West Point Lake, Georgia

West Point Lake, Georgia

April 1, 2007-April 9, 2007

Warm weather here we come! Well at least there were a couple of nice days. Kelly and I drove down to LaGrange, Georgia to fish with Rich Charleston on West Point Lake for five days during our spring break. West Point Lake is a 35,000-acre reservoir located on the boarder of Georgia and Alabama about one hour south of Atlanta.

West Point is primarily a spotted bass factory but it also has a good largemouth bass population. Our first day proved this to be a fact because we caught a bunch of spotted bass and only 2 largemouth bass.

West Point Lake is actually a damned up section of the Chattahoochee River. The northern end of the lake was really muddy and the southern end was crystal clear. There were thousands of points, stump fields and drop offs. Everything looked the same to me and everything looked like it would hold bass.

April 1, 2007: Day One

10:30 am- Rich, Kelly and I launched Rich’s 21 ft Stratos in a creek arm near the northern part of West Point Lake. The air temperature was a steaming 82 degrees and the water temperature was holding at 72 degrees. There was a stiff west wind so we decided to start the day fishing for spotted bass holding on roadbeds.

11:00 am- We started the morning throwing lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits. With in the first ten minutes I caught the first bass. It was a 10-inch spotted bass that fought like a little bull. I couldn’t believe how hard spotted bass pull.

12:00 pm- No one could get any more bites so we motored to a main point leading into a creek arm. Rich was slow rolling a spinnerbait when it was pounded. He landed our first keeper spot that weighed 1.5 lbs.

12:10 pm- Rich caught another keeper spotted bass under a floating boat dock with his spinnerbait. He caught it pretty close to a secondary point leading to the back of a creek arm. It weighed 2 pounds even. At this time Kelly switched from a lipless crankbait to a spinnerbait. I was being a little more stubborn and kept on chucking my trap.

1:00 pm- Forty minutes passed without another bite so we motored to the back of the creek arm to look for spawning bass. I noticed a couple males swimming around but they weren’t locked onto anything yet. While rich and I were trying to entice them to bite Kelly caught our biggest spotted bass of the week with her spinnerbait. It weighed 2.5 pounds. She thought it was going to be a lot bigger because of the way it pulled.

1:30 pm- Rich and I decided to concentrate on wind blown secondary points for the rest of the day because only buck bass were on nest. The first secondary point we stopped on was where I caught my first keeper spotted bass. I caught it using a silver lipless crankbait. This spotted bass was our fourth keeper and it weighed 2.0 lbs. As I released my bass I noticed a huge ball of threadfin shad and spotted bass were darting through them. I quickly threw my trap leading the bait. A magnum spot crushed it and almost took my rod out of my hand. It started ripping out drag and testing my 12 lb Gamma line. The huge spot jumped and broke my heart! It came off and swam away.

2:00-5:00 pm- The next three hours were absolutely grueling and we only caught a few short bass. We decided to adjust our pattern and look for spawners again.

5:30 pm- Rich motored to the back of another creek arm and we started looking for beds again. The bass in West Point Lake don’t make noticeable beds because the bottom is mostly red clay. Instead they spawn on stumps, rocks, or any grass they can find. I noticed a chunky largemouth bass setting by a log in the water. I pitched a worm by him and he ate it right away. It was our fifth keeper and it weighed 2.5 pounds.

We ended day one with five bass that weighed in at 10.5 pounds. We never found a big female on a bed today but there is suppose to be a full moon soon.

April 2, 2007: Day Two

12:00 pm- Today we launched Rich’s Stratos at Highland Marina, which is a little farther south than we launched on Monday. It was bright and sunny today with an air temperature of 85 degrees. There was a full moon last night and the water temperature went up to 73 degrees. We suspected that the big females would pull up throughout the day so we targeted the back of creek channels.

12:10 pm- The first creek we motored to had spawners locked on every stick or piece of grass available. Most of the bass were bucks but there were a couple huge females swimming around. I noticed a female that was still hanging around a bed but the male was pushing her away. I pitched a Poorboy jig with a Peca Craw trailer by her and she engulfed it. I fought her carefully for a couple minute before Kelly had her in the net. She ended up being pretty close to the biggest largemouth bass I’ve ever caught. It weighed a staggering 7.0 pounds. She was post spawn, skinny, and worn out. I believe if I caught her during the pre-spawn she could have weighed 9-10 lbs.

12:20 pm

- We motored around the creek and Rich caught two more bass off beds. They were both 3.5 pounds. Kelly was getting hungry so we ate lunch at a bar on the lake.

2:00 pm- After a long and relaxing lunch we went farther south to a couple more creek arms and fished for spawners. I had another huge female on but she was foul hooked and luckily came off. The fish were starting to get lockjaw and they were very spooky once the sun was high in the sky.

4:00 pm- Our last move of the day took us to creek arm that only had one spawning bass in it but it was ENORMOUS! It was by far the biggest bass I’ve ever seen and it was spawning on a log 10 ft from the boat. I flipped my jig just beyond her nest and slowly inched it across. When the jig was on her bed she stuck her tail out of the water and pounded my jig to the ground. I set the hook and she didn’t budge. She gave me two hard tail kicks and came unbuttoned. My heart was broken. She had to be at least 8-9 pounds.

Our day two adventure gave us four keeper bass, one giant 7 pounder, and a broken heart.

On April 3 a record-breaking cold front came through dropping temperatures to 50-degree days, and 32-degree nights. Needless to say the fish pulled off beds and didn’t want to eat anymore.