnerbait, casting up near the rocks and fishing back out. If there is current running around this point the bass will stack up on the rocks to feed on shad moving downstream. It is a good place all day long and is easy to find.

Give these spots a try and then use what you see on them to find others. There are acres of grassbeds on Eufaula and many of them hold bass. And the miles of river and creek ledges hold bass this time of year. Eufaula is one of our best lakes in September. Spend some time there.

How To Catch July Bass at Lake Seminole

July Bass at Lake Seminole
with Daryl Davis

Big bass in shallow grass, even in July. If that sounds like a good pattern to you, plan to head south to Seminole this month. The hydrilla has grown thick on river ledges and the bass move into it to feed. You can catch some bragging size stringers right now fishing the grass at Seminole.

Seminole is an impressive 37,500 acre lake right in the corner of Georgia, Florida and Alabama. This time of year half its surface can be covered with hydrilla, making it look like a fantastic place to catch bass. And it is, but if you go out casting to all the hydrilla you may never get bit. The bass hold in specific areas that you will have to learn.

Although the heat can be oppressive this time of year, and the hydrilla gnats will drive you crazy if there is no breeze, you can catch bass all day long out of the thick cover if you fish it right. Early mornings and late afternoons are still best, but big bass will hit in the middle of the day, too.

Daryl Davis lives in Ochlocknee, near Thomasville, where he runs a family owned grocery store and fishes with the Rose City Bassmasters. He has been with that club for about 12 years and they fish Seminole often. This year Daryl made the state team at the Top Six tournament on Eufaula.

For several years Daryl has fished the BFL trail, the Georgia/Florida Team trail and other local tournaments on Seminole. He has learned its secrets and knows where to go to catch bass every month. He agreed to show me his July patterns and some places where they work. We spent an afternoon on the lake on June 17 and landed several bass, including a 3.5 pounder I caught and a 5 pound fish he caught.

Hydrilla is the key but the bottom structure where it grows controls where the fish will be in it. Bass hold in deeper water this time of year, so hydrilla edges near channels are the best place to find them. They will move up ditches across hydrilla flats to feed, too, but you need some kind of bottom contour to attract them to an area.

First thing in the morning Daryl likes to start off with topwater baits for the early bite. He will throw a black or white skirted buzzbait and run it across the hydrilla edges and around clumps of the grass. A chrome and black Pop-R is also a good bait when the bass want something moving a little more slowly.

About an hour after the sun gets above the trees Daryl will try a 3/16 or 1/4 ounce double willowleaf white spinnerbait with chrome blades. This bait is run above the hydrilla and dropped into cuts and holes in the grass. The bass will often slam it as it flutters down past them.

A Carolina rigged Zoom Mag 2 or Ultravibe in Junebug red or green pumpkin is a good bait for some areas. If the grass is scattered enough to drag it effectively, Daryl will rig up with a half-ounce lead and cover flats around ditches with it. He also likes to cast it to brush piles in deeper water.

A Bandit crankbait works well when the hydrilla is thin enough to work it around clumps of grass or over it. Daryl will fish a crankbait along the edge of the hydrilla and over the flats when he can. That allows him to cover more water and find active fish.

Daryl’s go-to bait is a Texas rigged Baby Brush Hog or Mag 2 worm in Junebug red or green pumpkin. He uses a 3/16 to 5/16 Florida sinker ahead of the bait. These sinkers have a screw eye that will hold them to the worm so you don’t need to peg it. This bait is dropped into holes, cuts and points in the hydrilla to attract bass all day long.

Heavy equipment is needed to drag big bass out of the grass, and Daryl uses 17 to 20 pound clear Sensation or Silver Thread line. A stiff rod helps drag the bass and grass to the boat when the fish burrows down into it, and he often cranks down the drag on his bait casting reels till it won’t slip.

The following ten spots all hold bass and we caught fish on several of them two weeks ago. Check them out and then you will be able to find many more just like them.

1. N 30 47.356 – W 84 40.990 – Up the Flint River above Wingates near Faceville Landing you will go past an island on your right running upstream. It is just downstream of the place the channel goes to the right bank below Faceville. On the upstream end of the island is a red channel marker. A ledge runs from the island out past this channel marker, parallel to the channel.

There are some brush piles on the point around the marker in about 16 feet of water. This is a good place to cast a Carolina rig and probe the point and brush since July bass hold in and around it. Fish all around the marker, casting toward it from a big circle. You can also ride the point with a good depthfinder and mark the brush. When you locate the brush make repeated casts to it. Current running into the brush helps.

2. N 30 47.367 – W 84 42.011 – Downstream of the island Butler Creek enters on your left going downstream. The downstream point of it has a good hydrilla edge to fish. A flat runs out to the channel and you will see a group of 5 stumps and a sixth one a little away from them. Bass hold out on the channel and run in to the grass to feed.

Start fishing the hydrilla edge at the point of Butler Creek and work downstream. Early in the morning try topwater along the edges and give the spinnerbait a try. Then pitch or flip a Baby Brush Hog or Mag 2 worm to the edge of the grass. Concentrate on cuts, holes and points in the hydrilla. Bass will hold on any irregularity.

Try to make the bait enter the water without a ripple first. When the bass are holding shallow sometimes a loud splash will spook them. At other times Daryl says a loud splash seems to attract them, so try that if the quiet entry is not working. In either case, expect a hit on the fall. When your bait hits bottom, twitch it once or twice then pick it up to make another flip.

If the day is cloudy and early in the morning Daryl says the bass are more likely to be roaming the outside edge of the grass. When the sun gets on the water it tends to make them back up into the cover, holding inside the grass. That is when you must make your bait fall right beside the grass and pitching into holes back in the grass is more likely to pay off.

3. N 30 47.307 – W 84 42.831 – Head downstream and the channel will kick back to the left a little. Just before it goes into the sharp right bend, around the last green marker before the bend, start fishing the grass on your right. You will be across the channel from two tall sanding trees out in the water. This grass is just off the channel and the big flat behind it is full of stumps and thick grass.

The bass will hold along this grass edge, moving up out of the nearby channel to feed. Fish all along this edge, working all the way down to where the channel bends. Current moves parallel to the grass so any little point or pocket in the grass is a good holding place for bass to ambush food.

4. N 30 47.407 – W 84 43.169 – Head downstream and the channel makes a sharp sweeping turn all the way across the lake to the right bank. The outside bend of the channel drops off sharply and there is a huge grass flat running all the way past Wingates. Many bass move off this flat in the summer and hold on the outside bend.

Watch for a big stump on your left that sits right on the channel. It will be even with the green channel marker across the channel and about half-way between two red markers. There is a shallow ditch that runs across the flat at an angle, running to your right and downstream if you are facing downstream. You can see it as an opening in the grass and stumps. Start fishing near that stump.

Fish the main channel edge but also fish down the ditch, pitching to grass on both sides of it. The water in the ditch will be 7 to 9 feet deep and each end drops off into the channel. This is a big area to work since you have the outside edge of the river channel all the way around the bend and both sides of the ditch.

It was near the downstream end of this ditch, but back on the main river channel, that I caught a 3.5 pound bass on a green pumpkin Baby Brush Hog two weeks ago. The bass thumped the Brush Hog as it fell then headed straight to the boat with it. When you feel a bite, set the hook fast, the bass often run to deep water as soon as they hit. Daryl also caught a couple of bass in this area.

5. N 30 47.578 – W 84 43.363 – On the right going downstream where the river hits the bank a big cove full of cattails sits off the edge of the water. About 100 yards downstream is the entry to Ten Mile Still Landing. Look at the grass and you will see a point on it. This grass is on a sandbar that runs out toward the channel.

Fish the grass edges all around this point and also work the point with a Carolina rig and a crankbait. Bass will use the sandbar to move out of the channel to the grass to feed, and will feed on the sandbar, especially when there is current flowing across it.

6. N 30 45.721 – W 84 46.216 – Run down past Wingates to where the channel swings back to the left bank. You will see some docks on the bank and one has a green roof on it. Go in toward that dock and you will be crossing a big grass flat that runs from the channel to the bank. Upstream of this dock is a small creek that enters the lake and there is a lot of sand on the bottom in this area.

Start fishing out in front of the green roofed dock and fish the flat, working upstream. Daryl likes to cast a crankbait here, running it above the grass if it is still deep enough or around the clumps of grass growing here. Daryl got a keeper bass here when we fish together. The bass can be anywhere on this flat so you need to cover all of it. If you catch a bass on the crankbait, stop and fish slower with either a Carolina or Texas rig since there should be more nearby.

7. N 30 45.811 – W 84 50.156 – The next spot Daryl calls “Stinky Island” because of the birds roosting and nesting there. It is the last big island before the channel to Sealey Point. You can run down the marked channel to the Sealey channel then go upstream to the island, or you can cut across and run the right bank if you know how to avoid the stumps.

There is a huge grass bed off the bank of this island on the Flint River side. There is also a ridge of grass off the bank here. Fish both grassbeds, fishing all along the edge on the island and then the one out further that runs parallel to it. If you are here early in the morning try topwater and spinnerbaits. After the sun gets up fish the grass edges with plastic baits.

8. N 30 47.382 – W 84 55.679 – Sometimes the Chattahoochee River is better that the Flint, often because of current moving there. The next three spots are up the “Hooch” and a long run from Wingates, but convenient to Land’s End Marina. If you are coming upstream from the dam, you will enter the channel behind a long ridge of an island between the channel and the huge flat toward the Florida shoreline.

Watch for the first gap to your left running up the river. The downstream point is an excellent place to catch bass. There will be some hydrilla patches near the bank to fish and out on the point is some rock and brush. Daryl likes to fish the shallow grass then set up inside the cut and cast out onto the point if current is moving across it.

Work a Carolina rig on the point and probe for the cover on it. Fish all around the point if there is no current, but fish with the current if any if moving. Current really makes the bass bite better and Daryl says he has hung some big bass here.

9. N 30 47.716 – W 84 55.679 – Run on up almost to the cut to Land’s End and watch for a big opening on your right. The point on the downstream side of this cut runs out as a ledge parallel to the channel and has some stumps on it. Daryl fishes the grass around the point into the cut and then casts across the point with a Carolina rig. He says he lost one of the biggest bass he ever hooked here.