BY THE NUMBERS
1950 The year Allatoona Lake opened to public fishing
12,000 Surface acres of water in Allatoona Lake
250,000 Number of 1- to 2-inch fingerling largemouths to be stocked in Allatoona annually
The largemouth bass always has been the king of Georgia’s fresh waters. The General Assembly designated the largemouth as Georgia’s state fish in 1970.
More than half of all fishing activity in the state targets bass, according to a 2011 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
This popularity has prompted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to heed the call from the fishing community to bring back largemouth bass to Allatoona Lake.
Allatoona is a reservoir on the Etowah River in Bartow, Cherokee and Cobb counties. Virtually all of the bass in the lake were largemouths when the impoundment was opened.
Spotted bass began showing up in the lake during the following decade. The steep rocky shoreline of Allatoona provides favorable habitat for the spots, which have gradually crowded out largemouths. Today only 10 to 20 percent of the lake’s bass are largemouths.
Largemouths regularly grow to weights in excess of 12 pounds. Spotted bass usually top out around 5 to 6 pounds. Anglers have expressed their desire to the DNR in recent years to have more of the largemouths in Allatoona.
The DNR initiated a three-year study this summer to see if stocking largemouths can rebalance the lake’s bass population. A similar stocking project has been ongoing at Lake Nottely in Union County. Preliminary results were encouraging, prompting the new effort at Allatoona.
“These findings suggest there may be a chance to improve largemouth abundance in Allatoona through stocking,” DNR fisheries biologist Jim Hakala said.
Stockings of 1- to 2-inch fingerling largemouths will take place in Allatoona each summer through 2015. Additional releases of 5- to 8-inch bass will occur each fall to allow evaluation of stocking success between the two sizes of fish.
The lake’s bass population will be monitored through 2018 to determine the effectiveness of the stocking program.
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