Finally made it down there. What a neat little lake.


I put in at the dam. From what I could tell, it seems to be the only decent launch on the lake. There was another one I saw in Coon Creek, but it was very rough. The lake was extraordinarily clean. I don't recall seeing any trash or junk in the water. The lake has next to no development on it. I saw maybe a dozen or so houses. I had the whole lake to myself. Driving passed Martin, every launch was crowded. I think I saw four boats total on Yates.

I moved around a lot trying to see everything. I didn't stay in one place long or fish anything too hard. I did manage a small limit of LM swimming a jig in the grass. The shoreline grass down there must be different from the Coosa grass I'm familiar with. It looks similar, but it dies back hard. None of it was green. I was slow rolling a bigger swimjig through the dead stalks to get bites.

All the creeks have silted in. You can get to the back of Coon, but I got nervous getting way back in Sougahatchee. Channahatchee was worse. Almost ended up on a sand bar in that one!

There was a ton of that hydrilla looking grass up around the islands below the dam. I'm not sure what it is exactly. I spent some time idling around the area trying to find an edge or a ledge to fish, but couldn't find it. My map just had the lake outline and no depth contours (I have both the Lakemaster and Navionics chips). If I was to go back, I would start there and throw top water around this area. There was a lot of activity.

So, I guess it reminded me of a smaller, cleaner Lake Mitchell. It's an hour and 45 mins from my house. That's a little further than Gville. It's not far from Auburn and has plenty of hunting opportunities. There was a good crowd of duck hunters taking out as I was putting in. Didn't see any deer hunters.

I was there in a big green jet boat with my son. I might of saw you come up and fish at the islands.

I was in the blue Xpress with the little black dog. I remember seeing a metal boat up there and drift fishing maybe? I'd have loved to take a jet boat up some of those creeks.

We got a 25 inch largemouth. Ok I think your boat was black and blue.

I fished Yates frequently in college 2001-2005. Mostly the spring and fall, I used to wear out some fish on weightless soft plastics in the spring. I also liked fishing saugahatchee creek when it had some stain. Really a hidden gem of a lake. Also had some fun times with coeds on my boat that wanted to tag a long and "sunbathe" while I fished😀

Looks about like this except I have a Yamaha 200 HPDI.

Where is this lake located if i wanted to look at it on google earth.

Downstream of Lake Martin

Not highly publicized,the shellcracker fishing in this lake will rival any public water in the state.It is really a hidden gem

I've heard this a lot. The State boys attribute it to the colder water extending out the spawning season for the bream.