The transition from the dog days of summer to the comfortable afternoons of fall has slowly started, which I took as a sign that fishing weather is here again. The extreme heat that plagued May, June and July left many fishermen’s aerators empty at the end of the day, but hopefully the emergence of August will mean a drop in temperature and an increase in hits.I took advantage of the weather conditions on Saturday and went fishing at the Hollis Q. Lathem Reservoir. The reservoir, which is just outside of the Marble Hill area into Cherokee County, has been open since 1999 and is comprised of 334 acres to fish, with the average depth of the water being 35 feet.

Below are my notes from the fishing trip and pictures featuring the highlights of the day.

7:40 a.m. We—my dad and I—leave the house in Jasper and head to the lake. To go to the lake from Jasper is very simple: get on Highway 53 East, turn right onto Yellow Creek Road, then take a left onto Shiloh Road and it leads you right to the reservoir.

8:10 a.m. We make it to the lake with no issues at all. The weather literally can not be any better for fishing—it’s overcast and in the lower 70’s. We quickly put in and start fishing.

8:42 a.m. I land the first fish of the day directly across from the boat ramp—a small largemouth bass that hit after I let my red Edge plastic worm sit for about three minutes.

9:10 a.m. I get lucky again almost thirty minutes later, landing another largemouth bass about fifteen feet away from where I caught my first one. Neither fish are very big (definitely less than a pound), but when it comes to bass fishing for me, it is quantity, not quality.

10:33 a.m. We proceed to the corner of the lake where a large amount of stumps are located, a spot that is very tricky to fish. Although the chances of catching a fish are pretty high in this area, getting stuck and losing your bait, especially if you are using a repala or spinner bait, are much higher. My dad gets lucky on this one, as he catches his first fish amongst the stumps. It’s bigger than the two I’ve already caught, probably around a pound and some change.

12:26 p.m. The sun has finally come out of the clouds, and unfortunately the fish’s activity has slowed down. However, I get another bite on another portion of the lake made up of stumps, and the fight was very memorable. Situated in the middle of some stumps, my line gets caught on part of a stump, and when I start to reel in the fish gets caught on the stump. The fish starts flopping back and forth desperately trying to get the hook out of its mouth, and if we weren’t in a boat it would have succeeded; however, we quickly maneuvered our way to the fish and brought it in the boat. The fish was about the same size as the one my dad caught, maybe a little smaller.
After about thirty more minutes of fishing with no luck, we headed home. The afternoon was the best I’ve had this summer, and it really looks like the turn of the season from summer to fall will help with the odds of having a good fishing story to tell to all of your friends.