Winter fishing has arrived across much of Alabama after a string of nights in the 30′s, pushing most bass out of shallow water and into transitional zones between the shallows and the deeper channels, as well as into deep creek mouths. For anglers who thrive on sonar fishing, this is prime time. For those who live fishing the shoreline, it’s slim pickings.
However, the cold is a plus for anglers who chase stocked striped bass in many locations around the state, as the fish thrive on lower temperatures. Crappie anglers can also expect a big jump in action as water temperatures fall into the low 50′s and the fish go into pre-spawn feeding mode, schooling around bait schools in deep water, as they will into late March.
From Guntersville, Captain Mike Gerry reports the cooler water has the bass hitting fast-moving lures including SPRO Little John 60′s, SPRO Aruku Shad rattle baits, spinner baits and Tight-Line swim jigs for his customers. Last weekend’s Alabama Bass Trail 100 on Guntersville was won by a team of anglers who primarily used sonar to find bass schooled up in deep creek mouths, then caught them on soft plastic swimbaits rigged on ½ ounce heads; www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com.
At Weiss, guide Mark Collins reports water temperatures in the lower 50′s has turned on the winter crappie bite. He said his clients have been scoring while fishing creek and river channel ledges 12 to 20 feet deep. Spider rigging with live minnows and jigs over brush and stumps has been the most effective tactic, but some action is also coming in the Little River area by long-line trolling with Jiffy Jigs. Most bass action has moved offshore to roadbeds, ditches and secondary points, where lipless crankbaits and other deep-running lures draw the strikes; www.markcollinsguideservice.com.
At Pickwick, Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reports bass action remains good on the edge of the grass beds, both for anglers flippin’ the thicker mats and for those casting weedless lures into the open holes. Bass are also chasing shad on the surface at times, and a noisy topwater is the way to catch these fish where you see them breaking. Crappie are biting well in Bear and Yellow creeks—find the bait schools and fish over them with live minnows, or troll the channels 12-20 feet deep with tiny crappie jigs to locate the action. Catfishing remains good below the dam and in the channel on drifted cut skipjack or shad.
At Lewis Smith, cooler water turns on the bite for both spotted bass and stripers around schools of herring—find the bait on sonar and then fish the edges with deep-diving crankbaits, lipless crankbaits and swimbaits. For larger stripers, a live shad drifted deep on the channel edges is the way to go—the bigger the bait, the better. Stripers to 30 pounds are caught at this time of year and on into spring here. Below the dam, stocked rainbow trout can be caught anytime there’s steady current flow. Best action is in the first half-mile below the dam, best baits live worms or Berkley Trout Bait below a spin-bubble; www.riversideflyshop.com.
From the coast, redfish are active with the cooler water. Anglers fishing around the Dauphin Island Bridge are scoring by drifting live shrimp through the pilings below a slip cork. The dropping temperatures are moving trout up Mobile Bay, headed toward deep holes in the Delta rivers where they’ll spend much of the winter. Trout also stack up in the Dog and Fowl rivers on the west shore. Live shrimp is the best bet, but they also take Slick Lures and soft plastics fished on jigs. Sheepshead are biting everywhere with the cooler water—look for them anywhere there’s hard structure with barnacles or oysters to feed on, and catch them on cut shrimp or fiddler crabs; www.ateamfishing.com.
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November 28, 2021 at 10:38PM
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Alabama fishing report - al.com
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