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Lake Allatoona Fishing Guide Articles

Captain Fred Duncan's Lake Allatoona Striper Fishing Articles


Lake Allatoona Striper Fishing Tackle



Many times, I've been asked about the various tackle I use for Lake Allatoona striper fishing. As a Live Bait man, It always starts with a good, 7 ft, fiberglass rod with a soft tip, but with a good backbone. IMO, there aren't that many good fiberglass rods in commerce today, but the tried and true Shakespeare Ugly Stik is hard to beat. Fiberglass is softer and more durable than graphite rods. For Lake Allatoona Striper Fishing, it is the only one I recommend. Now I personally make my own. But this is very time consuming and takes years to learn how to do properly. For throwing lures, I like spinning rods. I use 6 1/2 ft traditional graphite Bass Fishing rods, most any good name brand will do. I have two of these on board and use them for casting to fish I see on topwater, or fish I see thick on the fishfinder. My favorite topwater plug is the Bass Pro XPS Slim Dog in texas shad color, which is almost identical to the more expensive Sammy topwater plug. I also like the Zara Super Spook Jr in any shad color. I use the bucktail w/fluke or just a 3/8 once jighead with a albino colored fluke for deep fish.

The Fishing Line I like is the Suffix Elite, clear, 15 lb test. I also like the Fluorocarbon coated mono,Cuda, hard to find but very good stuff. The Suffix Elite is new to me and is really good line. On my downrods, I use leader material of Stren Fluorocarbon, clear, in 14 lb and 12 lb test. I have found Stren, IMO, to be the best fluorocarbon on the market. Really good stuff and have landed many 30 lb + fish on the 14 lb. I use the 12 when the fish seems finicky and primarily for hybrids. But when I know there are big hawgs around, I put the 14 on quick. The hooks I use on Lake Allatoona are Gamakatsu and Owner. For downrods I like the Gamakatsu circle hook, 1/0. The circle hooks greatly reduce the number of gut hooked fish. If your in a hybrid frenzy and are having two or more rods going off at a time, you waste a lot of time tying on new hooks not to mention the potential harm you do to the fish. I also use the Gamakatsu octopus J hook, 1/0, as a multipurpose hook. When using the big gizzard shad for bait, I like the 2/0 and 3/0 Owner J hooks. I like the penetration I get with the Owner hooks. Big Allatoona Stripers have tough mouths and the owner hooks stop at nothing! Downrod weights should have at least one barrel swivel attached, preferably on both ends and should weigh 1 1/2 ounces. Tie your leader to the barrel swivel end. I make my own downrod weights but many trolling type inline weights can be utilized for downrod weights.

Reels for Lake Allatoona Striper Fishing... there are many, but for me, I have found the Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500C to be the best. I like to replace the drag washers with a good upgrade of either teflon or silicone impregnated speed washers. You get a smooth drag that will not bind while fighting a Lake Allatoona Striped Bass. Once you replace the factory washers, it solves the biggest complaint most anglers have with this reel.
- Good Fishing! Cap'n Fred Duncan
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