I fished both Horton and Varner last week.  At Horton there are tons of fish staging to spawn.  Horton has the best bite going right now of the two with lots of one to three pound fish being caught.  The backs of the creeks at Horton are in the upper fifties with the water at the dam in the lower sixties. The fishing has slowed in the backs of the creeks but the more stable water from about half way out of the creeks to the dam is on fire for numbers of fish.  Water is stained all over the lake with two to three feet of visibility. Friday I had a client out prefishing for a tournament and we hit a lot of spots all over the lake found a bunch of spots just loaded with fish. We would often catch one or two and then move on to find more fish on other spots. I am pretty sure if we would have just sat on a couple of those spots and just hammered them we would have had no problem getting thirty to fifty fish.  He fished the tournament on Saturday and fished most of the day in one small area and caught around thirty fish with most of those around two pounds each.  It was reported  that it was a slow day for larger fish even though the numbers were good with just a little over  13 lbs winning the tournament.  Best baits on Horton right now are rattle baits, crankbaits,  jerkbaits, swimbaits,  jigs and  plastics. I am catching most of the fish on an eight inch V&M Super Pork Pin on a Spot Stalker jighead on eight pound Invisx line. The rest of the baits will cut down on the number of bites but put a little better fish in the boat. Most of the smaller fish are being caught shallow on points and ledges.  Most of the big fish are still suspended in and over the timber in deep water. Most of the spawners from a week or two ago have backed off the beds for now but should be moving back up any day now. The swimbaits of choice right now in the stained water are a Storm Kickin' Minnow and a Triple Trout. Both of these move a lot of water and will get bit a little better in the stained water. Nature's Tackle Box in Hiram, GA just became one of the very few shops in the USA to carry the 22nd Century Triple Trout.  So, if you need one they got them.

Varner is at full pool the water has cleared up some since the last report and only has a light stain in the backs  of creeks. There are still a few fish on beds and the temps are in the lower sixties.  My trips at Varner last week were all trips geared toward getting a giant fish or learning to fish swimbaits. There are a ton of fish up in a couple feet of water right now so I am pretty sure the numbers are there if we would have fished for the smaller fish up shallow with plastics and small swimbaits . But, we were looking for the bigger fish which are still mostly suspended out in deeper water. The good news is the swimbait bite is there but it's still a tough bite. I am catching most of the swimbait fish by pulling them up out of deeper water. The baits of choice have been the Mattlures Hard Bluegill and Triton Mike's seven inch Bullshad swimbait. You can get both the Mattlures and the Bullshad at Nature's Tackle Box as well. There is a shallow bite on small swimbaits like the Sebile and the smaller shad swimbaits but it's for the most part only catching smaller fish. If I fish the big swimbaits all day I am getting just two or three bites a day. If it's tough you are taking a chance on getting nothing all day but the fish have all been good fish on the big baits.

Thanks for the report!

I would like to get down there someday.

8-)