By Shawn McNew, Owner
Striper Soup Bait & Tackle
Lake Allatoona will be at full pool (840 feet) until the fall draw down. Due to a failed and fiery attempt to bring the generators back online, Allatoona Dam will continue to sluice water at a fairly constant rate until further notice. Clarity over most of the lake will be very clear with the exceptions of the backs of Allatoona Creek and Little River. Surface temps should be holding in the mid-upper 80’s with 90 being a possibility if we get a “global warming” summer. Our thermocline will be setting up around the 22-25 foot mark over most of the lake, slightly deeper in the immediate vicinity of the dam. Fish catching activity on the lake has been good to great for hybrid and striper with reports of hybrid pushing 10 pounds and a few striper in the 20’s. We even saw a video of a 35 pound striper caught last month in the river above the lake!
No matter how hot it gets, the hybrid will be apt to erupt on top mixed with white bass and small striper. The freshly spawned threadfin shad should be in the 1-1.5 inch size range and will be schooled up all over the lake. Keep your eyes on the water and search for feeding fish by looking for white spray from thrashing predators. Actively feeding fish are easily caught on a wide variety of lures such as casting spoons, jigs, spinners, soft jerk baits and surface plugs.
For live bait fishing, we will be on a virtually 100% downline bite until the water cools again in October. Target areas where baitfish are funneled like long points and narrow stretches of the lake. The striper and hybrid will tend to hang around the thermocline in large schools and feed up in short bursts. If you run across a large school of fish, you will have every rod bent and can easily boat 50 fish as fast as you can reel them in.
HINT: Please respect the fishery and your fellow anglers and only keep as many fish as you can eat. Released fish will keep growing and give us more to catch in the future.