Anthony Campbell

So much water, so little time. That’s how a traveling angler has to feel about Alabama. The state is blessed with oceans, rivers, reservoirs and even creeks that harbor an abundance of fish. Tapping into this great resource can be as simple as walking down the road to your nearest fishing hole or driving all the way across the state, boat in tow, on a grand fishing adventure.

Here are 36 places you might like to wet a line in the coming months. JANUARY
Crappie
Tennessee River
Longtime Tennessee River angler Wayne Baker of Grant loves January for crappie on his home waters.

“That’s when it really picks up for me,” he said. “When the deer go in rut in our part of the state, so many people are deer hunting that I have the crappie spots all to myself.”

Wayne specializes in fishing from the shore. He looks for rocky banks, such as riprap causeways He fishes exclusively at night, starting at about sundown and fishing as late as midnight.

Patience is a key to this angling. He believes that the fish move into the rock banks at some point during the early evening to feed on minnows. You can go from catching nothing to having 20 keepers in a matter of minutes.

Baker fishes with minnows, but many of his partners have success on jigs as well.

For info on how crappie and other species are biting on the Tennessee River, contact Waterfront Grocery at (256) 582-6060.

Other Hotspots: State fisheries biologists have noticed improvements to the structure of the bass population on Weiss Lake in Cherokee County. Now might be a good month to give those fish a try.

The winter months, believe it or not, are also an excellent time to catch bluegill and other bream in the Mobile Delta. Look for the fish in deep channels along the edges of shallow lakes and bays of the lower Delta.

FEBRUARY
Spotted Bass
Bankhead Lake
Bankhead Lake on the Warrior River has a better than average bass population and is a good place to try in the very early spring. These turbid waters warm rapidly, especially on the upper end of the lake. It’s a place where an angler can throw baits at anything that looks fishy and have good results. Downed trees, weeds, debris and any other visible structure often hold fish.

Good baits are jig-and-pigs, spinnerbaits, Carolina rigs and topwaters. Trophy-sized spotted bass are caught in this reservoir, too.

District III fisheries biologist Jay Haffner said that the upper reaches of the lake are a beautiful, and a good stretch for finding bass.

Other hotspots: February is one of the best months for catching trophy largemouth bass on Lake Eufaula as the fish feed to get ready for the spawn. Good places to fish slow-moving baits are the edges of the weed beds, creek channel intersections, and debris piles along the river channel edge.

Crappie season is still rolling strong this month and Logan Martin is an overlooked hotspot for the species. Remember that this lake has a 9-inch length limit for crappie.

MARCH
Sheepshead
Mobile
“When the azaleas bloom, the sheepshead are sure to loom”: an old axiom that many seasoned Gulf Coast saltwater fishermen live by.

That azalea bloom coincides with the water temperatures in the Mobile area rising enough to prompt the sheepshead to spawn. That, in turn, congregates the fish.

Good baits for the handsome black-and-white striped fish are shrimp and oysters. Look for the fish around pilings, jetties, oilrig legs and other structures likely to have barnacles on them. A good trick to entice a feeding frenzy is to scrape some barnacles off the structure and into the water with a shovel.

Standard tackle includes heavy barrel weights, heavy leaders and stout bronze hooks. You may have to experiment to find the proper depth.

Other Hotspots: The crappie season is winding down, but one good place for a late trip to is Gainesville Lake on the Tenn-Tom Waterway. State biologists have noted nice populations of the fish in the 9- to 12-inch range. Look for them around standing timber in backwater sloughs.

Improving water quality in West Point Lake in recent years has boosted the spotted bass population there, with lots of small, numerous fish. There’s no size limit on spots and it’s one place where anglers are encouraged to keep what they catch.