When fishing the deep parts of the river, fly fishing techniques are recommended, but you will have better success if you switch to wet flies than dry flies: wet flies sink.

Distribution & Habitat

The redeye bass prefer shallow running head waters that have low turbidity, moderately fast flowing and flows over rocks, pebbles and sandy bottoms. They prefer a temperature similar to that of other bass from the low 60&degs to the upper 60&degs. They prefer the pools an riffles of these head waters. All these rivers drop thirty to forty feet every mile or two kilometres.

The redeye bass can be found in the following rivers:

  • Coosa river
  • Savannah river
  • Warrior river
  • Chattahoochee river
  • Alabama river

Many of these rivers have lakes or man-made reservoirs, created by damming portions of the rivers.

  • Lake Jordan
  • Jordan Dam Tail water
  • Lake Bouldin
  • Lake Mitchell
  • Lay Lake
  • Lake Logan Martin
  • Lake Weiss
  • Claiborne Lock and Dam
  • Robert F Henry Lock and Dam
  • Millers Ferry Lock and Dam

Now it does not take much brilliance to figure out that lakes offer deeper water than reservoirs and reservoirs offer deeper water than rivers with head waters being shallower and faster than tail waters. Now before you email us saying how I have provided bad info, we are talking about generalizations here. We understand that there are always exceptions.

What is important, what we are trying to stress is that the better places to fish for redeye bass are not the deep waters of lakes and reservoirs, but the deeper sections of the rivers and their tributaries. This is all due to the redeye bass’s need for shallow, moderately flowing waters. Their natural inclination is to move to deeper pools and riffles first before moving to deeper parts of the river in the south and then lakes.

When fishing the deep parts of the river, fly fishing techniques are recommended, but you will have better success if you switch to wet flies than dry flies: wet flies sink.

The is another tried and true method for fishing deep water. Bait casting has to be one of the most versatile forms of fishing regardless of the weather conditions or the terrain. It is equally adept at fishing the shallows as well as the deep sections of the river. The only draw back is that you have to get close to where the fish is to cast in. If we were to fish the shallow sections of the river, then fly fishing would have the upper hand as you would not have to worry about getting your lure hooked on a rock or some debris.

Fish Popular Foods

This is not a secret. Fish those foods common to the redeye bass, or that appear similar to the redeye when working with lures, and you will do well all else being equal. They are big on insects in the spring, summer and fall months going after dragon flies, mayflies, damselflies, moths and anything else that will fall into the river from the trees.

They also go after baitfish, especially in the colder weather when insects are less common. The golden shiner, fathead minnow and the gizzard shad are perennial facvorites. Worms, leeches and crayfish are also top picks for catching redeye bass.