West point survey.

Dont know If any of yall fish West point but got an emailed survey from Dnr. Word has it the tournament fishermen want the stripers and hybrids out of the lake. That's the only reason I fish that lake. Anybody else get this survey.

Used to fish it a lot for stripes and hybrids. I'm not much on tournaments and this ain't helping.

pretty sure recreational fishermen badly outnumber the elitist tourney fishermen. Screw em.

They know where they can shove that crap. I get it though. I’d like to kill every bass in Alabama so those scum suckers can go outta state and quit running 70 mph through a school of stripers I’m fishing just to go lose 50 bucks on some bulldoodoo rookie ass club tournament where they might profit 20 bucks if they win. To hell with them.

I hope nothing comes of it. West point and the chattahoochee are where I really learned to fish for stripe. They are a special place to me. I dont know why folks want to chase a ditch pickle over a stripe anyways. To each their own.

We need a season on tournament fishermen.😚

Agreed.

Wow really? Hope no one ever disagrees with you.

Been a looooong time since I've been on West Point, like literally maybe 12-15 years. I live only about 1hr-20mins from it, actually leased hunting land just minutes from it right on the AL/GA line for a few years. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt the survey is because of "tournament fishermen". That sounds a whole lot more like an opinion based on some personal vendetta. Having said that, the reason we quit going was because the bass fishing sucked. It's my understanding that it's just as bad now as it was when we quit going. I ain't got NOTHING against stripe fishermen, nor stripe, I love catching those sonofaguns!!! Nor do I believe stripe are "bad" for green bass. West Point's problem is that it's probably the least fertile of all those gin-clear highland lakes. It's very similar to Wedowee (R.L. Harris) and Lake Martin, even Smith, but never seemed to have as many fish or shad as any of those lakes. If the stripe in Lake Martin or Smith Lake haven't hurt the green bass there, then that ain't the problem in West Point either. There's no reason the stripe on other lakes haven't hurt the bass populations, EXCEPT that those other lakes have more fertility to feed the shad. Wedowee and West Point are close to each other, look the same, almost fish the same. But if you go to Wedowee it has globs, and globs, and globs of shad. The fertility of the lake means there's plankton for the shad to feed on, and for some reason West Point ain't got it. They ought to be looking for either the surrounding soil composition, or maybe even upstream pollution.

Although I disagree with you that tournament fisherman wanting to change the lake is the reason for the survey, I think your assessment of the lake is spot on. Pun intended. I would add that striped bass hybrids and spot are better open water hunters and will follow the bait around. Largemouth are more structure oriented ambush fish. I only go there to fish for hybrid bass and could care less what the tournament fisherman want. Most of them dont even live there. I dont even know why tournament fishermen should have a say. I do think if they gave out a few more dock permits and put in more shallow brush piles it would help with the LM population. Just my .02.

Don’t act like tournament bass fishermen arent the rudest and most obnoxious user group on the whole lake. They act like they own the place because they have $50 to get out there and win. Piss on all of em. Worst part is, you can’t even be on logan Martin or lay lake when there isn’t a bass tournament going on. There is 1 if not 2 tournaments going on every day of the week, if that ain’t bad enough, they have night tournaments too. You can’t get away from them and they have not the slightest bit of respect for anyone on the lake. Now they want stripers and hybrids out of westpoint? Screw em, i hope they take up knitting or softball.

You proved my point. You just stereotyped every tournament fishermen to be exactly the same. Far as I see it they have a right to be there like you, jet skiers, trot liners, pleasure riders etc. Don’t like it go fish in a pond.

tell it Nick.

No one said they don’t have a right to be there, they just said that they are generally azzholes.

I didn’t say they don’t have a right to be there. I just said they are obnoxious and they feel like no one else has a right to be on the lake. We’re you there when i almost got run over twice in the same day in my kayak during the bassmaster open at logan Martin this year? That was the second and third times I’ve almost gotten killed by an idiot in a bassboat going way too fast and not paying attention. Have you ever been with me night fishing for crappie and had bass fishermen running full power 20 yards from you, between you and another boat that is 60 yards from you in a part of the river that is 300 yards wide? I have, 3 times in one night. Have you ever been fishing piers for crappie and had a bassboat get off plane, and do a u turn from 40 yards away and beat your boat off a pier because you were fishing the pier he wanted to fish? I have. There are a few nice guys who fish bass tournaments but the sheer number of outright azzholes who fish them kind of cancel them out.

People suck.

They don't call em bassholes for nothing

I lived in LaGrange when West Point Lake was new. You could catch 100 bass in a day easy then, mostly 3-4 pound fish. We would fish in the afternoons after work and catch 30 fish in a couple of three hours from my canoe.

We were fishing in the back of a slough in semi standing timber and stumps. Some Basshole in a big boat ran by us maybe 20 FEET and damn near turned us over. He made it another 30 yards and knocked the motor off the boat on a stump. Then he asked us to take him to the ramp. We told him to FO. We just kept fishing.

Our boat always yields to recreational fishermen. That's how we got our start so we respect it. As for the $50, the entry fees are normally $100-$200 and the winning with all the boat bonuses etc are $10,000 - $20,000 on most all the tournaments I fish.

Dang, Troy. We did the same thing. Lots of places
where you could throw a gazillion times and the worm
would never hit bottom.
Supposedly the hybrids were put in WP to control the shad.
Later, more shad were stocked because the hybrids did too
good of a job.
You weren't there when the tornado came out of the East
and hit Amity Park, were you?
Sorry about the off topic stuff.

I was there 1975-76 I think. Was going to school at Auburn and working for a road construction Co that built most of the COE parks on the lake. Had some great deer hunting as well as the fishing.

Sorta what I wanted to say as well. I'm around tournament fishermen a lot, and this isn't an accurate representation. Occasionally I'll get bent out of shape if I'm already fishing a "spot" and get cut off or moved in on, but even that's not terribly common. And I believe 99% of bass boat fishermen are the best navigators on the water. DON'T confuse speed with discourtesy, there's nothing rude with going by you fast. Unless I do it dangerously, or jack up your fishing hole knowingly. If you're fishing, ANY boat activity is going to be undesirable near you, but again don't call me rude just because I come by faster than the goobers on the pontoon. Their wakes are war worse, and they're the folks who will go round and round and round and round and round (X1000) pulling a kid on a tube while you're trying to fish. NOBODY is more "discourteous" than the pleasure boaters. And even they aren't doing it on purpose, they just don't know any better (which is worse to me) It bugs me much worse to see a ski boat drive across a 2' deep hump, than it does to see a bass boat pass by just a bit too close for comfort. I trust that bass boat driver a heckuva lot more. And Ben is correct...it doesn't give the tournament guy any right whatsoever, I'm not defending rude or dangerous behavior, but even most of the little weekend wildcat tournaments are for several hundred dollars winnings.

If people would chase real fish like crappie or stripe, they'd be happier

Sorta what I wanted to say as well. I'm around tournament fishermen a lot, and this isn't an accurate representation. Occasionally I'll get bent out of shape if I'm already fishing a "spot" and get cut off or moved in on, but even that's not terribly common. And I believe 99% of bass boat fishermen are the best navigators on the water. DON'T confuse speed with discourtesy, there's nothing rude with going by you fast. Unless I do it dangerously, or jack up your fishing hole knowingly. If you're fishing, ANY boat activity is going to be undesirable near you, but again don't call me rude just because I come by faster than the goobers on the pontoon. Their wakes are war worse, and they're the folks who will go round and round and round and round and round (X1000) pulling a kid on a tube while you're trying to fish. NOBODY is more "discourteous" than the pleasure boaters. And even they aren't doing it on purpose, they just don't know any better (which is worse to me) It bugs me much worse to see a ski boat drive across a 2' deep hump, than it does to see a bass boat pass by just a bit too close for comfort. I trust that bass boat driver a heckuva lot more. And Ben is correct...it doesn't give the tournament guy any right whatsoever, I'm not defending rude or dangerous behavior, but even most of the little weekend wildcat tournaments are for several hundred dollars winnings.
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Good grief. What a bunch of hooey!

LM was bad 20 years ago, I cant imagine now.

Preach on brother man.

For the record, I'd rather have a bass boat come by full bore on plane at 50 yards than a guy come out of it when he sees me and come by at 10 mph. There's not much rockin my boat when the guy on plane come by. I HATE it when folks come off plane right at my boat and putt by. I know they think they're being courteous but in fact they make it worse.

Not every bass boat is in a tournament, far from it. Weekday tournaments on Lay have 10-20 boats that would probably be fishing the same time if there wasn’t a tournament. Bass boats drive on plane and stay on mapped trails upriver on Lay and Logan. Disrespectful people can be seen driving all types of boats.

For some reason this thread makes me think about a place on Logan Martin in the mouth of Choccolocco we call "The Shortcut". Instead of making the big sweeping bend around the island, you "can" shoot the gap in the Shortcut, but you better be gettin' it pretty good (because it's only about 3' deep at full pool). It's pretty common for a boat to be fishing there, and if there is I won't go through it. But numerous times we've been sitting in the Shortcut fishing and a dude (yes, usually in a bass boat) will come blistering through there. Now I confess that usually gets a strong WTH glare from me!!

If you're coming out of the creek, you can't really see if there's a boat in there or not until you're committed. But coming from the main river going into the creek, well you shoulda known better.