This week's Lake Allatoona crappie fishing report is brought to you by Bayne's Fishing & Ourdoors. Bayne's Fishing & Outdoors is conveniently located in Cartersville, Georgia and has everything you and your family need for a great day on the water! Bayne's Fishing & Outdoors has a large live bait selection featuring minnows, shad, worms & crickets as well as all the top name in lures and artificial jigs (including Red Rooster). If you are looking for a kayak or kayak related products they have those as well. They also feature custom rod work, rod repair and rod spooling. Stop by and see Bayne's Fishing & Outdoors and let them know you saw them on Red Rooster's weekly Lake Allatoona crappie fishing report.
Air Temp: High: 75 - Low: 36
Wind: 5-25 mph
Lake Level: 827 (Click Here For Current Water Level)
Water Surface Temp: 48 - 52
Water Clarity: Light Stain (Brownish/Green to Clear in Most Areas)
Area Fished: S-Turns, Victoria, Kellogg/Owl Creek & Little River Area
Jigs Used: Catawba - Slab Dragon, Tre's Gold - Slab Dragon, Green Glimmer - Small Fry, Green Glimmer - Slab Dragon, Green Glimmer - Kic'n Chic'n XL, Sour Grape - Kic'n Chic'n XL, BlueGrass - Kic'n Chic'n XL and UV Melon - Kic'n Chic'n XL
Technique: Trolling
Allatoona Weekly Crappie Fishing Report:
This week was a typical February where the weather was spring-like for a couple of days then turned back into winter! The weekend was in the 70's and the water temps were approaching 58 degrees by the end of the day. And then the cold weather blew back in with some strong gusty winds that kept many off of the lake. The week was chilly and windy which dropped the water temps back down to 48 degrees. We saw the weather forecast so we made sure to get out the weekend leading up to the cooler, windy days and were greatly rewarded with some nice crappie! The smaller crappie seemed to be the most aggressive as we caught a lot of small crappie anywhere from 6" to 9" but they were fun to catch! We trolled a mix of Slab Dragons, Small Fry, Talon 2.0, Kic'n Chic'n and Kic'n Chic'n XL as we are in between crappie moods. Some want the jigs with the action of a paddle tail and some seemed to prefer a straight tail with little to no action. We did notice that when the days are overcast the opaque colors were working well but as soon as the sun came out and was high in the sky the translucent colors, especially with gold flake, were triggering a lot of bites. Keep that in mind when you are fishing on low visibility days to use opaque or solid bodies and when the sun pops out make sure you have translucent with a contrasting flake...it seems to make a big difference! It's go time for Lake Allatoona crappie! Get out there and troll the creeks from the mouth to the back and any flats and sloping points adjacent to creeks and river bends.
Crappie: This past weekend the weather and water temperature was great! The water temperature was approaching 58 degrees and we found a lot of active crappie in shallow water anywhere from 8' to 12'. A cold front blew in that changed the game a little bit on Sunday and Monday. Low temps and high winds kept us off the lake until Tuesday but we were able to get back on the water and find some active crappie. The water temperature has dropped back to 48 degrees in just a matter of 48 to 72 hours. This sudden temperature change pushed the crappie back out into deeper waters between 10' to 15'. After the cold front the crappie were scattered with some suspended in 8' to 10' over 14' of water. But they were still willing to bite. We noticed a few things this past week that we would like to pass along:
1) Water temps above 50 degrees, the crappie were chasing jigs with action like the Kic'n Chic'n and Kic'n Chic'n XL. They wanted an active, paddle tail style jig.
2) Once the water temps dropped below 50 the crappie wanted a jig with less action like the Slab Dragon, Small Fry or the Georgia Razor.
3) When the sky was overcast, solid or opaque colors like Black & Blue, Black & Chartreuse were the preferred colors.
4) When the sun came out and light penetration was optimum the crappie then wanted more translucent colors with gold or silver flake like Tre's Gold, Chicken Pox or Green Glimmer. Tre's Gold and Green Glimmer were by far our most productive colors this past week when the sun was shining.
We trolled flats and sloping points adjacent to creek channels and a lot of open water once the crappie moved back out deeper after this recent cold snap. It's no secret that the north end of the lake, s-turns is the place to be this time of year. Kellogg & Owl Creek has shown promise but has yet to produce large schools of crappie. With that said we are expecting Stamp, McCaskey, Clark and Tanyard creeks and the surrounding area to heat up soon! We are looking for other areas to start heating up and bringing in crappie soon. When the water warms up above 50 degrees we will troll a mix of 1/24th and 1/16th oz. jig heads but we had to switch back to 1/16th and 3/32nd oz. jig heads to target the deeper crappie after the cold snap. We trolled between .7 and .9 mph which are the go to speeds when the crappie are in deeper water. Keep an eye on the upcoming weather as we move into March. Once the day and night temps warm up the water will rapidly heat up and so will the crappie action.
Remember as we move into the spawn try to keep crappie that measure between 10" to 12" as the crappie that are over 12" are the key to keeping this lake stocked for years to come. If you do catch a big slab crappie practice "CPR" - Catch - Photo - Release.
Our go to colors for light stained water are Sour Grape, Lemonade, 'Lectric Chic'n, Green Glimmer, Black/Blue & BlueGrass. There are other colors that we use during the month of February and you can see our article "The Best Crappie Jig Colors For Lake Allatoona In February" for the complete list. You want to use anything that is bright and will stand out when fishing this type of water during this time of year. We also believe that it helps to use a bright color jig head such as pink, chartreuse, orange and glow white. Red Rooster Custom Baits is your "Long Line Trolling Authority" for all things long line trolling for crappie. If you have questions about when, what and where give us a call or shoot us an email. Red Rooster makes custom jig heads, under spins and we can color match any jig color that you want or need. We love talking about crappie fishing so we are here to help. We also do a Facebook Live most Friday nights unless something comes up.
If you don't know what colors to choose check out our Combo Packs, this will save you a lot of time with proven stained and clear water colors. Be sure to check out the archives for February 2025 and see what we were doing this time last year!
Make sure to download the Red Rooster Long Line Trolling Guide for tips on how to troll for Allatoona Crappie.
Verse of the Week: Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ~ Matthew 22:37-39.
Bailey with some nice Allatoona Slabs caught on Red Rooster Jigs!
Grant & Tucker holding up some fine Lake Allatoona crappie courtesy of Crappieman Lake Allatoona Crappie Fishing Guide Service!
Tucker with a solid Lake Allatoona keeper crappie courtesy of Crappieman Lake Allatoona Crappie Fishing Guide Service.
A Lake Allatoona Slab caught on the Green Glimmer Kic'n Chic'n XL
Another Lake Allatoona back crappie caught on the Black & Blue Kic'n Chic'n XL
If you are not trolling a Tre's Gold Slab Dragon when the sun is out...you're trolling backwards!
