With almost 900 miles of shoreline, and more than 40,000 acres, it can be hard to find the best spots to fish on Lake Martin. The lake is loaded with bass, stripers, crappie, bream, and catfish, but let’s face it-that is a whole lot of water to cover as you are looking for your honey hole. However, it’s not impossible-especially when you know exactly where the fish habitats are located-and I’m going to give you this highly coveted information. I promise-I will tell you where to find the exact coordinates, but first, let’s talk about what fish habitats are.
Fish Habitats In Lake Martin
Alabama Power works hard to create fish habitats in the lakes that they control, including Lake Martin. This helps bolster the aquatic landscape of the lake and provides areas where fish can hide. They started creating fish habitats in 1993, and since then they have put out over 60,000 Christmas trees. That is one of the main items used for the fish habitats, but they also use polypipe, which they use to basically create fake bushes. After the habitat has been in place for awhile, algae starts to grow on it, and it creates a whole new underwater ecosystem.
Whether they use trees or polypipe, they use concrete as an anchor to keep the habitats at the bottom of the lake. This part is very important. If the habitats are not secured properly by professionals, the trees or polypipe can float up and cause a hazard for boaters. They also make sure they position the trees in areas where it is deep enough to not cause any safety issues. That is why it is very important to leave this part to the experts at Alabama Power. They do work with local anglers though to see if there are certain areas that they want to enhance. They also work with biologists to see if there are areas where there is not as much coverage, and where habitats are needed.
Lake Martin was flooded back in the 1920’s and at that time it was a terrestrial area. However now, it is an aquatic area. There were trees on the land that was flooded, but just think about the age of the lake. Many of those trees have deteriorated, and that creates the need for habitat enhancement in order to keep the aquatic ecosysyem thriving. There is a good bit of rock structure on the bottom of the lake, but the natural foliage is limited. Ask any angler that has fished Lake Martin, and they will tell you that it is indeed thriving. A large part of that is due to the care and proactiveness of Alabama Power.
So Where Are The Best Places To Fish On Lake Martin?
I promised you I would tell you where to find the best fishing at Lake Martin, but I wanted to give you a little background on the fish habitat program first. And the short answer to the question is-anywhere where the habitats are located, you have a good chance of finding fish. Alabama Power can’t make this any easier if they put fish in a barrel for you. You can get the coordinates of each of their fish habitats on their Smart Lakes App, which is free to download on the App Store and Google Play.
The app has alot of really great info for you, but my favorite feature is the fish icons. When you click on one, it will give you the exact coordinates of the fish habitat. That is translated as….. your favorite new fishing hole!
Help Us Create More Fish Habitats on Lake Martin-Donate Your Used Christmas Tree
We want to do our part to maintain our aquatic ecosystem in Lake Martin, and help create even more fishing hotspots for our anglers. Lake Martin Tourism Association is teaming up with Lake Martin Resource Association and Alabama Power to collect used non-artificial, undecorated, used Christmas trees December 26th-January 8th.
We have three convenient locations where you can drop them off:
Lake Martin Machine Gun in Eclectic
Wind Creek State Park in Alexander City
By donating your tree, you are helping in many ways:
- This encourages proper recycling of trees, to keep them off of roadways and out of landfills.
- Alabama Power will be legally and properly placing the trees, making sure all safety measures are followed so that trees do not move and rise, which could damange boats and injure boaters. Alabama Power has strict processes in place that maintains the safety of boating on Lake Martin.
- This will help with the aquatic ecosystem of the lake, and help create new fish habitats.
- New fish habitats means new fishing hotspots for anglers on Lake Martin. Fishing is important to the lake and local economies, and this effort helps push that even more. The specific coordinate of the new habitats will be released this spring.
We hope this information helps you find some of the best spots to fish on Lake Martin! And we look forward to sharing new coordinates with you this spring after the new fish habitats are created!
Until then-TIGHT LINES!
