A series of small overflow ponds near Lick Branch has an excellent track record for producing sizeable largemouths, which prefer to stay just out of the current and hammer the schools of shad that shelter here. Also keep in mind when your fishing along the lakes weedy bottom, striped bass rarely hit lures like worms, lizards, tube baits, creature baits, crayfish imitations, jig combos and small finesse lures. All throughout this 50 mile long lake, it is possible on any given weekend (one day bass tournament), to successfully fool five bass weighing over 20 pounds. The explosive antics of Lay Lake's largemouth bass, create some very memorable scenes, many never . Black Bass, Green Trout, Bigmouth Bass, Lineside Bass Smallmouth Bass Variant Names: Brown Bass, Brownie, Bronze Bass * Looking for a new or used boat? Places, dozens of other competitors fail to find in deep water that hold big schools of big bass! | Site Maps, About Us, Advertising, Terms & Contact Us |, Site Maps, About Us, Advertising, Terms & Contact Us. Tough on fishing tackle, tough on fishing line, rods and reels and often these little, balls of fighting fury are tough on themselves, often ripping theirmouths with your lures sharp hooks, in their attempt to escape capture. Its dense bass population is partly due to the aquatic vegetation, including hydrilla weed beds and milfoil, and its sprawling series of offshoots and creek systems. When fishing, Alabamas Lay Lake For Deep Summertime Bass! Coming real soon PART TWO JULY! Spotted and largemouth bass are favorite targets here on this 12,000-acre lake, located 30 miles south of Birmingham. The key to fishing Wheeler Lake isnt targeting the popular fishing holes but looking for secluded offshoots a short boat ride from the launch. The southern portions of the lake include stump fields, gravel banks, and creek mouths that serve up some great largemouth action. Frogs, minnows, crayfish, worms, snakes, eels, lizards, insects (such as dragonflies) and a variety of smaller bait fish such as bream, threadfin shad, gizzard shad, small catfish, bream, minnows and crappie, all inhibit these weeds and any one (or all), of these hapless prey can easily become the days next meal! Locations like Town Creek and Douglass Branch are small cuts off the river with a heavily forested shoreline and a few docks for good measure. Beeswax, Cedar, Paint and Spring creeks all have good grass.. Trouble is, most bass have a hard time remembering anything for a long period of time. If the largemouth arent aggressive enough to attack his swimming jig, McCaig digs them out by flippin a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with a 1-ounce weight into the water willows. This is often what it takes for those tournament winning bags of five bass limits. The lakes southern end is a favorite of spotted and largemouth bass during the spawning season, and April is a hotbed of activity in locations such as Canoe Creek and Ottery Creek. Both weed types can get very thick and even choke out some shallow backwaters with a thick, matted look to these types of weeds. Bass Fishing Lay Lake | Lay Lake Flipping for Bass | Not the biggest bass I have caught, but it sure was some fast flipping action for a few hours in the mor. View Map This Tallapoosa River reservoir is one of the most popular bass fishing locations throughout the entire state. Bass Species: Spotted, largemouth, striped, smallmouth. Another type of thick, stringy weed that can grow in both shallow water and deep water. Like School, you have still got to do your home work! As always, good luck, and stay safe out on the water. The tournament was the last Eastern Open Bass Tournament. Columbiana, AL 35051 Since being impounded in 1914 by the Alabama Power Company, Lay Lake is best known for its spotted and largemouth bass fishing. Water willow is a leafy aquatic vegetation that grows in water 2 to 3 feet deep along shorelines. Guiding on Lay Lake and all of Alabamas Lakes for over 50 years! A high quality largemouth bass and spotted bass fishery exists at Lay Reservoir. Instead of targeting specific fishing holes like other locations along the Coosa River, its best if anglers pick a shoreline and troll it, fishing into the many small cuts and creeks that dot both shores. Weekly. Bass fishing with weedless lures, targeting the many varieties of aquatic weeds found on Alabama's Lay Lake, can generate some heart-stopping strikes. That is almost 22 pounds a day for three days! More on that in Part Two July! Bass Species: Largemouth, spotted, striped, hybrid striped. To even hope of making the top ten payout spots in many one day bass tournaments, multi day major bass tournaments trails and annual events held on Lay Lake. Your big striper, white bass, and smallmouth will be closer to the dam, but the largemouths arent far off. Always have plenty of colors, jig trailers and various weights for these kind of lures. Jordan Lake State Boat Ramp (Rotary Landing) is your bass boat launch if you want to target the dam, diversion, or Sofkahatchee Creek. Reed Montgomery / Owner of Reeds Guide Service for over forty years! Located in the southeast section of the lake, off Paint Creek State Ramp Road, this is a one-lane, concrete ramp with a dock and gravel parking. So in a few days time most of Lay lakes lure conditioned bass are usually ready to hit the same lures over again. Starting from the top and working down, anglers can launch from Lakepoint State Park and hit the cuts ofHills Lakefor some excellent spotted and largemouth bass fishing. With a highly diverse ecosystem hosting crawfish, shad, snails, and even freshwater mussels, there is no shortage of prey for bass. A favorite destination of boating enthusiasts and fishermen alike, Lay Lake is a popular lake for bass tournaments. Phoenix Bass Fishing League - Lay Lake - Day 2 Weigh-in (9/12/2021) 1y Phoenix Bass Fishing League. Alabama has a wide variety of excellent fishing lakes, and with many bass species, the opportunities here seem endless. The perfect bedding water temperature of 72 degrees, coupled with the seasons next full moon, is all it takes to trigger a mass wave of both male and female largemouth bass and spotted bass to head towards the lakes shallow, spawning grounds. Trolling here is your best bet by boat, but anglers can shore fish for magnificent stripers with bottom rigs baited with live shad. Especially, they arefound in the many types of aqautic weeds Lay lake has to offer. Talk to an Expert. Lay Lake features both spotted bass and largemouth bass, and Davis says either species can win tournaments during the early summer months. But spotted bass and largemouth bass will! Although they will choose to bed in a sandy bottom or a small pebble bottom, right along with their cousins the largemouth bass, a lot of spotted bass would prefer to mingle and bed with their own kind. Fishing around Lay lake's aquatic weeds and targeting various types of wood cover such as stumps, logs, laying trees, brush piles and standing timber, calls for the use of topwater lures in May. And they can be found in abundance lake wideall throughout the spring spawning month of April! LURES FOR FISHING AWAY FROM LAY LAKES WEEDS. Located mid lake, west side, off Paradise Point Marina Road, this is a two-lane, concrete ramp with docks and gravel parking. The most active fishing spots in Alabama Lake Purdy Full lakeside bait/tackle shop, boat rental, rod rental. 2023 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake. Michigan's Kevin Van Dam won that world-renowned fishing event. There are a variety of species of bass to catch in Alabama. ]. Just watch your lure selection and look where your casting! Guided fishing trip with pro bass angler Joey Nania We will fish from my new Nitro Z-20 powered by a Mercury 250 Pro XS. But striped bass do not dwell in the weeds. 231 Paradise Point Drive When McCaig goes for Lay Lakes spotted bass in February, he opts for a 1/2-ounce All-Terrain Tackle Rattling A.T. Jig tipped with a 3-inch twin curly tailed grub. Reid Creek features a four-way fork where anglers catch all three species of black bass from the many docks lining the shores and the handful of shallow coves in the area. If those times won't work for you, 12:00AM to 12:00AM looks promising. Meanwhile, in front of the Wheeler Dam, anglers will find plenty of stripers, white bass, and even a strong contingency of smallmouth lurking around Big Nance Creek and Lock Three. Not only should Lay Lake be heralded in terms of producing some rather big, largemouth bass (some weighing in excess of ten pounds have been taken in years past), but it should also be recognized for its excessive population of supreme-sized, Alabama Coosa River spotted bass. Yes, (like weedy, Lake Eufaula on the Al. Bring your own tackle or you can use mine. 13 oz. In addition to containing a decent population of rainbow trout, anglers will find a modest number of monster striped bass, medium-sized spotted bass, and of course, a substantial population of largemouth bass over 16 inches. Towards the bottom portion of the lake, anglers will hit the last bastion of excellent largemouth bass fishing at Hardridge Creek. Anglers can pick up a few largemouths around docks on the northern side of the diversion pool, but anglers will catch striper and spotted bass in large numbers along the eastern shoreline of the diversions rocky banks. Kaera Frog White / 2 1/4" 1 Fishing Report. I havent seen bass like that in any Coosa River lake in 10 or 15 years.. Crappie can be caught on minnows near brush piles and fallen trees in the shallows. The species you catch will vary depending on the location, due to water type preferences and bait. 9 oz. Other popular baits include topwater frogs beneath docks, over lily pads, and around grass beds. Not-So-Weedless Topwater Lures Some topwater lures feature 2-3 dangling treble hooks. Other Coosa River reservoirs are pulled down during the winter, which hinders the growth of water willows. It does talk a while to learn the entire lake. Anglers will find the black bass bite at its finest in these creek areas. Guiding on Lay Lake and all other Alabama Lakes For Over 40 Years!. The notoriety this man made Coosa River Lake has received, just in the last decade alone, is phenomenal. Lake Guntersville, Wheeler Lake, Pickwick Lake, Weiss Lake, Lewis Smith Lake, Neely Henry Lake, Lay Lake, Lake Martin, Logan Martin Lake, Lake Jordan, Alabama River, Lake Eufaula and the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta 205 917-0801, Paradise Point Marina & RV Topwater frogs are a great way to find whats lurking in the back of cuts you cant access in your boat, but spinnerbaits let you cover more water. By most standards of that time this was big! Dirty Jigs. Lay Lake Public Boat Launch Ramp Anglers should keep in mind, your lures will be in front of more big bass and always closer to their strike zone, while targeting these bunched-up bass, that will be gathering around Lay lakes many types of aquatic weeds this spring season. But you hardly ever seen a striped bass hit a buzz bait. The Alabama Bass Trail Tournament Series is a team fishing tournament located on 13 premier bass fishing lakes throughout Alabama. Lay lake has over 12,000 surface acres of water for avid bass anglers to explore, with some huge, incoming feeder creeks. At this point, anglers are . To help organize this section, well start in the north where the Coosa River flows into Alabama and work our way through the reservoirs heading south. It is rewarding to see the community of support that has grown for fishing tournaments. had shown Bassmasters and FLW Outdoors visit this weedy lake in a post spawn / early summer condition with over 50 miles of mid-to-lower Lake places to fish! Right at the top of your list of tournamntesto fish this Falland Winter season with thebest payouts as well! Narrows Boat Launch Ramp NOTE * This article includes info for fishing Lay Lake, including info on other Coosa River lakes, impounded from the early 1900s to 1966. * Looking for the worlds best bass boat? From March on into summer months is the time to think shallow water bassin! It was my worst tournament finish in. This huge impoundment of the Tennessee River in northwestern Alabama is home to white, smallmouth, and largemouth bass. Lay lakes largemouth basssee a lot of lures. Thespotted basscan usually be found in the upper reservoir and up into the narrower river toward Weiss Dam, where the current is stronger. Alabamas oldest professional bass fishing only guide service for over 40 years. While fishing and competing against some of Alabamas best bass anglers in major bass tournaments. Topwater frogs work magic here, and beneath the overhanging trees, anglers are almost guaranteed a surface strike worthy of the cover of Field and Stream. Elite winner. Either way, buckle up. Teams will take off fromBeeswaxCreek Park in Columbiana at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in starting at 2:30 p.m. Usually the latter of these two. This was a bass tournament held in the early summer season on the lower Chattahoochee River System Lake Eufaula, situated on the Alabama / Georgia state line. Fish with us in Alabama's Lakes and Rivers for Largemouth, Smallmouth, Spotted Bass and Huge Striped Bass, we can put you on the fish. Bass anglers, almost on a daily basis, have shown these weed-dweeling largemouth bass a variety of lures fished in and around the lakes weeds, from top to bottom. Nine of the top ten anglers were from Alabama! Bringing in 5 bass a day over a three day period, with all 15 bass weighing one ounce short of 65 pounds! Featuring a myriad of trees overhanging the bank and plenty of docks, this is a bucketmouth haven where anglers can fish nice and slow, filling up an ice chest in no time. Smith Lake Dam 202303/0 03/04/2023 . As anglers catch their fish, they lay them on authorized measuring boards with the head facing left. The best spotted bass fishing is from Beeswax Creek north to the Logan Martin Dam, McCaig said. Just like the fact that these bass will bed in the same types of locations, they will also hit the same types of lures presented to them all throughout the spring season. You are trying to access a feature that requires a Fishidy account. Yes, even during the hot days of summer, while fishing in the sweltering sun often in the mid-to-upper nineties, big bags of bass are dredged from the depths of Alabamas Lay Lake. Part of the reason for Lay Lakes staying power is the 1.5 million Florida-strain bass fry that have been released into Lay Lake by Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries since 1983. With information (and some of the top ten anglers and their 3-4 days weights, lures used and results), while featuring two previous, professional bass tournaments held on Lake Eufaula in south Alabama (Impounded 1963). 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