Lake Allatoona can offer some of the very best summer fishing found in the region. While we are enjoying a temperate summer so far with a steady full pool at 840 feet and water temps in the 80s, the fishing has been stellar through June and expected to possibly only get better into July. Early morning and evening bites are going to pay off almost always, but we also find many a good weekday bite in the heat of the day fishing the ledges of main and secondary channels where the stripers are known to stack up and can be easily enticed with a shad, bream or even a swimbait presentation worked just off the bottom.
As the temperatures continue to rise, we see a favorite phenomenon - the topwater boiling of hungry stripers, hybrids, white bass and spots chasing shad schools to the top for a feast.
During this wonderful season one may witness how quickly a school of fish will travel chasing bait. Sometimes you can enjoy hooking up with quite a few fish and never moving, but other times one needs to be prepared to chase them around. During the morning and evening hours, this topwater activity can take place most anywhere, including being found in the flats near Galts Ferry to over 80-100' of water around Stamp Creek, the Dam, Tanyard and Clark Creeks. Moving North and South your favorite location for the morning and evening bite may be absolutely dancing with activity in as shallow as 3' of water.
Whether you are chasing the topwater bite or not, running downlines and freelines with frisky threadfin shad on a size 1 or 2 octopus hook is a staple technique here on Allatoona. There are times that the fish may respond better to larger bait, and it is not unheard of for us to go through several dozen small to medium gizzards in a few hours of catching. Adjust your hook sizes accordingly. In conjunction with this, setting out one or several freelines with a small split shot may prove very effective.
We hope this helps on your own adventures. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us directly at 404-919-4918 to set up your own personal Adventure for Stripers and Hybrids, Spotted Bass, Crappie or Catfish this summer. Tight lines and God Bless.
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