Report: Madison County Lake, 29 Nov

I know it's crappie.com, but sometimes it's fun to do something a little different. Every year, they stock a portion of Madison County Lake with trout. The opening day if the Friday after Thanksgiving and usually goes to the end of Feb. You must purchase a permit to fish for $5 daily. Limit is five fish on your daily permit. It's a put and take fishery, so they expect you to take your fish out of the trout impoundment. The fish in the attached picture took a silver 1/16 oz little cleo spoon or a 1/12 oz silver kast-master. They were very light hitting the power bait and I was missing a lot of those bites. Spent 1 1/2 hours out in the rain and that was enough. The fillet knife in the picture is 11" long, so these are some nice fish the three averaged 1.4

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Some good eating their Bob glad you got to go for a little while.

They will also bite tiny white jigs fished under a bobber same way you might fish shallow for crappie. they are a lot of fun much bigger than what you can catch fishing tailraces such as Tims ford and below Smith Lake.

Good job Bob D!

Nice Bob D!

Nice catch

I like it. Good report. You in.

You don't see no fish like that down here, pretty fish :ThumbsUp

Nice bob ! Nothing wrong with mixing it up a little.

Hey Bob, can you tell me more about this lake. My son has been hounding me for a couple of years to take him trout fishing below Smith Lake but everyone I talked to says its not worth the effort for the small fish you'll catch. What size lake is it, can I put my bass boat in there or would we need to bring our kayaks? Also where exactly is it? Thanks for any info....Rob


EDIT....I think I found it on Google, is it the one in Gurley,AL?

That's the one robw.

I've only fished the lake once. I know they stock the trout in the small pond by the building where you pay for your daily use permit. It isn't connected to the main lake during the winter. I think they have a grate or something that separates them.

Oh, I found the number in my phone from a couple years ago. The manager was named Allen 256-776-4905.

Thanks for the info @DitchBasser

It's not big at all can almost cast across it in most places

Robw the trout are stocked in small ponds that are not connected to Madison lake. A real treat for the kids. Note that you can only use your trolling motor in the lake. Fun lake to fish though.

Thanks for the info guys, will definitely give it a try, maybe my son will quit hounding me about going down below Smith Lake

robw, the trout impoundment is a bank fishing area. The main lake has a nice launch and you can put a bass boat in, but no outboard engines allowed to run the lake. You can use your engine to trailer your boat upon take out. Note that the lake is only open Fri-Sun during the winter / trout season. You can always give Allen a call and get a fishing report from him on the trout and the main lake as well. It is closer to Maysville if you look it up on google or mapquest. DB has been out on the main lake in his kayak before. I've even taken my crappie rig out there before too. Caught an 8 pound bass one year while long lining, that was a hoot! The lake is also listed in the fishing regs for the state and the phone number is listed there too.

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Originally Posted by robw

Thanks for the info guys, will definitely give it a try, maybe my son will quit hounding me about going down below Smith Lake

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The tailwaters below Smith Lake are a blast to fish. Most of the trout are only 10-12" but it's not rare to catch some over 2 lbs and 15"+. I've never fished Madison County Lake for trout, but I can't imagine it is any more fun than the Sipsey Fork...unless there is no limit there.

We have looked at the Sipsey Fork a few times, but the water just seems to always be one extreme or the other. Either not enough water to float or so much current that by the time I get one cast in I would be washed all the way down to the bridge lol.

We have been wanting to put the kayaks in but one day when we rode out there, the water was really skinny so we walked all the way past the pump station to up behind the dam and waded out into the first good set of shoals about 300 yards below the dam and we hadn't been there 10mins before an AL Power employee drove down and told us we were not allowed to fish there.

Do you do most of your fishing between the pumphouse and the bridge or on down the river below the bridge?

We do all of ours from the bridge nearly all the way to the dam. I have been meaning to float it but never had time this past summer. In the summer, we always go at daylight and fish between the pumphouse and about the second access walkway towards the dam. Then we move to the area near the dam where you said they told you you couldn't fish. Finally we finish later in the morning in the deeper water between the pumphouse and the bridge.

I am not sure why the told you not to fish where you did. We have never been told that nor have I seen any rules posted against it. It's possible they were going to release water soon and just didn't communicate well that you couldn't be there at that point in time.

The fish there can be finicky but if you can find the bait they want you can catch your limit in less than 30 minutes. The friend I go with has it mastered there and can usually walk out with 5 of the biggest trout most people have ever caught from there. In fact he throws plenty of the really big ones back as he prefers the taste of the medium sized ones.