donated money ($500) received from various sponsors to DNR in support of the Spotted Bass Tagging Study that the DNR conduct.  DNR offered fishermen who turned in tags the “

Click on the picture for a larger view.

• We caught spotted bass during our annual electrofishing survey at a rate of 59/hour, which is similar to the 62/hour we caught in 2004.
• We caught largemouth bass during our annual electrofishing survey at a rate of 10/hour, which is similar to the 9/hour we caught in 2004.
• Average spotted bass was 10.5 inches long and weighed a little over a half pound, largest collected was 22 inches long and weighed 5.5 pounds (that fish determined to be 10 years old).
• Average largemouth bass was 12.5 inches long and weighed 1.25 pounds, largest collected was 22 inches long and weighed 5.3 pounds.
• There is a strong year class of spotted bass in the population. These fish are 3 years of age (hatched in 2002) and are now 11-14 inches in size. By next year this year class of fish will be 13-16 inches in size and weigh over a pound.
• The most spotted bass were collected during the survey between navigation markers 11E and 13E.
• The most largemouth bass were collected during the survey in the Little River arm of the Lake.
• Age and average length for Allatoona spotted bass collected in 2005.
  Age   Mean Length (inches)
  1         4.2
  2         9.0
  3       12.0
  4       14.3
  5       15.5
  6       16.0
• Did collect one spotted bass that was determined to be 14 years of age. Yes that means it hatched in 1991. That fish has probably seen a few lures since then.

This article will help you understand a little better some of the changes we've all experienced with the largemouth bass population over the past decade in Allatoona.  Wanna guess what the leading cause of the decline is?  The article is in Microsoft Word format.  Enjoy.

Fish attractors:

• No brush piles in the lake?  No problem.  The DNR has been putting out lots of fish attractors.  Last year alone (2003), they put out 24 of them.  Click here for the fish attractors info & maps complete with GPS coordinates. 
• In 2004, the DNR put out 62 more fish attractors at 12 new locations in Allatoona in August. They started putting out more at each site this year (this time, there are 4-6 tied together instead of 3) to make the locations easier to find.  Here's what one looks like.
• Also, later this fall/winter the DNR biologist (Jim Hakala) should have some interesting data on which shoreline habitats (eg. rip-rap, shale, sand) young of the year (hatched in spring 2004) spotted and largemouth bass concentrate around. Not that it will help you catch fish necessarily (unless you want 1-2 inch fish in the livewell), but it will provide some insight into which shoreline habitat types these small fish like.
• This Allatoona Team Tournament Trail is proud to say that we helped donating $1000 to this program in 2003.  It purchased 3700 ft. of PVC which will be enough to build 30 more fish attractors for 2004.  And more donation should be forth coming.
• The Fisheries Biologist, Jim Hakala (Jim_Hakala@dnr.state.ga.us) and his team will be glad to answer any question you may have.

The biologist did Diet Analysis on spotted and largemouth bass during May-June 2003.  The result is very interesting.  Wanna guess what the majority of the food they eat was?  Here's the result of the 2003 Diet Analysis.

Not what you think huh!  This analysis was done right after a significant winter kill of shad in January 2003.  They plan to conduct another analysis this year.  Shad kill is a lot less this year (so far).  Stay tune for the result.

Do you really think you know how to tell the different between largemouth and spotted bass?  Find out here.