Air Temp: High: 88 - Low: 70
Wind: Up to 10 Mph
Lake Level: Approx. 841' (Click Here For Current Water Level)
Water Temp: 84-86
Water Clarity: Clear to light stain
Area Fished: Blockhouse (Tanyard/Clark Creek Area), Galt's Ferry & Kellogg Creek
Jigs Used: BlueGrass Dagger, UV Shad Dagger, Watermelon Ghost Dagger, Motor Oil Red and MayFly
Technique: Casting Soft Plastic Jigs & Spider Rigging
Allatoona Weekly Crappie Fishing Report:
This week in July on Lake Allatoona was mild compared to the weeks before as we got a break from the heat! We managed to fish a day or two in between the rains and were rewarded with some nice Allatoona slabs! Even though we got a break from the 90-100 degree heat the summer crappie pattern is still going strong. The key to the summer pattern is to find the thermocline depth, which at this time of year could vary depending on which area of the lake you are in. If you are not familiar with the "Thermocline", it is the "in between" area between the hot and cold temperatures in the water column. Basically, the top layer is warm and the bottom layer is cool, in both of these layers the oxygen is low and not conducive for fish. The thermocline is the sweet spot where the oxygen levels are where they need to be for fish to thrive in the heat of summer. We look for the thermocline and then we look for structure that is in that depth range. At this time of we are seeing fish suspended in 14' - 18' of water where the temperature and oxygen are at the right levels for active fish. Note, this depth does change throughout the day as the crappie may be suspended in 10' - 12' during the early morning and transition to deeper depths as the day goes on, again this does depend on the area of the lake you are fishing. Spider rigging a small minnow is still the preferred method this time of year for numbers of crappie. We had a couple of good mornings this past week spider rigging deep water brush in the 18' - 22' depths. The early morning jig bite produced a few but it doesn't seem like it was as good of a jig bite this week as last week. We did manage a few using a Red Rooster Dagger on a 3/32 oz. jig head in natural colors like UV Shad, Watermelon Ghost, Motor oil Red and Mayfly. Sometimes they would key in on the bright colors like BlueGrass. Be safe out there and wear your life jackets as the summer boat & jet-ski traffic ain't no joke. Remember to keep only the crappie that you need and release the rest to keep our great fishery strong for generations to come! Lord willing Team Red Rooster will bring you another report next week!
We would like to give a shout out to Jake Turner of Main Line Fishing Charters who is a fishing guide on Lake Allatoona and a long time Red Rooster Pro Staffer. If you want to learn more about crappie fishing on Lake Allatoona and have a great time catching some nice crappie give Jake a call and he will make sure to put you on some solid slabs!