Any of you guys fish Lake Saug here where the RTJ course is located? Looks fantastic with all the shallow water, grass, rocks and such.

I did when I was in college. It was never great, but we caught a few bass. I think it gets fished fairly hard by the local jonboat crowd. I agree it is a good looking lake though...gets quite a bump via the fertilizer runoff from the golf course.

Sucks, and if your not a resident of Opelika it's like a $300 fee to fish it.

Holy crap. Three hundred bucks to fish a publicly-owned lake?

Technically privately owned by Opelika water works board. But yes last time I bought a permit you had to pay OWWB like $150for use if you weren't their water customer and $125 boat permit

Walking over the bridge at the RTJ course I stopped on both sides to look down the banks. They looked great inasmuch as for throwing swimjigs, spinnerbaits, frogs, etc. But I never saw the first minnow flitting around, any bluegills, no signs of life at all. Nada. Even walking around the course, no fish busting, jumping, minnows/shad schooling, nothing. Didn't see anything around the pilings at the pumphouse mid-bridge, either, like bluegills around them. Even with high sun you'd think there would be some in the shade. Nada.

Wow, it's gone up quite a bit. I fished it a little when I was in school there. This was probably around 1999-2001. I never caught much of anything out there despite how good it looks. I spent more time on Lake Martin.

Don't waste your time! I saw the lake while playing RTJ and honestly thought about quitting right then and there because it looked like it was loaded. The next day I went and purchased a permit at the Opelika courthouse. Why you can't purchse the thing at the water department, which is right by the lake, baffels me. I probably fished around fifteen to twenty days over the next two months (Mar&Apr), with horrible results. I averaged one bass a day, caught five once, and struck often. Save your money!

If you are an Opelika resident and have city water the permit is $50 that's for fishing and boat permit and you do purchase it at the water board department. Now for out of city residents the price is steep. I buy one every year and they run from October to October.

If you fish it you'd better get one because the game warden frequents the place a good bit.

I live within a mile of it and quit fishing it a couple years ago. I had good luck with the crappie in the spring but otherwise it was pretty bad. In the summer, I'd be lucky to catch more than a couple of bass each trip. I did see some big alligators which was pretty cool. I fished it on and off for about four years and it wasn't worth the paying for the permits. I do see people pulling boats down Veterans all the time so somebody must know how to catch fish there.

You guys live close to some of the best BIG BASS fishing in the Country, I speak of Eufaula. really the whole Hooch below Columbus has big bass. the corp keeps screwing with water levels and closing areas to protect species. Funny how they only close areas i love ! LOL I caught a 13.4 in Riverbend many yrs ago and many 7-8 since. I saw one in Riverbend bedding on a stump that looked over 15. i didn't mess with it because i had a BFL next day. It was gone the next morning. you snooze, you loose. stay safe