Each time I go to Alabama for an Alabama Outdoor News article I am amazed at their fantastic lakes and rivers. I drove to Tuscaloosa last Wednesday to meet Brandon Ligon, a young bass tournament fisherman that lives there. We fished Lake Tuscaloosa, a relatively small 5885 acre lake on the North River that provides the water supply for the city.

It is a beautiful river lake with steep rocky banks and the water was clear at the dam, although the upper river was muddy. Brandon caught a nice two pound spot the first place we tried and we caught a couple more keeper spots during the day. I wish it was not a four hour drive to go back!

There are dozens of well-known lakes in Alabama like Guntersville, Wheeler, Wilson, Pickwick, Wedowee, Martin, Logan Martin and Lay Lake. But there are dozens more small lakes I have never heard of all over the state. All seem to have an abundance of big spotted bass and largemouth. Many of the north Alabama lakes have smallmouth, too.

Folks in Alabama even consider West Point and Eufaula as their lakes, but I claim them for Georgia. They offer great fishing but don’t produce the big spotted bass like others do. I am not sure why the bass don’t grow in them like they do in other lakes nearby.

If you get a chance, explore our local lakes, but for a change drive over to any lake in Alabama and check it out. You will be pleasantly surprised at the scenery and big bass you can catch.

If your idea of ideal summer bass fishing is rocking and rolling in the wakes of off shore yachts and ski boats while listening to the incessant buzz of mosquito like jet skis, Lake Russell is not for you. At Russell you are likely to see more bass boats than jet skis and fishermen usually outnumber water skiers on a summer day.

Lake Russell is located between the Lake Hartwell dam and the upper end of Clark’s Hill on the Savannah River. It reached full pool in 1984 and its 26,650 acres of water cover parts of Georgia and South Carolina. You can fish the whole lake with a license from either state and there is a ten bass daily limit.

When the Corps of Engineers built lake Russell much of the timber was left standing. There are many coves and creeks where the timber sticks out of the water and more areas where it is below the surface. The channel is marked by telephone poles set on the ends of points and these poles show the extent of the shallow water near the channels.

One of the most outstanding characteristics of Lake Russell is its natural shoreline. Development is restricted so there are no houses or docks on the lake. There are two state parks with camping, several boat ramps and a marina, but most of the shoreline is still in its natural wooded state. This is pretty, but it also means access is limited and fewer boats are on the water.

Since Russell is a Corps of Engineers lake, biologists from the state and the Corps work together to monitor fish populations and habitat. Bubba Mauldin is the Georgia fisheries biologist responsible for the lake, and he says bass are healthy and the habitat seems to be improving.

Russell is a pumpback lake and there was some early problems with oxygen levels, but an aerating system to inject oxygen into the water near the dam helps both Clarks Hill and Russell. This year the turbines at Hartwell are being renovated and will have a venting system to put some air into the water as they operate, giving even more oxygen content to the waters of Lake Russell.

In the early years Russell was a largemouth lake since spotted bass are not native to the Savannah River system. Fishermen took it on themselves to start a “midnight socking” program and now spots make up about half the population in numbers of bass in the lake. This has not been a problem so far but the long term implications are not clear.

Blueback herring have also had a tremendous growth in Russell and provide abundant forage fish for the bass. Both Bubba and the Corps biologist Jamie Sykes say Russell should not have the problems herring have caused in some north Georgia lakes. The herring do make both largemouth and spotted bass at Russell more open water fish.

The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Creel Census Report compiled by Dr. Carl Quertermus at University of West Georgia shows the increase in spotted bass. In 1994 spots made up only 3.4 percent of the bass weighed in during club tournaments. By 2004 that had increased to 36.2 percent spots. Since largemouth usually outweigh spots these numbers are probably skewed because tournament fishermen tend to cull spots and keep largemouth.

This creel census reports also touches on the problem spots can cause. Spots are smaller and more aggressive than largemouth, to they tend to dominate suitable habitat, taking the place of bigger largemouth. The average big bass in a club tournament in 1994 was 4.51 pounds but in 2004 it was down to 3.33 pounds. Jamie says he sees fewer big bass but does not know if that is from the spots increasing or other changes in the lake.

“Much of Russell is good spotted bass habitat,” Bubba told me. The main lake on the Savannah River is where the spots concentrate and the creeks tend to hold more of the largemouth. Both species are fat and healthy so the environment is good for them, but the spotted bass population seems to be slowly increasing.

Jamie not only studies the bass at Russell, he likes to fish for them, too. He says June is a transition month and there are three good patterns he likes to follow. Early in the month he looks for bass holding around riprap, feeding on the tail end of the herring spawn. For the first week of June fishing topwater plugs and soft jerkbaits around the bridges can offer fast action.

The largemouth are also pulling out of the coves and creeks headed to their deeper summer holes and Jamie likes to catch them in June. He will follow a channel in the standing timber that comes near and above the surface, keeping his boat in the deepest water in the area. You can follow the channel with a depthfinder but also watch for the biggest trees. They usually mark the old channel.

To catch the largemouth on this pattern Jamie rigs a Zoom Finesse worm with a 1/8th ounce sinker on 10 pound test line. He will cast it to the trees and let it fall. If he sees the line move it is time to set the hook, and if the worm falls for five to ten feet without a bite he tightens up his line. If there is a fish there he sets the hook hard, if not he reels in for another cast.

Although the tree may be standing in 40 feet of water Jamie expects the largemouth to be holding from three to ten feet deep. He says you need a stiff rod to horse the fish from the timber, even with the light line.

“If you use a limber rod you are going to have a long day,” Jamie said. You will lose a lot of fish to the cover if you can’t move them away from it. Jamie catches mostly largemouth on this pattern.

As the water gets hotter toward the end of the month Jamie says to fish “poles and points.” The poles marking the ends of the points on the main channels have brush and rocks on many of them and they are easy to locate. This is a community pattern but it works. That is why it is a community pattern.

Find a pole and cast all around it with a Texas or Carolina rigged worm or a big crankbait. You are looking for cover that the bass will hold in waiting on herring to pass by. If there is some current the bass will feed even better.

Bobby Stanfill lives near Russell and fishes many tournaments there. Over the years he has had a lot of success in them and fishes the lake a lot. He offers another way to catch bass there and to beat the heat of June. Bobby likes to fish at night.

Since there are no lights on the shoreline Russell can be a very dark lake at night. Bobby knows it well but if you are going for the first time, a good GPS will help you get around in the dark. Just remember the GPS will not show you timber and floating logs.

Bobby will find long main lake points and humps with brush or rocks down 15 to 25 feet deep and fish them with three baits. He says the bass hold in the standing timber off these points and run in to the bottom to feed, so he always looks for points with trees near them. The trees may be down 20 feet but the bass use them.

Late in the day Bobby will bounce a spinnerbait through the limbs of the trees for the bass holding there and work it on the bottom in brush, too. He likes a heavy spinnerbait with small blades so it will drop fast and can be worked deep. He modifies his baits to suit his needs, and likes white skirts and silver blades.

A big crankbait can also be fished through the trees and across the bottom. It needs to get down at least 15 feet deep to reach the feeding area of the bass, so you need fairly light line and you must make long casts. Shad colored crankbaits work well for this kind of fishing.

A worm rigged either Texas or Carolina style is the other bait Bobby fishes. He likes a big worm like the Zoom Ol Monster or an eight inch lizard and the color doesn’t matter after dark. Drag the worm through deep brush, stumps and rocks and you should catch both spots and largemouth.

Lake Russell is a great choice for a June bass fishing trip. It will be pretty and not as crowded as other lakes, and the spots and largemouth will cooperate. Go during the day or at night and try these patterns. You should catch good numbers of bass.

Bass Fishing In Georgia

Georgia waters produced the world record largemouth bass. No other state can make that claim. Beyond the world record, Georgia is one of the most diverse states for bass fishing. From shallow swamps and oxbows in the south that contain huge largemouth to lakes in the mountains that have populations of smallmouth, we have it all. You can fish ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and even brackish tidal waters for bass.

In Georgia you can fish for largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, shoal, Swanee and redeye bass, six of the seven recognized kinds of black bass. No other state has that many different kinds of black bass. And there is a new bass here, found on the Broad River at Clark’s Hill and called the Bartram’s bass, that may be recognized as a new distinct subspecies.

Bass fishing in Georgia is amazingly consistent over the years. Each Georgia Bass Chapter Federation club in the state sends in a “Creel Census Report” (CCR)to Dr. Carl Quertermus at the University of West Georgia after each tournament, and he keeps records on a variety of information. These records go back 27 years and show the catch rate during tournaments has changed very little over all that time.

Over the past few years more effort has been made to tailor creel and size limits to specific bodies of water. Some have worked well, like the 14 inch minimum size limit on all bass at Lanier. The population of spotted bass in that lake has responded by growing fast and fat on the blueback herring there.

At Oconee, the slot limit has not really paid off because anglers don’t follow it. On that lake anglers are encouraged to keep bass from six to 11 inches long to reduce the numbers of small bass. Very few keep small bass, so a regulation that would help the lake is not effective because it is not used.

At Rocky Mount PFA a slot size limit on Heath Lake requiring fishermen to release all bass from 14 to 21 inches long combined with keeping the lake closed except the first ten days of each month has created a trophy fish lake. Heath is probably one of your best bets for catching a trophy bass on any PFA.

Bass anglers have become more savvy over the years about their resources. For a long time fishermen would put out brush piles to concentrate fish, making them easier to catch. Recently bass fishermen, especially club fishermen, have worked with the Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists to improve habitat on lakes, a long term effort that does not pay immediate results in bigger catches, but will help the bass population.

Rather then putting out brush only to concentrate fish, efforts are being made on many of our bigger lakes to improve shoreline cover for bass fry, increasing the numbers that survive. Deeper cover is also added, but it is put out to give the bass more ambush points and places to hide rather than just adding a good place to fish, although it does do that, too.

Most bass fishermen think stocking bass in big lakes would help, but generally it makes no difference. One pair of bass can produce more little bass each year than would be stocked in an area, so stocking usually just wastes time and money.

In some specific cases stocking bass does make a difference. In the Flint River below the Blackshear dam, water level changes during the spawn means shoal bass don’t have very successful reproduction. For about 20 years the DNR has been stocking fingerling shoal bass in that area. For the past five years stocked bass have been marked with a dye that puts an indicator on their bones so biologists can track them. Since those marked bass have reached cacheable size, they make up 30 to 50 percent of the catch on that part of the Flint River. An average of 40 percent of the cacheable bass in that area are stocked fish.

Water level fluctuation as well as colder temperatures on the Chattahoochee River below the Lanier dam decimated the population of shoal bass on it. A stocking effort is currently underway to restore shoal bass to that river and may offer another fish for Atlanta area fishermen to catch.

At Lake Nottely in north Georgia, the introduction of blueback herring as created a problem with largemouth bass. Not only do the herring eat the same food bass fry need in the spring, keeping them from surviving and growing, there is some indication the herring actually eat young bass. To counter this the DNR is stocking largemouth in the lake.

“Midnight Stocking” by fishermen of non native species is a problem in many Georgia lakes and rivers. Blueback herring may offer a temporary boost to the bass population, but long term they may create severe problems. Putting spotted bass in a lake may offer more bass to catch, but it usually causes the population of largemouth to decrease. Fishermen putting non native species in lakes can lead to may future problems.

There are many good places to bass fish in Georgia. Below are several that should produce good results for you this year.

Lake Allatoona

In the past Allatoona has been called “The Dead Sea” when it comes to bass fishing, but that perception is changing. Last year the Creel Census Report showed Allatoona tied with Lake Russell for the highest bass per man hour catch rate of any lake fished by clubs. The lake if full of spotted bass but most are relatively small.

Allatoona is one of the lakes where the DNR is working with local groups and fishermen to add cover to the lake. One reason Allatoona is so hard to fish is the lack of cover, and bass needed more cover to improve numbers. Man made fish attractors are providing the cover and offering places for anglers to fish.

In the early spring spotted bass can be found on most main lake rocky points and steep banks. You can catch them on small jig and pigs, jig head worms and crankbaits. Green pumpkin is an excellent choice for worms and jigs. Fish the steep rocky areas slowly, keeping contact with the bottom.

For largemouth head up the Etowah River to the Little River area and fish any cover you see. Also watch your depthfinder for brushpiles in coves and on points. Fish them with crankbaits and a jig and pig, or a Texas rigged worm. This pattern also works well in the fall.

During the summer, try fishing the man made PVC “brush” piles with Texas rigged worms. Most of this cover was placed in 25 to 30 feet of water and you can get a map from the DNR showing their locations. Fishing at night is also good.

Lake Hartwell

Hartwell is one of our bigger lakes and produces largemouth, spotted, and redeye bass. The average size of bass is good, with the CCR showing it having the third highest average winning weight in club tournaments. It also had the sixth highest bass per angler hour of any reported tournament sites.

In the spring bass move into creeks and pockets on the main lake getting ready to spawn. Try spinnerbaits and crankbaits around shoreline cover from half way back to the very back ends of protected areas. As the water warms throw a Trick worm in those same areas.

During the summer a fantastic topwater pattern develops on Hartwell. Go to any main lake shoal – shallow water near deep water often marked with a danger marker – and throw Sammys, Spooks, Flukes and other top water baits. Largemouth, spotted and redeye bass all move to these areas and feed on herring, and you will often see a half dozen bass following one you hook. This pattern holds from mid spring through the summer.

In the fall bass will again move into the creeks and crankbaits are excellent. Fish Shadraps and other crankbaits along steep creek banks and throw a jig and pig to any wood cover you find.

Jigging a spoon on main lake humps and points is good in the winter. You can catch all three kinds of bass by dropping a spoon to fish schooled up in 30 feet of water. Locate schools of baitfish and fish under them, or find the schools of bass on your depthfinder.

Savannah River

The Savannah River from Augusta to the coast offers many miles of good bass fishing. In the CCR it showed the third highest catch of bass per man hour, after Allatoona and Russell, so it is as good as our best lakes for numbers of bass. And the bass are a good size with the river having the third highest weigh per angler hour, following only Russell and Seminole.

Bass tend to hold around the mouths of creeks and oxbow lakes, taking advantage of any breaks in the current early in the spring. Cast a crankbait or jig and pig around trees in the water on the main river right at the mouths of creeks and also fish back into the creek a short distance, hitting the deeper banks.

As the water warms the bass move into the creeks and sloughs to spawn. Most old oxbows and creeks will have a deeper bank with stumps and wood cover on it and a shallow bank with overhanging willow trees. Fish the deeper bank with a jig and pig and spinnerbaits up until the fish spawn.

After the spawn throw a Trick worm under overhanging willows for some good bass fishing. This pattern holds up through the summer but the best catches are in May and June. During the summer many bass move back out onto the main river where you can catch them on crankbaits and Texas rigged worms in wood cover.

In the fall look for bass on the main river and around creek mouths. They will be more active as the water cools and will hit faster moving baits like crankbaits and spinnerbaits. In the coldest months, slowly work a jig and pig through cover that breaks the current for sluggish bass holding there.

Lake Oconee

Lake Oconee is one of the most popular bass fishing spots in Georgia, with the third highest number of tournaments held there. Right in the middle of the state, it produces good numbers of bass that are a respectable size. The catch rate per hour and weigh per hour is right in the middle of the range of all bass tournaments in the CCR.

Oconee is the site of an effort by the DNR and local clubs like the Lake Oconee Bassmasters to improve shoreline habitat. The shore is lined with seawalls and docks in many areas. Seawalls tend to eliminate natural cover and reduce places for young bass to hide. The effort here is to plant native water grasses in the shallows and place wood cover for the young bass to hide in.

In the early spring look for bass feeding around riprap banks and seawalls. A spinnerbait or crankbait will attract these fish. As the water warms they move into pockets to spawn and you can sight fish for bass on the beds here.

All spring and into early summer throw a spinnerbait around any grass cover you find back in the pockets. On sunny days in the late spring and during the summer, pitch a jig and pig or Texas rigged Mag II worm under boat docks. Docks on deeper water are usually better during the summer, and main lake docks with current moving under them are best.

In the fall docks continue to produce but bass are more active and crankbaits and spinnerbaits on riprap and seawalls again pays off. During the winter small crankbaits in the same areas will work, but fish them more slowly. Also try bridge pilings and riprap this time of year.

Flint River

The Flint River from the Lake Blackshear dam to south of Albany has some of the best shoal bass fishing you can find. No tournaments were reported on this river although some shoal bass are weighed in by people running way up the Flint from Lake Seminole.

Access is limited and the best way to fish the river is to drift sections of it. Team up with other fishermen and use two vehicles. Leave one at the take out spot and drive upriver to put in. You need a shallow draft boat with a strong trolling motor to fish the shoals on the river.

Shoal bass like shoals. You may find a few in deeper sections of the river or holding on wood cover, but look for swift water running over rocks for the best fishing. In the spring you have to watch for high water that makes the river very dangerous.

Fish the shoals with small Texas rigged worms, small jig and pigs and little crankbaits. Work any eddies and riffles for bass holding waiting on food. Fish with the current to make your bait look natural.

In the late spring through the summer when the water stabilizes topwater action can be fantastic. Use a Pop-R or buzzbait around shoals and you should catch some good sized bass. Five pound shoal bass are usually caught in this area on most trips, along with many more in the three to four pound range. Early morning and late afternoons are best for topwater action.

Lake Walter F. George

Lake Eufaula as it is commonly called is a well known bass fishery and produces excellent catches of bass year round. The 14 inch size limit means lower numbers of bass are actually weighed in during tournaments since many 12 and 13 inch bass that would be brought to the scales on other lakes have to be released. The heaviest winning weight in tournaments reported is the highest in the state.

In early spring look for big largemouth moving into shallow water to look for spawning beds. Bass will often be surprisingly shallow and a long way from the channel. Try spinnerbaits and a jig and pig around the grass edges for them.

After the bass spawn they move out the flats to the edges of the creek and river channels. The ledge fishing at Eufaula is legendary, and big crankbaits and worms work well. The Ledgebuster Spinnerbait, a heavy spinnerbait designed to fish deep ledges, was developed here. Look for stumps and brush on river bends on the main lake.

The bass stay on the ledges from last spring until the next spawning season, so follow them from shallow ledges to deeper ones then back shallow in the fall. Topwater around shallow grass, especially the hydrilla beds that are increasing fast, can be good year round, too.

You can’t really go wrong no matter what water you pick to fish in Georgia. And fishing is good all year long. Head to the lake, river or pond closest to your house and enjoy the great Georgia fishing.

3 Best Great Lakes Areas For Fall Smallmouth Bass

By Abe Smith
from The Fishing Wire

If you’re seeking a smallmouth worth photographing, now is the time to head to the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes smallmouth bass provide some of the hottest bass action of the year during the fall. As their name implies, the challenge on these waters derives from their magnitude. Fish have plenty of room to roam from Duluth to the St. Lawrence River, and “roaming” is part of a smallmouth’s daily life. Here are three great Great Lakes fishing spots and how to catch them.

Lake Erie and Niagara River (Buffalo, Niagara, and Lewiston, N.Y.)

“In fall, it’s all about bait,” says Frank Campbell, a guide with Niagara Region Charter Service.

Campbell is considered by many to be the “dean” of an illustrious school of smallmouth guides on the Eastern Basin of Lake Erie and the Niagara River near Buffalo, New York. He says that smallmouth are looking for the quickest way to bulk up for winter and follow baitfish migrations and eat everything they find, from gobies to crayfish to sculpin to emerald shiners…anything that brings protein to their diet.

“If you’re marking baitfish, you’re in the right areas because the fish will find them,” he said.

The fall transition begins as water temperatures tumble into the low 60s. Campbell relies on his electronics to identify “balls of bait coming together…and lots of lasagne-type marks.” The baitfish concentrations position more and more near bottom as fall progresses.

Smallmouth can be active and aggressive while they are bulking up for winter, and Campbell matches their mood with active presentations, often employing a jigging spoon — the Cotton Cordell C.C. Spoon — and the Heddon Sonar, a “tried and true” vibrating blade bait.

Whopper smallmouth like this one are not hard to find in the cold, clear waters of the big lakes–but it takes a bit of know-how to get on the right spots.

“You can also work a YUM 2ube or a dropshot with a variety of soft plastics,” Campbell said. “But it’s easier to ‘spoon’ or ‘blade’ them when they’re active and suspended a little off the bottom. You can zoom it through their zone on the upswing and drop it back through again for the reaction bite. The fish can get very competitive. They figure they need to get to the bait first or another bass will.”

Lake St. Clair (Michigan/Ontario)

It’s a shallower bite for smallmouth in early to mid-fall on Lake St. Clair, home waters of Gerry Gostenik at Great Lakes Bass Fishing Guide Service. Smallmouth migrate toward the Canadian shore of St. Clair throughout the summer and concentrate near patches of vegetation on the flats.

Lipless crankbaits can be critical search tools.

“The XCalibur Xr50 Rattle Bait is one of my best search baits, and it is great when you find them, too,” says Gostenik who favors the Citrus Shad and Ghost colors in the Xr line. “On St. Clair — and the Great Lakes in general during fall — you can work a lot of water before you find a pack of them but then get into a bunch in a hurry. On St. Clair and Erie, smallmouth eat a lot of shad at this time of year, and the size of the Xr 50 is almost the perfect match.”

The XCalibur Xr series comes in three sizes and in low resonance One Knocker (Xrk) options. Their weight and density enable long casts, which can be important on the often ultra-clear and expansive waters of the Great Lakes.

A double-header of high-quality brown bass–expert guides say find the bait and you’ll find the bass.

Gostenik starts with a steady retrieve, but often alters retrieve speed and cadence if a simple moderate retrieve fails to produce.

“Let the fish tell you what they want,” he advises. “When you get a bite, pay attention to what you were doing.”

And don’t overlook swimbaits, a more-subtle search bait option in the fall.

“A Yum Money Minnow with a belly-weighted hook can be good, too, when fish are schooling in fall and feeding on shad,” Gostenik said. “I’m fishing it shallow in situations where the fish are schooling and birds are diving…smallmouth will kill that bait! Fall is one of the best times of year to be out here.”

Lake Michigan/Green Bay (Door County, Wisconsin)

Early fall finds smallmouth in transition in the picturesque waters of Lake Michigan and Green Bay in northern Door County, Wisconsin.

Guide Jimmy Doering of Cast n’ Catch Charters guides anglers to bass near his Washington Island home and the waters of the upper peninsula, including Sister Bay, Ellison Bay and Rowleys Bay.

His early season strategy is to straddle classic late summer and fall smallmouth locations.

“In late September I like to start in 3 to 5 feet of water and slowly move out,” he said. “Later in October and November, you can head straight to the bluffs. But you can still whack schools of 3-pounders in 4- to 8-feet of water in fall, especially if it is sunny and warm.”

Deep running lures like the Sonar are among the favorites for connecting with fall smallmouth.

Doering’s bread-and-butter baits in early fall are the Yum 2ube and slightly larger (4.25-inch) Yum Vibra-King Tube fished on 1/8- to ¼-ounce jigheads. Jighead size will vary with depth and wind velocity. He backs up that presentation with a wacky-rigged Yum Dinger.

“I usually fish the Dinger weightless in summer and the early transition period, but I weight them to fish 15 or 20 feet of water and they still wiggle and shimmy,” he says. “I often recommend one guy throwing a tube and the other a wacky Dinger to see which one is producing more fish that day.”

Fish school by size and age in fall, and an angler who finds schools of 3- or 4-pounders will do well to stay with these “wolf packs” whether he finds them shallow or deep.

By late fall, bass settle into their classic cold water locations along the bluffs. These post card emblems of the Door County region are sheer rock walls that drop quickly to depths of 15-, 30- and even 40-plus feet. They can be late fall bass magnets, and they often yield the biggest fish of the season.

“Up here we find certain key bluffs that the fish seem to live on,” says Doering. “We still see them spitting up gobies and crayfish, but a lot of bass are feeding on baitfish high in the water column. We catch them on and Smithwick Rogue jerkbaits only about 4-feet down along 30-foot-deep bluffs.

“But, baitfish are the key. Fish are like us. Their mindset is food…now!”

Contacts:

Frank Campbell, www.niagaracharter.com; 716-523-0013

Gerry Gostenik, www.greatlakesbassfishing.com; 313-319-0100

Jimmy Doering, [email protected]; 920-535-3474