Greater Rome Times

Bass fishing has been slow, and the lake is almost down 10 feet. Water temperatures are dropping and it’s a good sign the turnover is about to start down lake. The lower lake creeks and the up river areas are still off-colored and trying to clear some. Fish for bass in the mouths of the rivers creeks. The lower lake creeks are still a little clearer. Use small jigs in black and silver with a small pork rind trailer. Try 3/8-ounce trout and fire tiger Rooster Tails on the main lake points. Also use a small green worm or a night crawler fished around the main lake marinas. Stay on the points on the main lake with small Zoom finesse worms in greens on a Texas rig. Use night crawlers on a 1/8-ounce jig head and fish vertically. Use a Bandit 200 Root Beer crank bait and an all white Fat Free Shad fingerling in the coves at the mouth of Little River and Wahoo Creek. The off-colored waters will hold the warm sunlight all day and the fish are shallow afternoons. Keep a spinner bait ready and the Leverage golden trap is a good off colored bait the fish have not seen a lot this month up lake.

Spotted bass have been slow and worms like the Zoom finesse Smoky Joe and the natural blue are fair. Keep a Super Fluke ready and cast it to main lake points and reef markers as well as the Spittin Image top water baits in shad and bream. The top water action is picking up as the lake settles into fall turnover.

One thing this week will help anglers get a few more strikes: make super long casts with the wind at your back. Points this time of year can have good spots looking for an easy meal. The farther you can cast your baits, the deeper they will run but also importantly, they are in the water longer.

Skip the Super Fluke all white, under the docks and on points. The key to this bait is to let it sink slowly with a 4/0 offset Mustad hook in the bait. Add a small rattle and jerk the bait slowly. Some fish are biting a green finesse worm on a short Carolina rig down lake. Use a 3/4-ounce lead and float the bait on a 2-foot leader. Drop shot rigs will work and this rig will get a lot better as the water cools down. Just ride over under water humps at 30 feet and look for the old natural brush. Now drop shot this area with a small worm.

The coves in and around the Shoal Creek ramp and the park are good all-day areas. Keep a Pop R ready especially up lake. Some schooling spots are up occasionally, and it will take off this week as the top water bite is about to start. Cast it to the reef markers from the bridge at Lake Lanier Islands all the way to Shoal Creek #1 marker. The backs of the creeks are very muddy and the spots do not seem to be biting well up these creeks.

Lots of wind this week pushed some bait into the shallows especially on the main lake. Pick some wind blown points with the larger rock formations and run a spinner bait across them. Keep a ½- ounce Flex It spoon tied on and ready, too. Small Shad Raps are fair on sand points and pockets down lake close to deep water. Jerk baits like the Lucky Craft Stay See 90 has been working in the creeks close to the dam. The backs of the creeks are very muddy and the spots do not seem to be biting well up these creeks.

Stripers are deep during the day, and anglers will see fish at 30 to 70 feet deep roaming around. Keep idling over the coves around the main lake and look for the fish. The coves from Shoal Creek Marker #1 down to the dam have deep stripers that are very eager to feed. Shady Grove Park and the mouth of Big Creek are the key areas this week. Take a look around Two Mile Markers #5TM and #7TM and get out to 90 feet of water. You may not see the fish at first, but down line a bait and you can see them come up on the Lowrance. Be sure to keep a fresh bait down there. Down lines, red hooks and herring will work.

Hammonds now has trout so try them in conjunction with the herring. Sit the boat into the wind and drift over the fish and you will see some on the bottom. Soon the fish could start surfacing. We see an occasional large swirl out on the main lake but they are singles. Get the 7-inch Red Fins and a Zara Super Spooks ready in case you run up on some feeding schools. The water temperature needs to drop a little more, and we need some stable weather for the night bite to kick in. Weekend rains may kick this off.

Get ready, because we only a few days away. We are still catching daytime fish over a 50- to 80-foot bottom. Put a bait down if you see even one fish close to the bottom. We are catching daytime fish over a 50 to 85 foot bottoms and the fish are up to 18 pounds. This week, the early day bite has been a little better and then mid-day is second. Take a look at this Lowrance 332C color unit and you can really see the fish on the bottom come up and look at the baits. There are more there you cannot see. The fish do not seem to be over deeper water for some reason. There are some fish in the bay at the mouth of Six Mile Creek. Ride around until you see them on the Lowrance.

Trolling has faded in the last few days for some reason. My best advice is to plan on taking some herring, trout and even some large shiners and sit over these areas and ease around slowly with the trolling motor and be ready for a big bite by the weekend. Keep in mind that with the cooler weather, stripers are about to concentrate around the dam and a 7-inch chrome Red Fin would be a good choice of baits.

Crappie are biting, so stay down lake on bridges and deeper docks as well as off shore structure. Fish are biting better later each day on live minnows or using a hair jig tipped with the same minnow. Depths down lake are as deep as 12 to 17 feet in the clearer water.

Take a look at www.pollymoon.com for a yearly moon phase calendar.

We have a new bass book ready called, BASS FISHING ON WEST POINT LAKE. This book is written by Tim White and Ken Sturdivant and includes more than 65 locations exclusively for bass and covers every week of the year. This book is $39.00. If you would like a sample, send an email to kensturdivant@earthlink.net. Our mailing address is: Southern Fishing Schools Inc., 106 Hickory Ridge, Cumming, Georgia 30040.

The new bass fishing books, BASS FISHING LAKE RUSSELL, BASS FISHING WEST POINT LAKE and BASS FISHING LAKE HARTWELL are $39 each and on sale now. Tim White and Ken Sturdivant have opened both lakes up to avid bass anglers with more than 100 key bass fishing holes. Send an e mail for a sample to: kensturdivant@earthlink.net.

We teach “On the Water" Schools: Rods, Reels and Lures for Bass or Maps and Depth Finders. Call 770-889-2654 for details.

Take a look at www.aquavu.com. You really need a camera. Copyright 2006, Southern Fishing Schools Inc. Call us to set up a school “Rods, Reels and Lures for Bass”. See our web site, www.havefunfishing.com for more details or call us right away, 770-889-2654.