Neely Henry Lake
By Reed Montgomery / Reeds Guide Service
Late August Report - Late Summer Spotted Bass and Largemouth Bass are Feeding!
Water Temperature - Mid-80′s / Water Clarity - Upper Main Lake is stained from recent rains, from mid lake at Gadsden City Boat Launch to the lake’s headwaters / Lower Lake Clear with most major feeder creeks showing some stained-to-muddy water conditions
Air Temperature - Mid-to-upper 80′s with nighttime lows in the upper 60′s / Weather - the continuing cold spell shows mostly cloudy skies each day, with day and nighttime thunderstorms and several inches of rain possible at any time. Sunny this week for several days starting Tuesday highs in the upper-80′s.
Impounded 1966 / Lake Level: Full Pool
Cold Spell …in August? In Alabama? Its just unheard of. Normally, people are complaining about the weather being too hot! With air temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees (Like July recently displayed) during the mid to late August period, in years past.
But now, who’s complaining and how do those bass like it? You would not believe…
The entire Coosa River System (that stretches from north to south Alabama) consists of six man made impoundments. Neely Henry Lake is the second of those six lakes and its mid section is located only one mile from downtown Gadsden, Al.
With the lake’s headwaters situated below upper impoundment Weiss lake dam (the first lake of these six Coosa River Impoundments) all the way to the lower lake Neely Henry Dam, is over 50 miles of some very fishy-looking water.
Excellent habitat for the lakes natural breed of bass, the Coosa Rover spotted bass and plenty of places for avid bass anglers to discover some big, largemouth bass are to be found lake wide. With some searching of course!
The question most summertime anglers ponder is; Do I fish deep water or do I fish shallow water or fish both? Well, as with any conditions during any season, most bass anglers know, there are Big bass in both shallow water and often schools of Big bass in deep water most of the time.
Finding them is only the beginning of your success. Presenting the right-colored lure in the right manner, fished at the right depth, while utilizing the right retrieve is what separates those very astute anglers that find bass and those anglers that successfully catch those same bass!
Its really all a big puzzle, that takes time to successfully put together, for the inevitable outcome to look the way it should look, every time you choose to go fishing. In fishing terms this means catching bass!
So take a good look at the lake and its inhabitants every time you go fishing. This includes knowing the weather, observing the conditions and above all selecting several lures, those that are to be rigged and ready, to be fished at all depths in the top, middle and bottom of the water column, during some particular portion of the day. But when?
Coosa River Spotted bass and Neely Henry lake’s largemouth bass are both governed to feed during the most ideal, low light conditions all throughout the summer months and even as fall emerges and water temperatures begin to drop they continue to feed and fatten up.
So during the early morning dawn, or late evenings and even on those rare summertime days where its cloudy or raining all day anglers should always have a good shallow water game plan.
If the sun breaks out and all clouds suddenly disappear and it becomes bright and sunny conditions, it may seem as though these bass just suddenly shut off. But that’s not the case most of the time. They just move, but not far.
All it means is, those schools of spotted bass that were herding shad up in some shallow, rocky stump-filled bottom, are now full. But they will bite! They just moved to deeper water by some close nearby drop-off or now holding on a sudden bottom change.
Still ready to feed, if you present them the right lure. Usually re-located right where your boat was sitting at dawn when bank fishing, away from the lake’s cover-laden banks.
Or those largemouth bass that were busting buzz baits at dawn, or nailing your fake frogs in the grass all morning long, and some big bass exploding on walking type topwaters like Sammies and Zara spooks or poppers and prop-baits, that is, as long as it was cloudy. Are they gone?
Now you can ponder that age old angler question…Where did they go? Nowhere far. They are still close by, usually right where you found them earlier. Only now these big largemouth more hidden from your view.
If those big bass had continuously hit your enticing little lures, both in and around the lakes many varieties of aquatic weeds (places they hide in most of the time), then its a sure bet these same bass only retreated close by, maybe deeper within the weeds.
Or they are now hugging a nearby stump or buried up in its entanglement of roots or they could be hovering around some rocks or brush piles, places around the weedy homes they normally inhibit, that provide shade and ambush points.
A September arrives, so do more bass. They slowly begin their trek towards the lakes shallows like both main lake and creek flats and some bass will travel far up in the lakes major feeder creeks, joining those resident bass that were already there this summer!
For like said, “Some bass are always shallow and some are always deep” on Alabama’s Neely Henry Lake during this late summer /early fall feeding frenzy period. All you have to do is be there! Or you can always call on Reeds Guide Service…first!
” Alabama’s and Neely Henry Lake’s oldest, professional — bass fishing only — guide service for over over forty years” Website www.fishingalabama.com
Thanks and Good Fishin’!
Reed Montgomery Owner of Reeds Guide Service (205) 663-1504 Birmingham, Alabama
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