February Bass at Coffeeville
with Tom Abate
With the severe cold weather we have been having this winter it is hard to think about bass fishing. But there are some things you can do to improve your odds and be a little more comfortable, too. You can go south, and you can fish a lake with extensive shallow backwaters that warm from the sun. Coffeeville on the Tombigbee River offers both.
Coffeeville was created by a lock and dam on the Tombigbee River and contains 8500 acres of water stretching over 97 miles upstream to the Demopolis Dam. It is mostly river channel with a few big creeks and many small sloughs and creeks off the river. These creeks and sloughs are full of cover ranging from docks to cypress trees.
Tom Abate is the police chief of Gilbertown and lives just a few miles from the lake. Although he has lived in the area for many years, he did not get into bass tournament fishing until three years ago. Charles Owen, one of his council members, invited Tom to fish a tournament and he was hooked.
Saying he is the biggest fish Charles ever hooked, Tom told me how he went into bass fishing in a big way, selling his hunting guns and buying a bass boat. He joined the Gilbertown Bass Club with Charles and fishes as many tournaments on area lakes as he can. Charles and Jerry Roberts both taught Tom a lot about bass fishing and he has been very successful.
Tom is now the president of the Gilbertown Bass Club and they put on a series of charity tournaments as well as fishing club tournaments each year. They are the closest club to Coffeeville Lake and fish it a lot.
One day a week Tom works at A & D Sports in Gilbertown, selling fishing supplies. He gets to talk to a lot of area fishermen at the store and keeps up with what the bass are doing through work as well as through his bass club.
Tom says the pattern for bass in February is very simple on Coffeeville. If the water is colder than 52 degrees the bass will hold at the mouth of creeks and sloughs in deep water. They will be on cover from eight to 20 feet deep. If it warms a little they will move into the sloughs and creeks to feed around cover, but they usually won’t stay long until later in the year.
You don’t need a lot of rods and reels on your deck right now on Coffeeville. Tom will have a deep running crankbait for fishing the deep creek mouths and a shallow running crankbait for fishing around the cover back in the sloughs. A Bandit in different sizes works well for both, and he likes the baby bass colors in clearer water and a brighter bait if the water is stained.
A Carolina rigged creature bait or a jig and pig with a Paca Craw trailer both work well when fished on the shelves and drops at the mouths of creeks. Both can be worked slowly through cover where the bass hold in cold water. Back in the shallow water Tom likes a big lizard Texas rigged to work around the cover.
Tom and I fished on a miserably cold day in early January to look at the holes and find out what the bass were doing. The water was unusually cold, showing 47 on the river and only 44 back in the sloughs, but Tom still managed to catch a couple of keeper bass. Fishing should be much better now if we have a few warm, sunny days.
Check out the following ten spots. They will get better and better as the month progresses and the water warms. And you can find many more similar places, especially up the river, but these are all fairly close together so you won’t have to make long runs.
1. N 31 51.675 – W 88 09.737 – If you put in at Lenoir Landing you will be right in the middle of the places to check, and the first one you can idle to. Go into Tallawampa Creek to where it opens up into a big lake area. Locals call this 30-Acre Lake and there are some grass covered islands to your right, between the creek channel and the river channel.
Work the outside edges of the islands with a shallow running crankbait and a Texas rigged lizard. Concentrate on areas where the creek channel swings in closes to the bank and work the little cuts, dips and points in the grass. You should be fishing areas where there is five feet of water just off the bank.
Also fish the creek channel from the lake area down to the ramp. There are some good blowdowns and stumps in the area to work with a lizard or crankbait. Fish will hold in them as they move up and down the creek with the warming water.
2. N 31 51.502 – W 88 29.155 – Go out to the river and head upstream. Watch for old dock pilings on the river and iron frames back off the bank a little ways. This was an old oil dock and the small opening upstream of it goes back into a big three finger lake area called Oil Dock Slough.
Stop out at the mouth of the slough and fish your crankbait around the cover here. The floods this past year moved a lot of the wood cover away but some has washed back in and bass will hold on it. Fish any trees coming off the bank but also work any brush or logs out in the river down to about 20 feet.
Make long casts with your crankbait to get it down as deep as possible. Try to bump the cover with your crankbait. Then drag your Carolina rigged creature bait across the same cover, pausing it when your lead hits the wood.
If it has been sunny for several days it is worth your effort to get back into the slough and fish the shallow cover there. This time of year the bass are more likely to be near the mouth of the slough where they can run back to deeper water quickly.
3. N 31 52.009 – W 88 08.418 – Headed upstream, watch for a house on the right on the river then houses back in a slough off the river. You can see a good many of them from the river itself. They are in Little Grove Hill Slough, a big lake off the river.
Stop at the entrance to the slough and fish around it with your crankbait and creature bait. Go into the slough and fish the docks and shallow water cover it the water is warming. The water back in here is very shallow so it warms fast, but bass will not usually move long distances in very shallow water this early, so the best areas to fish are closer to the river.
4. N 31 53.071 – W 88 08.111 – Running upstream you will see a dock and house on your left at the mouth of Suck Branch. There is riprap and rock around the mouth of this creek to fish with your crankbait and wood cover out off the bank to fish with both the crankbait and creature bait.
Current can make a big difference when fishing these creek and slough mouths. There will usually be some current moving but the bass will often turn on when the lock downstream operates. Since there is no schedule for this, be ready to take advantage when it does turn on.
Keep your boat downstream and cast up the current, working your bait back with the current. Concentrate on areas where an eddy forms and brings baitfish to the bass. Fish fast when the current is fast since the bass will be more active. A crankbait is usually the best bet when current is flowing.
In slack current, slowly work your plastic bait through the cover in deeper water. The bass will move back deep when the current slacks off and are less active to you have to slow down to get them to hit.
5. N 31 54.394 – W 88 07.688 – Run upstream and watch for green channel marker 130.2 on a tree. Just downstream of this marker is the entrance to Coppersaw Slough. The mouth of it has good wood cover and a drop to fish.
Watch your depthfinder to locate fish and cover. The current will move wood in and out of the area and reposition it, so you need to keep up with it. You will see a lot of fish near the bottom but they may be anything, from catfish to drum, so key on baitfish with fish under them to improve the chances they are bass.
Before you leave go back into the slough and fish the grass and wood cover in it, too. There is a house back in it sitting on a high hill and the water had good depth going back to it. Work all around the slough with your shallow baits.
6. N 31 50.622 – W 88 09.625 – Head downstream from Lenoir Landing and you will see a pipeline crossing with warning signs on both sides of the river. Just downstream of it on the right is a gas terminal for barges. The opening to the Blue Hole is on your left going downstream, across from it.
This opening is hard to spot going downstream since it angles off upstream and is not big. And you can’t see much of it back off the river channel. It does open up back in the woods. There is a while pole in the water just downstream of the mouth if it that will help you find it.
Work around the mouth of this slough like the others. Try fishing both directions. Start with your boat in deeper water and fish from shallow to deep, then move in closer to the bank and cast out, working your baits from deep to shallow. Try both directions here and on other spots to see what the bass want.
7. N 31 50.174 – W 88 10.002 – Further downstream on your right going downstream is Alligator Slough and Duck Pond Landing. As you go into this creek there is a boat landing on your left. It then opens up into a big lake area full of cypress trees.
One of the key things Tom looks for this time of year is clear water. If the river is muddy you can sometimes find clearer water back in the sloughs, and bass will often hold near the transition between clear and muddy. This slough is almost always has clear water back in it and is a good one to fish when the river is muddy.
Work all the cypress trees going back into the slough. Keep your boat in the deeper water and fish the trees near it first. Keep going back as long as you are getting bites, and try more shallow water when you find a school of bass. When you catch one you are likely to catch more. The day we fished Tom caught two bass here almost back to back.
8. N 31 49.390 – W 88 10.856 – Downstream on your right is the mouth of Okatutta Creek. This is one of the bigger creek area on the lake and it runs way back off the river. But before going into the creek idle around at the mouth of it. There is shelf well off the bank that comes up from 40 feet in the river channel to 12 feet on top, then drops back off at you go to the mouth of the creek. It will come right back up to four to five feet deep right at the mouth of the creek.
Fish this shelf with your crankbait and Carolina rig. Work it from different angles and probe for cove on it. Tom said the biggest bass he has seen in a tournament on Coffeeville, one over eight pounds, was caught here on a crankbait.
9. N 31 49.691 – W 88 10.860 – Go back into the creek and watch for a riprap point on your right at the mouth of Judy’s Slough. This big creek has many smaller creeks entering it and you should fish them just like the creek mouths on the river itself. Judy’s Slough is one of the biggest and there is a deep hole at the mouth of it. It is on the outside bend of the creek, too, making it even better.
Work all around the mouth of the slough, fishing both sides at different angles with crankbait and Carolina rig. Work into the slough, covering any trees lying in the water. Tom says this creek is a good place to catch spotted bass.
There are several more similar sloughs on up the creek and you can work them all. If you catch fish in a certain way on one, fish the others in the same way. Bass will often be on a similar pattern on several of the sloughs. You can fish always up to the Barrytown Road Bridge.
10. N 31 47.371 – W 88 10.020 – Turkey Creek is downstream on your right and is a big creek with lots of arms to fish on it. It was the most popular place to fish for bass for a long time. Big grass mats offered bass a good hiding and feeding places but there is not as much grass now.
Fish back in the arms of the creek, working any cover you find. If you find some grass mats work them carefully. Tom will switch to braid line around the grass but uses Trilene 100 Percent Fluorocarbon line the rest of the time. Try a white jig with a white Paca Craw trailer round any grass you fish.
Check out these spots and look for others. Bass fishing in February can be tough anywhere you fish but Coffeeville offers several options to make your fishing better.