Have any of you ever put in at Ingalls Harbor and rode west all the way to the Wheeler Dam or First or Second Creek...or Elk River?

How long was the boat ride?

My son has a high school tournament there on March 11th.

26-27 miles so you can do the math. 26ish minutes running 60...or an hour'ish running 30. I'll say you'll be running past a buncha fish if you decide to run to the dam. Watch what happens this weekend in the nucor tourney.

Good advice. I've never been anywhere close to fishing at Wheeler. We live down near Dothan. I wanted my boy, his partner, and I to catch some smallies on the practice day, as none of us has ever caught one. I've read a lot of nice smallmouth are often caught on the west end of the lake. I guess ultimately, it is a tournament, so we need a bag of 5 no matter what part of the lake it comes from.

Thanks.

15-20min run depending on how fast you run

The Decatur flats are hot now. You need 20 + pounds to get in the top 10

And big brown fish being caught east of nuclear plant.

You don't have to go to the lower end to catch smallmouth. Caught a couple of three pounders off some hydrilla right near the 65 bridge last time we were there.

One of the young'uns has been wanting to catch a smallmouth for years.. me as well.. where would be the best bet to do so? I only have a 18ft boat and hear that Wheeler and Pickwick can get rough at times.

Ok. Well I have a 1984 Ranger with a 1984 Evinrude. Lol...she'll go 56 mph pegged out with three people and a tournament loaded boat. I really don't want to have to run all the way to the dam if I can get the boys on some good fish 15-20 minutes from the landing. Decatur Flats are straight across from Ingalls Harbor correct? That's the monsterous shallow area I see on the maps?

Correct. Basically all the way from the railroad tracks to nuclear plant.

When you find them it will be one after another.

And unless they quit running water, the flats are gonna be dry...or close to it.

We’re here. Boat 27. Post it up if you got some kiddos fishing tomorrow. Hope everyone catches a big bag!

My freshmen team got 2 for 6 and a quarter.

We weighed in 4 for 7.99...I thought we would be in the top 30 or at worst top 40...Nah! How about 120th??...I can't believe all the big bags caught there. I wonder what we did wrong? We fished points, man-made structure, rocks, bluff walls...

We went up and practiced 2 weeks ago and had a really good day. I felt confident going in but the fish we found had moved and we scrambled all day. Finished horribly low. Embarrassingly low. I felt bad for my boys. We did the same patterns/tactics most of the top half did, just never ran across any fish.

GG, I’m pretty sure we were in the boat parade behind you just E of the nuclear plant around noon Saturday. My boys wouldn’t let me holler, “are you Gobble Grunt” for fear of it not actually being you. 😂

Looked like the boat you described above if it’s a brownish color.

That must've been me. It is brown! Were you the boat that came in near the last barge as we had made it down the shore a little ways? And you certainly should've hollered that out! I would've been like, "WTF" to start with...but then I'd have been like, "oh cool"...haha!

Yes sir, that was us! I knew I shoulda gobbled and grunted. 😀

If we had passed I was gonna certainly ask but you guys moved on downriver headed W before we got to you.

Haha! Awesome.