Plan of attack for newish reservoir

[Bass Justice]

(I changed the topic of this in another thread because I posted in the wrong forum).

Hey guys, I have a general question about a reservoir i'm going to tomorrow morning. It's called Lake Mcintosh, in Peachtree City, Georgia. I have only bank fished there maybe 4 times and caught a 2lber off a trap one time, but I have seen some asian guys with a stringer of 2lbers that they took home and ate sadly. The reservoir is relatively new, about 2-3 years old and has not been stocked as far as I can tell. I think the average depth is around 10-15ft, and it has a creek called Line Creek feeding it from the northern most point of the lake. It's about 650 acres, electric motor only, and has little fishing pressure that I have noticed.

Weather calls for 45 degrees in the morning with a 10mph north wind starting around 12pm. the water temp of Lake Horton(10 miles west) on Saturday was between 64-67, so I assume the water temp will be right at 60-65 degrees with the low being 45 tonight.

I imagine these bass are between pre spawn and spawn, so I think i'm going to arrive pre rigged with a senko, trap, spinnerbait, jig, jerk bait, and topwater frog.

I have heard about hitting pockets that are protected from north west winds, and hitting backs of creeks. So my main question is how would you guys attack this lake? 

Topo isn't available as far as I know, so I just have the Satellite view below. Yellow is where i'll be putting in my kayak, blue is a small pond that is cut off from the lake and isn't accessible, although I have bank fished that pond and it is very productive for LMB, and red is where the creek comes in, and at the top of the red square it starts stepping upward so it isn't accessible beyond that point.

As far as I know there are crappie, bream, shad, LMB, and (gar?) It might not be gar, it might be another fish. I saw some guys bring one in and was a long fish with a  long snout they said they caught with minnows. I would like to fish the main points outside of the pockets, but do I assume that every point in this lake extends beyond the shore since I don't have a topo? I struggle with this on other reservoirs as well without a topo, since sometimes you can't tell by the satellite view if a point extends far out into the lake, or literally just drops off 3 feet from the bank...

But how would you guys hit this lake starting at 6:30am? I have pretty much all gear and lures for all techniques for the most part. I would assume stained water after the rains last week. I have a depth finder on the yak as well. 

Thanks guys!

-Mike

[scaleface]

If its a fairly new lake there mayt be deep bass that have never seen a lure . I would find the longest point on the lake start deep , work my way shallow then up into the nearest cove . 

 

[buzzed bait]

i'd work that pocket to the left of the ramp past the dam and would work my way on around to that next cove and the point in between the two.  i'd also bet there's some rip rap up around that golf course and would take a craw color crankbait up there and bang it off the rocks if that is the case.

while you're up that way, i'd hit that back area on the north where line creek feeds in and look for some fish up shallow back in there.

there's a second creek that comes in to the left of the red box, shoal creek.  looks like a pretty big flat (check out Bing map as well, slightly different view than Google gives you).

[Bass Justice]

9 hours ago, buzzed bait said:

i'd work that pocket to the left of the ramp past the dam and would work my way on around to that next cove and the point in between the two.  i'd also bet there's some rip rap up around that golf course and would take a craw color crankbait up there and bang it off the rocks if that is the case.

while you're up that way, i'd hit that back area on the north where line creek feeds in and look for some fish up shallow back in there.

there's a second creek that comes in to the left of the red box, shoal creek.  looks like a pretty big flat (check out Bing map as well, slightly different view than Google gives you).

Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah I ended up starting at line creek and worked my way down. I lost my anchor in the rocky bottom of the creek which was a drag, but dead in the center of the red square I came onto some bass around 12pm. I hooked 3 one pounders and one 2lber, along with 2 Gar (or maybe they are pickerel? I can't tell the difference lol). All bites, including the Gar/ Pickerel, came on a blueback/chrome Rat-L-Trap, all within two hours. I was surprised to find that the northern most end (where line creek feeds in) was 3 degrees LOWER than the main body of water. The creek area was 61 while the lake was 64 at 8am.

I thought about working the courses rip rap but I was beat down by 4pm since I got there at 7am. I will definitely try the shoal creek feeder next time as well. It was pretty windy so I was getting my butt kicked in my kayak all day.

For what it's worth I saw tons of life on my fish finder. About 5-6 schools of baitfish and countless fish holding between 10 and 25 feet. And that was just me mapping basically a straight path from the dock to line creek.. The bottom composition seems to be clay and lots of brush piles so it looks like a good healthy little reservoir. All the bass I pulled out were beautiful and healthy as well. And like I said in my OP there was ONE other boat there today, of course it was also a weekday but I still feel like pressure is low at this reservoir you should check it out next time you're down here.

[GodfatherOfSeoul]

That lake has some good fish in it.  Has it cleared up recently.  It was super muddy about a month ago. 

Line Creek is known to the locals for having good fish, so McIntosh is going to flourish as long as the it's there. Lake Peachtree should be up and going soon since all the construction is done but all the local ponds get a lot of pressure on weekends, especially Horton and including McIntosh.

Guys have been posting lately about catching  crappie and bass by the dam but that feeder creek (Line) is always a good starting point like you said bc you can work your way back down to the dock.

I haven't seen gar anywhere in Fayette yet except Starrs Mill pond which is another great pond to kayak fish. Jist further down 74 and make a left on 85 and yiu will immediately see it on the left. Just watch out for snakes but you should do that at any lake. The gar has a long narrow snout and the pickeral is slimy but good eating. I have a couple vids of one here. 

I haven't gone to McIntosh in a month but you may have talked me into going Thursday. I was gonna go to Starrs Mill before all the vegetation grows back to punch and target lay downs but I've been itching to go back to McIntosh.

 

Don't sleep on the idea of Kedron either.  Not a big fish lake but def a numbers lake. My best day fishing was 2015 father's day from about 7am to 2pm. I caught a ton of bass on everything from top water to jigs to square bills to senkos bc the grass is good and the water was so clear. Nothing over a pound and a half but I've never gained so much confidence in all my techniques bc of the big numbers that day

 

[Bass Justice]

9 hours ago, GodfatherOfSeoul said:

That lake has some good fish in it.  Has it cleared up recently.  It was super muddy about a month ago. 

Line Creek is known to the locals for having good fish, so McIntosh is going to flourish as long as the it's there. Lake Peachtree should be up and going soon since all the construction is done but all the local ponds get a lot of pressure on weekends, especially Horton and including McIntosh.

Guys have been posting lately about catching  crappie and bass by the dam but that feeder creek (Line) is always a good starting point like you said bc you can work your way back down to the dock.

I haven't seen gar anywhere in Fayette yet except Starrs Mill pond which is another great pond to kayak fish. Jist further down 74 and make a left on 85 and yiu will immediately see it on the left. Just watch out for snakes but you should do that at any lake. The gar has a long narrow snout and the pickeral is slimy but good eating. I have a couple vids of one here. 

I haven't gone to McIntosh in a month but you may have talked me into going Thursday. I was gonna go to Starrs Mill before all the vegetation grows back to punch and target lay downs but I've been itching to go back to McIntosh.

 

Don't sleep on the idea of Kedron either.  Not a big fish lake but def a numbers lake. My best day fishing was 2015 father's day from about 7am to 2pm. I caught a ton of bass on everything from top water to jigs to square bills to senkos bc the grass is good and the water was so clear. Nothing over a pound and a half but I've never gained so much confidence in all my techniques bc of the big numbers that day

 

Thanks for the reply godfather. Yeah it was only about a foot of visibility so still pretty muddy. But like I said they were hitting the Rat-L-Trap pretty good in blue/ chrome, but probably because of the noise more than the sight. 

I haven't been to Macintosh on the weekends in awhile so I can't really comment on the pressure, but Horton is pretty full on weekends and the last two outings I had there were not good. I haven't tried the dam at McIntosh, but like I replied to buzz bait, I think my next outing i'll start at the Shoal Creek entrance and work my way down and around to the dam for sure. I hope the water starts to clear up by then.

Yeah now that I see your video it was definitely two pickerel I caught. REALLY slimy haha. I made an effort to not lip them because I know about the teeth but was shocked when I felt their bodies lol. I read about Gar having really tough scales so I assume they feel rougher than a bass and will probably recognize one when I see one. I did fish Lake West Point last Summer and had a HUGE fish follow my buzzbait all the way back to the boat. I'm almost definitely sure that was a Gar by its appearance. 

I talked you into Macintosh, and now you talked me into Stars Mill pond! Haha. I am definitely going to go there this weekend now that you mentioned it. I went to Kedron to fish pre spawn about a month ago, it was my first time on a kayak, and first time really fishing a boat in full control. Water is nice and clear and I caught two keepers throughout the day so i'll have to go back soon. I talked to a local that was there when I went that fishes Kedron every week (for Crappie) and he told me that Kedron used to be Lunkerville until they drained it years back. He told me his buddy caught two  8 pounders in one week there, but it hasn't been the same since the refill. But numbers can definitely be a blast for sure.