Fishing guides on Lake Allatoona are increasingly insisting the blanket media coverage of Lake Allatoona's water shortage is unnecessarily driving away business.

So far this November, guide Robert Eidson has just 11 fishing trips scheduled. This time last year he worked 29 days in November.

"Last December, I fished every day but Christmas Day and Dec. 29," says Eidson, who fished 320 days in 2006. "This year, I'm booked for just two days (in December)."

The Corps of Engineers agrees:

"We normally reach this level every year, but we reach it in January," says Chris Purvis, spokesman for the corps.

Allatoona Fishing is Best in November

Even at winter pool says guide Fred Duncan says, "there is plenty of deep open water out there."

April and November are typically the best months to fish for the striped bass and hybrid bass for which Allatoona is known, says Duncan.

And the lower lake level makes the fishing even easier, guides say.

"When the haystack is smaller," says Eidson, "it makes finding the needle in that haystack a lot easier."

It didn't take Eidson long to find fish shortly before sunrise Thursday. About 10 minutes after leaving the Galt's Ferry boat ramp, 8-year-old Wesley Burnley of Douglasville reeled in a 4 1/2 pound striped bass. Brother Tyler, 6, soon landed a catfish. And it wasn't long before Wesley caught another striped bass.

If only Eidson could pull in customers as quickly.

Both guides say nowadays when they're not in the boat, they're on the telephone, calling past clients and telling them to come on in, the water is fine.

What Do You Think?

Is the media making the Lake Allatoona problem worse than it is? Is this really a crisis for the area and local businesses?

Comments (1)

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written by Jonathan , November 30, 2007

hello there

Im new in georgia, just moved here from arizona last month, i love to fish and live 10 miles from the water, being that the water level is extremely low, is there any good shoreline fishing spots that you are aware of i could fish, if so what kind of fish are mostly out there?

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