Wheeler Lake
August 14th, 2006 by Fishing admin
Area waterways are no longer crowded Monday through Friday as area schools are back in session. Even though the heavy traffic has eased, anglers and boaters still need to follow safety rules.
Wheeler Lake: Look for white bass and hybrid stripe to be feeding aggressively during early morning hours around or in creek mouths where changes in the current take place. If the water’s surface appears to be boiling, that’s a good indication that the feeding frenzy is taking place.
Largemouth bass should start leaving their deep and heavy structure area to search for prey in shallow water. Using a Texas-rigged plastic worm or plastic lizard is a good technique to use when fishing shorelines that have thick grass beds nearby.
If you are planning on covering a lot of territory on your trip, spinnerbaits and crankbaits should be used.
The bream bite has been fair and it looks to be improving.
Wilson Lake: Tim Bryant of Pat and Tim’s Bait and Tackle located at Fisherman’s Resort says the largemouth and smallmouth bass bite on Wilson Lake is poor.
“It seems that catches of largemouth and smallmouth bass are almost non-existent,” Bryant said. “The few anglers that are catching bass have been very tight-lipped as to where they caught their fish and how they caught them.
“There has been some great catches of stripe (white bass, hybrid stripe and stripers) in the tailrace of the (Wheeler) dam,” Bryant said. “They are getting in the currents below the dam and catching a lot of fish. I’ve been told that they are catching most of the fish on chartreuse or white-colored Sassy Shad’s with red hooks and some are using spoons with red hooks.”
Bryant pointed out that big stringers of catfish are being caught on Wilson Lake.
“The fishermen have been catching a lot of catfish,” said Bryant. “They are fishing anywhere from 14 to 32 feet of water. A lot of them are just drifting over deep flats and bumping the bottom with cut bait, nightcrawlers, rooster livers and large shiners (minnows).
“With the weather being so hot, the best time to fish has been early in the morning and late in the afternoon.”
Pickwick Lake: The overall largemouth and smallmouth bass bite has been slow. Some anglers are catching a few smallmouth bass in sloughs that have a gravel or shell bottom. Chrome-colored Chugger (topwater) baits with white bucktails are one lure that is attracting attention.
Look for white bass to be schooling around rock banks late in the afternoon. Look for the surface action and throw chrome-colored, lipless crankbaits for best results.
Lake Guntersville: Largemouth bass are still feeding early in the morning but catches of big fish have slowed somewhat. Topwater buzz baits and topwater plastic frogs and plastic rats are excellent choices of lures to use.
The bluegill bite has been slow but a few are being caught around boathouses that create a lot of shade. Live crickets and live redworms are working well when used with ultralight tackle.
— Paul Stackhouse