February Fishing Report - the Allatoona Bite

While we are still hanging in around 15 ft below full pool reservoir-wide, there are some major differences from north to south.

The south end is fed by Allatoona Creek. It clears up quicker than the water north of the dam which is fed by the Etowah River. Just in case you are wondering what the E or A designations were on navigation markers. The water here on the south end is crystal clear for the most part, and the deep blue-green hue may be seen from iron Hill to the dam. 

And it's cold. Turning glass and aluminum boats alike into ice breakers first thing in the morning when launching from block house on several of these mornings. Logic then dictates that surface water temps are sub 32° in the morning. Water temps just below the surface have ranged from 34 to 36 on many days through early this week. Traveling through the main channel and into Tanyard & Clark creeks mix, temperatures hit 40° later in the mornings. Today, surface temperatures at blockhouse were ~40°. I fished down there on Monday while doing a little scouting and while I had no visual evidence of shad kill from the banks or open water, some dying shad were observed the next day by one of our community anglers. 

The day prior, I can tell you that Tanyard Creek was just absolutely loaded with bait and fish. And it should be noted that the bait was using most of the water column, not just the top few feet.

I captured mostly spotted bass, but there were some pods of crappie, white bass and hybrids running around that each gave me a sampling when I targeted them. Any stripers eluded me that day.

Coming back up north through Iron Hill, all I saw was water. No bait. Maybe there were fish but even with a lot of zigzagging with the electronics, outside of some bass on the ledges, it was barren to me. 

Let's start up on the North end now - Little River temperatures have been even in the high 30s in the afternoons through yesterday. Tons of crappie. Your experienced catfish and crappie fisherman are oftentimes fishing the same water. 

It is evident that the big fish like to eat crappie too.

Your water is still stained from the S-turns, all through Victoria & Galts, and getting a little lighter yoo-hoo hue (say that 10 times real fast ) on the main stretch from Bartow to Stamp Creek. 

What is notably different on the North end is that most of the bait is in the top 10 feet of water. Matters not if you are in 10 ft of water or if you are in 70 ft of water. The bait is up high. Surface temperatures in Little River on Tuesday where 34° in the early a.m., however, it should be noted that surface temperatures were 42° to 45° in certain pockets yesterday from Kellogg toward clear Creek.

This stained water maintains heat better, and as cold as the temperatures were, every bait fish in the reservoir is just looking for a Sunbeam to keep them alive as temperatures even around Galts Ferry dropped down to 38° for a couple of nights. 

Yesterday I sampled many different areas from Kellogg Creek to clear Creek with the cast net, looking into the health of the bait fish. There's always going to be some shad that died. For a lot of them it is death by fish on and ongoing basis. In my samplings I captured plenty of smaller 1 and 1/2 in and 2 in threadfin in almost every open water situation. And then I went to targeting larger threadfin and some delicious herring for upcoming live-bait adventures.

As for die off, I am not saying that some didn't start fluttering and dying this past week up north, I'm just saying that I didn't see evidence of it. Unless you have some wave action that pushes them up on shore, you don't often see the evidence of it because they quickly sink to the bottom. Oh, to be a catfish!

It may also be noted that the Gulls are very efficient in picking off fluttering bait before it sinks to the bottom :-) The large flocks of Gulls that have taken up temporary residence in Galts Ferry appear to be doing the same thing they've been doing for 3 weeks - going on the hunt and hitting bait that is high up the column.

The fishing on the north end has surely had its days these past few weeks. I've caught fish in all depths of water. Within the past 2 weeks I landed what may be a 2026 season personal best striper in the 26 lb class. She came suspended off the bottom in 45 ft of water off a piece of structure that I was pretty sure I was targeting a blue cat on. She even had a pal that gave me a good run not even 15 minutes after I landed her. I might not beat that one again for years on the reservoir, though hopeful to find a 35 pounder one day :-)

Yesterday, I got in the back of a creek and found the magic bite in around 15 ft of water and got overrun by some line-sides in the late afternoon. A couple of days before that, 30 ft of water was magic on the south end and 60 ft bottom was magic on the north end, but staying in the top 15 feet of water. 

The crappie are eating. Well, fact is they eat year-round. Before you know it everyone with a boat and motor will be long line trolling the mouths of the creeks taking advantage of pre-spawn staging. There's no doubt that the seasoned crappie fisherman can get some very good fish right now fishing both deeper structure as well as shallow waters. 

So the big mega schools of hybrids and stripers have eluded me for the most part the past 2 weeks. Small exception may be yesterday afternoon, though I had no time to look on the graph and see what was happening or how many fish were around us. I'm pretty sure we knocked out 20 of them though in less than an hour. 

While they still may be in and out of that secret underground cavern, my guess is my timing just hasn't been right. Here's the thing - I know they're there. We have a very good population of hybrid striped bass and there are some great numbers in the 5 to 7 lb class of stripers coming up. Earlier this winter, several times we got into some larger schools of stripers in the 7 and 9 lb class which are just great fish for Allatoona.

Also, it may be noted that for the first autumn/winter season in several years, I'm noticing an uptick in the white bass population. Large numbers of larger fish. Plenty of 12-in class fish that are probably a couple of years old and were able to survive everything the reservoir can throw at them, including egg eating alewife and herring.

Let's just do a quick touch on the spotted bass. The guys that are out here with me for the most part are fishing for spotted bass this end every time of year. Remembering my training from first time I'm through crankbaits in February a couple years ago, I hit the wall opposite Illinois Creek with the old rock crawler and pulled up two spotted bass in maybe 50 casts. 

There are better locales to be making those casts and targeting the spotted bass. So much so that I think that's exactly what I might be doing in the afternoons starting today! 

All right friends - thanks for sticking through this far. Please forgive me if I'm back and forth and it's a little scattered but it's just my relayed thoughts as they come. 

Please don't hesitate to reach out. 

With only six trips on the books for February thus far, I get a lot of fun fishing and scouting in, and I like to target all species.  My hope is to work hard for you on an upcoming adventure.

God bless you all and tight lines!

-Joseph