My son and I have recently taken up lake fishing. Carters is about 40 minutes door to door. I bought a 14' boat, motor, trailer from a friend, and we have been fishing the lower re-regulation lake below the dam. The water can vary greatly, up or down two feet an hour when they are generating electricity. Pretty steep drops, and there is a river channel that runs through it. Water temp has been low to mid seventies. 5 trips now have yielded small spotted bass and one small striper, usually one or two per trip, caught off the shore. I have caught on plastic finesse worms, my son's luck has been with a chartreuse and pearl Bandit diver. So far nothing else has worked. The lake yields fish, we just have not figured out how to catch them. Last night around 6:30 many fish were busting the surface around us, for the better part of an hour. Possibly fish hitting shad or shiners? We fished around these top water and divers without a bite.

My questions:

How much should the water level swings make a difference? There tends to be current in and out flowing different directions constantly.

What to fish with when? Plastics, spinners, jigs, bucktails, surface, etc. I have been told they all work on Carters. Texas rig or carolina rigs?

Temperature? Do fish slow down when the water is warmer?

Many fish are showing to be deep right now, also on the channel banks. Best technique for fishing these?

Live bait - shiners? How/best to fish these? Should I try?

Stripers - the big kind - how and when?

Thanks in advance, this has proven to be a bit more challenging than floating a shrimp or mud minnow across the face of a hungry flounder, redfish, or speckled trout.

I would love to hear from anyone with time on this lake.

Rory,Canton,Georgia

Boat with motor/trailer $500.

Various lures, rods and reels, electronics including trolling motor and fishfinder $1500.

Six hours on the water with my son, priceless.

Well it is nice to see some one sort of close to me finally posting .  The rereg lake at at Carters  is used for pumpback generation.Water that has gone through the generators on the main dam is pumped back to the main lake.  Some water is also released through the lower dam to keep the river going,too.The fishing is much better in the main lake than the rereg.  Big spots of 6lbs are not all that uncommon.It is the deepest lake in GA with some areas reaching to almost 400 feet. A lot of timber was left in the lake when it was built .You can fish areas of standing dead timber in 50 feet or more.  There are also plenty of stripers .Try the doll mountain park some time for launching.