Lake Allatoona Fishing Report JULY WEEK 4

Water Temp: 85
Water Level: 1.8ft low

Fishing has been on the good side. If you are good at finding off shore structure and fishing deep you could be doing very well in numbers of both Hybrids and Spots. I'm doing alot of off shore sonar fishing and I haven't casted at the shoreline at all in July thus far. I have been fishing both the dropshot and the spoon almost exclusively except topwater during the early morning hours for schoolers. The schooling activity has been alot weaker this week than it was in June due to the higher water temps, but the schooling activity down deep has been great. Most of my fishing has been taking place moreso in the main lake than in the creeks. I am keeping a 3/4 oz and 1oz spoon rigged just in case their is a profile preference and I am using a regular treble hook and not a tough saltwater hook so that if I hang up I can pull my spoon free. I like 15lb Triple Fish Fluorocarbon to insure that I am constantly in contact with my spoon as some of my fish have come as deep as 50ft but most are in the 25 to 30ft range. My dropshot I am using 8lb Test fluorocarbon tipped with a Tiny Fluke or a Yamamoto Cuttail in Blue pearl color. Most of the offshore areas I am working are on the ends of points and over humps that have the channel nearby and even more brownie points if you can have some brush nearby as well. However the biggest key is being comfortable with your sonar equipment. If you have the Humminbird Side Imaging capability you are at a huge advantage on the fish due to it's ability to locate schools of fish. I will also say that the spot tail bite is off the charts as well and good numbers can be had with the Spot Tail bite worked in the same general areas that the spoon works well in.

Today I had about 40 fish with a good mixture of Spots and Hybrids. I probably had a tad more hybrids than Spots, but the spots I did catch were a good 2lb average. The highlight of the trip actually happened 3 times. I hooked 3 seperate fish and as I was reeling them in a giant 30lb whale of a striper was following my hooked fish. I actually had one of those big stripes ram into a hooked hybrid I had atleast 5 different times. I saw this clear as day and tried to take a picture but you can't see the big striper in the water very well.

Still no thermocline as of yet. If these hot air temps continue a thermocline could develop and squeeze our fish at a certain depth range and make them even easier to catch. Keep your sensitivity on high and be on the outlook for a developing thermocline.

By the way if your interested in learning how to fish spoons, off shore stuff and sonar interpretation now is as good a time as any to take a trip.

Here are a few sonar shots that I took to give you some eye candy on what is going on under the water.

For more of todays sonar porn visit the Electronics forum over at www.allatoonabass.com

Mike

Lake Allatoona Bass Fishing Guide

For information on booking a trip please visit my website at www.TritonMike.com or email me at mbucca@comcast.net