WESTPOINT LAKE GA

[cantcatchfish4somereason]

Me and a friend of mine fish alot here but we have alot of trouble locating the fish. Does anyone fish here? maybe someone could help us out please? Any ideas would be greatful.

[SammyLee]

I'm not gonna be much help here but I have a long history of Lake West Point.  West Point Ga is one of the few, I'm sure, cities that has a law against water skiing in the city limits.  Back in about 1965, the Chattahoochee flooded the town and some folks decided to water ski down main street.  The wake broke the store front windows, hence the law and the need for the dam.

I remember that flood well as I grew up in Lanett AL, which borders West Point.  I ran one of the concession stands during the ground breaking ceremony for the dam.

A couple of years ago, I went back for a school reunion and rented a nice little bass boat.  Fished all day and got squat.  I finally gave up and just took a boat ride.  There was a tournament there that weekend so I guess some folks were catching.  As a boy, we fished the lake South of West Point on Halawahkee creek.  My dad was a real crappie king there.

I'll be interested to see the responses to this as I will go back to the old home place at some point and would like to fish there.  I have scuba dived in the lake on "Old State Road".  Kinda weird underwater with a road on the bottom.

[cantcatchfish4somereason]

maybe i should of gave some more info. here it goes water temp is 76 degrees a little stained the fish i believe are coming off bed. i have tried 15-20 ft all the way up to 1.5 ft deep. Here is my thoughts i believe it is just this time of the yr when they are in recoop mode. I have found lot and lots of bait fish and shad had a couple follow it to the boat but nothing really getting them on the hook anyone with any info plz help. ps i been fishing with chatterbaits spinnerbaits crankbaits only thing they been paying much attention to is the green chatterbait.

[cantcatchfish4somereason]

sweet do you know where the road is located at on westpoint?

[5bass]

[movedhere] General Bass Fishing Forum [move by] five.bass.limit.

[firefightn15]

Can't locate them, or can't catch them. Big difference. You may be on them but not giving them what they want. Or your presentation needs to be tweaked. Another option is maybe trying some soft plastics and maybe some jigs. There are many types of soft plastics as well as jigs, and a lot of articles on both right here on the BR forums. Check out the many threads in the tackle forum and also read through the archived articles. Here's a couple to get you going:

http://www.bassresource.com/fish/bass-fishing-tips.html

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass-fishing-articles.html#techniques

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass-fishing-articles.html#lures

Good luck!

[senko_77]

West Point is a TOUGH lake my friend.  I will be there this Friday 5/15 and Saturday 5/16 for the BFL Tournament.  We are launching out of Southern Harbor Marina on Saturday morning at 7 and the weigh-in will begin at 3.  There should be at least 170 boats in the tournament.  Come on up there to weigh-in.  The tournament director gets a lot of the anglers to talk about how they caught them and if you ask around, you can get some good information from the local anglers.

[SammyLee]

Can'tCatchFish posts, 'sweet do you know where the road is located at on westpoint?"

Sort of.  It's more of a visual thing as Iused to drive on that road.  It's on the west side of the lake, running close (a couple hundred yards) from the old main river channel.  It's closer to the West bank a mile or so north of the dam.  In low lake levels you can see it (or at least you used to could) close to the shore.   It was called "Old Stateline Road" because it ran closest to the river which is the state line between Alabama and Georgia.

[Unknownwaters]

Ive only fished the lake once during summer.  didnt catch a single largemouth but when we put out the underwater light over a creek channel at night we caught so many hybrid bass and crappie that we ran out of bait.

[tnhiker44]

I have fished the lake several times this year and have done well as far as numbers. I have not been able to find the big bite though. I was there a couple of weeks ago and caught 20 to 30 on mostly white flukes casting into the shad hatches. I lost a five pounder or so at the boat but most of the fish I caught would barely keep. I stayed at a cabin at Highland Marina and never wandered too far from there... up the 'Hootch' a bit, up Yellow Jacket some but that is about it. I fished West Point back in February, water temp in the mid 50's, and did quite well. We boated a couple of fours and several threes and two nice spots. I caught both spots on, get this, white flukes... in 55 degree water!!

I love that lake and am looking forward to the upcoming tourney there on the 30th of this month.

Oh yea... a good lake map will show you that there are many many underwater roads, buildings, submerged ponds and even bridges on the bottom of this lake. I would guess there are probably 20 or so marked road beds. Get a map and look for the red lines!

[cantcatchfish4somereason]

do you know who puts out those detailed maps?

[jimmieO]

To echo previous sentiments, that is absolutely a tough lake for people new to it. I live in Opelika and I consider that one of my home lakes. Haven't had a huge amount of success, but the one thing I have lots of confidence in is fishing the bridges, and absolutely beating them to death. From experience though, those bridge fish won't win any tournaments, but they'll get you some numbers. The best luck I've had other than the bridges is fishing around rock piles with all different types of soft plastics, beavers, craws, tubes, etc....the people who are most successful there have been fishing it for quite a while. Stay at it. Shoot me a P.M. if you need a buddy one weekend, I'll show you what little I do know.

[tnhiker44]

do you know who puts out those detailed maps?

I use Atlantic Mapping, Inc. maps that I bought from Bass Pro. They are the ones with the GPS coordinates on them. They are relatively accurate in regards to depth, but I have never actually tried to find an exact GPS point. I have located road beds with them though.

I am not trying to be argumentative here, but I disagree with the difficult to fish comments. Okeechobee is a difficult lake for newbies. Dale Hollow is a difficult lake for newbies. But I would not say that for West Point. My opinion, any ways.

[David Russell]

I'm enjoying tracking this conversation. My parents-in-law live in Lanett, AL near West Point. I'm just getting back into fishing and I'm looking forward to giving West Point Lake a shot when I'm back in the area.

[lineslinger]

West Point is one of the best lakes in the area and full of fish.  It's one of the few that doesn't have wall to wall houses on it as they are limiting lakeside homes.  Some of the best fishing is on the south end of the lake up some of the creeks.  Never been when we haven't caught fish.  It doesn't have an abundance of of largemouths as the spot population has taken over, but it is full of nice spots, hybrids, stripes, crappie and catfish.  You can get a map at Highland Marina with "hotspots"already marked, but as you might imagine, those places have been beaten to a froth.  It has lots of good points, islands, humps, channels, etc.  Most of our fish come off small plastics, but also catch a lot on cranks, rattletraps, etc.  You can also catch them on topwater in early am and late pm.  If you see the birds, you'll find the fish.  Just take your time and fish creeks, points, etc., and you'll find the fish.  Good Luck!