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The Bite - Lake Allatoona - September 18, 2020

Writer's picture: Captain Joseph MartinelliCaptain Joseph Martinelli

Updated: Sep 20, 2020

Lake Allatoona is fishing excellent and we are so thankful to have this wonderful and thriving fishery in our backyards. Current water temperatures are in the 78-80° range lake-wide and cooler weather will bring cooler temps and more activity. We were beginning to see a slight decrease in lake levels and then we received some heavy winds and train. Look for chocolate yohoo water coming downstream.

These past several weeks have shown the Linesides to be schooling up nicely and there is a fantastic topwater bite we hope to enjoy now through the end of October. While this fantastic phenomenon has been prevalently witnessed and enjoyed around the morning and evening 'golden hours', the topwater bite can occur at intervals throughout the days and nights. Being on the water will surely increase your chances of being present during some topwater eruptions. We have seen sustained topwater boiling of hybrids, stripers and white bass in intervals up to a full hour during this time of year. Always stand prepared for some great topwater action. Have a rod ready to cast that has a topwater lure or smaller spoon attached. While they are in a feeding frenzy, most any artificial you can get in front of them could produce. A lot of these fish are chasing and devouring small young-of-year threadfin shad that are still in the 1"-2" range, though they do not seem to hesitate on striking a larger topwater lure being walked or even up to a 5" spoon being pulled across the top or worked subsurface through the school.

If you are targeting the bigger hybrids and stripers in these mixed schools, I like to present.a.larger offering. With cooler weather approaching, the big girls will be coming down out that flowing, cooler and highly oxygentated river soon enough.

Keep an assortment of top-water arsenal at our fingertips. While one may not be able to cast a topwater/floating lure out as far as a spoon due to physics of lure design, when you can reach them on one that bite may be the most exciting. The floater let's you stay in the strike zone much longer than a 1/2 oz. spoon, too. Mix it up as needed and find what works best for you.

Spoon 'em up! We talked about spoons a little, but not their primarily known application of 'spooning' up a fish from down under. Currently, spooning has been a very effective method for hooking up with all species of linesides. A lot of good fish are being caught in the heat of the day in water around 20-25 feet deep by spooning, and in the cooler evenings on flats as shallow as 2-8 feet deep. Techniques vary here, but bouncing a spoon of the bottom has worked well for us overall. If you wish to gain some confidence in spoon-fishing, be on the water and near some fishy flats at 730-8 pm. Cast a 3/5 oz Flexi-spoon or a 2" Foley spoon, and work a slow and bouncing retrieve. They may be visibly feeding on top but if you are in 5' of water, they are going to hit this at any depth while chasing bait. A lot of strikes here and even out deeper come on the drop or down-flutter.

Downlining: For the most part, the target start depth for downlining has been at around 15 feet down with live threadfins on a #2 octopus or mosquito hook Frisky bait can be hard to top at most times, but we have witnessed that spoons worked through these same fish might produce equally well (if not better) at select times. Fresh bait may only last a few minutes on the hook with the current temperatures.

It is alsi recommended to keep a freeline or two out with a frisky threadfin or small gizzard gizzard shad. Sometimes, this is the best technique and is proven to be effective nearly year-round. This is exercised easily in conjunction with fishing livebait on the downlines.

While the U-rig bite is always an effective method of locating and triggering bites from fish across points, humps and deep banks. When applied, we have had success pulling a mini-Mack about 100' behind the boat .For us, this method is primarily being applied when scouting only or when higher wind speeds decrease the effectiveness of the other proven and currently effective techniques.

We have caught some nice Spotted Bass working primary and secondary points with a 4" soft swimming-shad imitation in all white and gray/silver with black back produced well as did an all white and white/chart fluke rigged with a light 1/8 bullet weight.


We would very much like for you to consider us for your next Outdoor Adventure. We cater to everyone from the first-timer to the avid 'old-timer'.

We truly believe we have something unique and special to offer you, your friends and family. Let's go fishing! Please call us at 404-919-4918, visit us on on FB @Heron Outdoor Adventures or at https://www.heronoutdooradventures.com/

Tightlines, friends!

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