Anyone been lately? They have finally stopped the three turbine pulls in Ragland for a little while. I am gonna try and go this weekend sometime. We are off Monday, but Sunday looks like a wash out.

Most recent I've been is Saturday before last (so what, about 12 days ago?). Water was much muddier and colder than I expected it to be....I put in at the dam and ran up to Shoal, spent till 9:30 in there and literally had ZERO bites. Water was anywhere from 44 to 46 degrees, but just way more stained than I anticipated. It can be cold, and it can be muddy, but it can't be cold and muddy. I fished the deep side on the left about halfway to the back, fished parts of the shallow bank on the other side of the creek, threw an A-rig and couple of other lures at suspended fish out in the channel and on the hump/stumps nearby (may have been crappie). It was tough. Before I left I ran into Lakeshore for maybe 30 minutes and caught a 3# largemouth under a dock on a chatterbait. That was it, one lousy fish the whole trip.

There is a big TX our of city park tomorrow. Actually two I think. I will look on FB to see how thy did. Canoe Creek was real clear two weeks ago and people were catching crappie spider rigging. Good ones too. Big Head's Bait Shop posted up some good pics.

Just an FYI. The river is still very TRASHY! Saw a whole top of a pier floating Thursday down river. Based on what rain is coming tomorrow, it may be weeks before it starts to get back to normal. Ragland showed 502' 3" yesterday afternoon. At Little Bridge Marina, I guess it was about 503'. IF you launch, be careful running.

Just as a side note, Coosa Riverkeepers had a good article on Facebook explaining the whole Coosa chain of lakes and rivers from a electricity/flood control perspective. Me personally, I want them to go back to lowering Neely in the winter months like they used to. But, Neely Henry Lake association will fight this tooth and nail. Took them a long time to get APCO to leave water up in winter months. All because of "property values" and useability year round.

Fished at neely yesterday. Rode from 77 to the neely dam. Lots of trees and other debris still floating. And they were ripping current through there like I have never seen.

What were all the people catching at the boat ramp on hwy77 yesterday in the rain?
They sure were bunched up in one spot at the mouth of the FLOODED creek.

Dunno. Had a wildcat out of Rainbow Landing Saturday I think.

I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want the lake lowered in winter to help with vegetation control, along with flood control.

Who the heck is using their lake home so much in winter and being actually IN the water that it helps-boosts their property value? I mean, if I'm shopping for a lake house in winter and see the water level lowered IMO it's a bonus because I could see their dock or boathouse, ramp and shoreline. THAT would be a helpful thing to know about.

Lower the lakes and then when we get a bigass rain, it fills up and they can dump them. If they keep the level the same in winter it floods yards, ramps and other stuff.

Good gosh. THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF FLOOD CONTROL PREVENTION.

Some people f'king bitch about anything.

Spot on my man! Been a lot of talk since the flooding in Weiss the past two weeks and yesterday they got more elevation because of the rain. Coosa Riverkeers article is good IMO. There has GOT to be something done on Neely. The grass in sloughs is out of control in some areas and preventing owners use of these sloughs. APCO will only come a few days in the summer and landowners are SOL unless they are well connected to get them to spray.

Flood control-IMO we need to go back to a winter drawdown from November to sometime in March. Does not take a scientist to know Minnesotta Bend is the culprit and will not let water flow out fast enough. Hell, it was 511' in North Gadsden this morning and straight line 10 miles down stream it was 503' at hwy 77 and lower at Ragland. Flood control needs to be number one, invasive species control second. We NEVER had a grass problem when winter draw down was still in effect. Too many of the sloughs and creeks are sifted in and actually shallower than they were 20 years ago. This is also causing landowner access issues. Something has to be done or some kind of agreement met that benefits all parties involved.

I believe I'm right that Logan Martin is the only Coosa lake that fluctuates, and it's supposedly for "flood control". Not sure I understand how ONE LAKE in a chain can manage "flood" for all of them???

It can't. These home owners started back in early 90s wanting the tree lines removed, it happened. Then, they started with Neely Henry Lake Association forming with a group of "concerned" owners wanting the lake level left up all year long for "recreational benefits and accessibility". They got it. What happened next, ALL the damn grass started growing that was never here on this lake EVER! Don't get me wrong, some grass is good and I catch fish out of it, But hell, there are more sloughs now choked out with grass and sifted in with silt. How's that for homeowner values? A slough 20 years ago you could navigate with most pontoons and flat bottoms now are too shallow or too much grass to be a viable waterfront access.

Take Neely back to a winter drawdown.

Also, I head someone say the other day that APCO was toying around with getting some sort of commercial dredging operation in here to clean out the sloughs. Never will happen...…………………..

I’m below Minnesota Bend off canoe creek and water is crazy low right now with the dam ripped open.

I stopped at City Docks area downtown around lunch today just to look. The current is so strong I don't believe the strongest 36v Tm could even make a dent against the current. Never seen it that strong other than right below the dam.

Desertdog, it has not let up at Little Bridge for over three weeks now. This has been the longest stretch of 2-3 turbines on at Ragland I can remember since I got back on the river in 2001.

Anyone fish last weekend? I saw some pics of CRTL and there were some good fish. One 7+ and several spots over 5. I may try and go this weekend.

I haven't been nor talked to anybody on Neely for a couple of weeks at least. I crossed the bridges in Gadsden last Friday and it still looked high and insanely muddy, ain't seen the lower end though.

We fished Logan Saturday, everybody caught a ton of fish. We had 30 boats and I think our top 10 all had 12-1/2 pounds or more. Took 20.10 to win (all largemouth), we finished 8th with 12.92 (all spots).

Don't know if Neely is fishing like Logan or not.... water temps were generally around 59 on the river, 61 in the pockets/creeks. Water is slight stain on the river, clear in the pockets, too clear almost (for the Coosa). Fish are not everywhere, you could hit multiple similar places and only catch fish on one. We caught fish deep on the river, a foot of water in the back of pockets, mid depth on secondary points. But we didn't catch a single largemouth the whole day, not a one. Wasted a couple of hours mid-morning specifically trying to catch largemouth, immediately went back to our first spot hole and BAM they're still chomping. The guy who had the 20lbs was above Riverside (that's all I really know), pretty sure I know what/where, but I'd just be guessing. We put in at Pell City, I just didn't have the will to run that far upriver. Choccolocco was as far as we went.

I was over there Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. The water was still quite low, and looked like weak coffee. Still lots of trash in the river and heavy current. Early on, the water temp was mid 50s, but we saw temps rise to just above 60 in the backs of the creeks by late evening. It was a struggle for us the first day to even get bit, but made some changes to our thinking and caught some good ones the second day. Only one largemouth for the trip, but it was a 5-14 kicker. The rest were all spots, with the biggest one pushing 4 pounds. I caught them in a couple different places, but couldn’t get the pattern to replicate itself in other areas. Seems like they are really bunched up right now and if you can find em, you find em. Going back Friday to fish with my son who has a tourney there on Saturday. I’m hoping they are still there.

Precisely what I've been saying for a couple of weeks. Fish ain't everywhere, you can run a lot of similar stuff and not get a sniff on it. Then another guy comes in talking about how many 3 pound spots they caught off a place exactly like you fished.

I have never understood that river.

Kicks my butt more times than not.

Me neither, and I LIVE here. LOL.