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 6th 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!