Kentucky Fishing Report: Lake Harding Alabama 2013

The annual trip to Lake Harding, Alabama came a few weeks earlier this year. We were trying to hit the crappie right this year. Previous attempts at the end of March-first week of April have left us wanting more. Most of the fish had spawned and had left the shallows at that time of year. We chose to this year to try them at the beginning of March. Little did we know when we planned the trip that we would hit Alabama in the middle of a cold streak. It snowed the the day we arrived. We braved the weather anyway.

We, my uncle and I, spent most of the week bundled under layers of Long Johns, fleece, hoodies, and Gore-Tex (Sponsorship please!).

The fishing was very slow as the temp held cold for a day or two then warmed a bit, then we had extremely heavy rains and a cold front. Later in the week it warmed again and got up to 65. These swings really hurt the fishing. We caught three crappie the entire trip. Although, they were all very large, I caught one on a full size bass style spinner bait. Did I mention the water was muddy as well? Nothing worse than cold muddy water.

Our first day on the water, despite the cold, was still fairly good. We caught all three crappie and a few bass. This was my first bass of the trip. Oh and many thanks to the photographer for placing his finger in front of the lens. I'm still not sure why its so hard for some people to take a decent picture. Yes, it's the button on the screen that looks like a camera. No, it will focus on its own. No, there is no film, it's an iPhone.

My second fish came a couple hours later and got my excitement level up in a hurry. You may notice the lack of a belly. It was a giant male largemouth. Males are usually much smaller than the girls but this one had been around a long while. He'd built many beds and protected millions of fry. I let him go to do it again. 5 pounds.

We had trouble putting a pattern together. We'd catch one fish on a point and couldn't find another, not even on the Side-finder, depth-finder, dynamite sonar blah blah blah. Then, we'd catch one in two inches of 48 degree water. Nothing seemed to be stable or predictable, and I had a terrible time fishing as slow as this weather required.

On Thursday we fished from sun up till nearly sun down. I put the only two fish in the live-well; spotted bass both about two pounds. I caught them both on a chartreuse spinnerbait with lime colored blades, very unique. I usually stay with natural colors, but this stained nature of this water pulled me toward a brighter colors. We moved the boat into about 12 feet of water and fished a long point running into deep water. I caught one and immediately cast to the same spot and caught another. My uncle cast near the same area and had one on the first cast. We'd found a school. We caught 11 two to three pound spots in 15 minutes.

The last day of the trip began at 4:00am Eastern time I suggested we fish the point that filled our livewell the night before. Nothin' doing. I guided us to the next long rocky point off the main lake. Nothing. My thought was...the fish would be holding in deeper water near main and secondary points, ready to move up as the water warmed throughout the day. I 'couldn't buy a fish', as my Grandfarther used to say. My uncle took us to a little secondary point named Eagle on the Dock. Anyone who has read my blog before, knows that nearly every spot on Lake Harding has been named over the years by my dad and my uncle. Eagle on the Dock is my new favorite place on Earth. This is where I caught the biggest bass of my life, so far. 8 pounds 2 beautiful ounces of pure bassin' glory. Enjoy.

I got this fat lady on a Norman Deep Little N, Tennessee Shad color, in 6 feet of water on a secondary point near a boat dock. I let her go after my uncle snapped these overexposed photos. She swam away. Maybe next year I will see her again at nine or ten pounds. One can hope.

I'll leave you know with some more reasons to seek the water so very much. The beauty it holds never stops amazing me and leaving me in complete awe.

Please feel free to comment below. Let me know what I'm doing right and wrong. Let me know what you'd like to see more of.

Go fish!