Lake Allatoona Topwater Starts Soon!

It looks like Henry Cowen's got some good fishing coming up the next couple months over on Allatoona:

Small stripers are the norm on Allatoona

Well guys and gals, I hope everyone had a nice summer. I know I could not wait for it to end. Fishing for me consisted of some river fishing for trout, striped bass and carp. I want to let everyone know what we are doing that is new and exciting. We will be fishing over on Lake Allatoona during Sept and Oct to take advantage of the tremendous top water bite that goes on over there. It is an absolute perfect fishery for flyrodders. There is a mix of small stripers, hybrids, spotted bass and white bass. Most of these fish average from 2-5lbs. It is an ideal 6 to 8 wt rod fishery. Best of all is the fact that Allatoona has no herring on it so all the bait is generally threadfin shad in the 1-3″ size. A dozen fish per man is very common when the fish are schooling. We can also accommodate the non-fly fishing angler as these fish can also be taken on lite spinning tackle. It is just great fun! I did a bit of this in June and really enjoyed it to the point where many of my customers want to take advantage of the pleasant weather and great fishing. We will be running 4 hour witching hour trips that cost $250 for up to 2 anglers. Fishing will either be a first light (6:45am-10:45am) or last light (4pm-8pm) deal. Just a nice way for 2 folks to affordably get into some fantastic action! All trips will be run out of my 16 1/2 foot G3 boat. As usual, we can supply all tackle if needed. Floating and intermediate lines are what is called for. We will start booking trips immediately and expect the fishing to kick in by Sept 15th and run thru end of Oct. See you on ”the other” pond. HC

Fly Fishing for River Stripers with Buck Ernst

I thought I'd share a little multimedia presentation (HD video and still photos) with y'all from a recent trip with our buddy Buck Ernst. We were searching for river stripers in late April and we managed several along with some white bass and largemouth... all on the fly. What river were you fishing? you ask? Well, I don't believe I said. I hope you enjoy the video!

Lake Lanier Striper Report for February 3 - Henry Cowen

Here's a striper report from our ol' buddy Henry Cowen:   

The water temps were hovering at around 42-43 degrees north and 44 degrees south. YOU MUST FIND WARM WATER if you want to catch fish. The warmest water unfortunately got muddy over the past few days and appears it will again after tomorrow with the big rain coming. I found 45 degree water today just playing and searching for fish. Had fellow guide Clay Cunningham with me (bait specialist). He tosses a fly every now and then. We found fish over a 30-40 foot bottom in 15-20 feet of water. Hooked 3 and landed 2 up to 12lbs on flies. Clay left the boat running home to find his 8 wt and sinking lines……Tomorrow looks like it will be a homerun! After that……all bets are off until we get some warm weather. End Feb into tail end of March is usually when we see the big fish of Lanier caught….stay tuned and see you on the pond!  HC

Read more, including Henry's report on the Somerset NJ fly fishing show, at his blog.

Lanier Report - First Week of January

All I can say is Brrrrrr……..I got to fish New Years Day with a buddy and it was chilly and WINDY. Managed to get a couple of stripers in the 10-11 lb range on small Clousers. Fish are moving really fast and never saw a fish on top or in the back of a cove. Sinking lines are still the ticket and I would advise a 15 lb test tippet as the water chills and cools down. These fish get sluggish and going a bit lighter in tippet can make a difference. Since that day it has been impossible to fish. It is just too cold! I cancelled 4 trips since Jan 1st. Today was one of those RARE pre-frontal snowy thingamajigger days. Jim Harvey and Dennis Desmond called to see if I would take them out to play with our finned friends. Well they hit it right. At 2 pm the skies got dark, the winds increased, the temp felt like it dropped some, the birds started flying and the fish came alive. We had 8 or 9 eats today. We landed 3 spotted bass and 4 stripers. The smallest fish was probably 10-11 lbs. The largest was 15 lbs. Fish ate both Clousers and the somethin’ else…….Starting to find BIG schools of fish on the electronics. Man I love this time of year! See you on the pond! HC