Small Fishing Lakes

[Eddie]

I live in Alpharetta and for the past 7 or 8 years have been fishing a small lake near my house. I've landed a few nice bass in the 6-7 pound range and catfish up to about 13-14 pounds. Unfortunately I returned from college for the summer to find that my favorite lake had been drained to make way for yet another office building. My fishing buddy and I are looking for another small lake in the Alpharetta area that holds some good fish while not too far from our homes. We do a lot of our fishing for trout on the Chattahoochee but it is nice to fish for some warmwater species for a change. Can anyone help us out? Are there any office parks with lakes that have any decent fish? How about other "hidden" lakes that we might not know about about? Any help would be great since we enjoy fishing the smaller lakes and ponds but they are becoming increasingly harder to find.
Thanks,
Eddie

[Frequent Flyer]

Welcome to the board, Eddie. No info from me (I live south of town) and come that way only to seek trout.

[NiteOwl]

Well, here's where the hidden becomes common knowledge ! http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif hahaha


No info, but if you can drive an hour you can reach CE ! http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif bass bass and bass some more !

[Ivan]

Eddie I also live in alpharetta and have been looking for some small lakes to fish. I have discovered several in an around the silicon valley area (On or around North Point Parkway and Winward Parkway) all of them are either in an industrial park or homestead. One that comes to mine is the one behind MCI on NorthPoint Pkwy near kimble bridge road. There is a large lake ajacent to hwy 400, its the first left when you come off the haynes bridge exit going away from Northpoint Mall. Web bridge park on Web Bridge is supposed to have a lake in it. This is a new Alpharetta City Park. There's a small pond that I have fished on Hempre Park Road off Old Roswell Rd behind the Izuzu warehouse. There are bass, Bream and catfish in this lake. I am still compiling my list of local fishing holes. I plan to go out and actually see which of these lakes I can get permission to fish. Kevin if you drive the area I mentioned you will find a lot of small lakes, can you fish them I don't know! I quess they will to have run one of us to off to know the ones that will tolarate a little fishing pressure. Get a vary recent map (One thats shows North Point Pkwy, you will be able find a few bodies of water in alpharetta in the area I mentioned.

Finder of Lost Waters

Ivan

[flytyfish]

Ivan some of those lakes are off limits know since they belong to the developers but then again they might let you .I have fished those before the one off of Kimball br. is loaded with shellcrackers

[Ivan]

flyfish - thanks for the heads up, I think the operative word in my post was permission. I do like cathing shellcrackers. You did Kimble Bridge ?

[THE EG]

Ivan,

I drive Web Bridge all the time. Where is the park with a pond/lake located. Toward the post office end or on the other side of 400 toward Alpharetta?

You motivated me to finally ask the Johns Creek/Technology Park management folks about all of the lakes and ponds they have for irrigation.

The fellow I spoke to said there are fish in the lakes and at one time people were allowed to fish in them. BUT somebody kept catching fish and leaving them on the bank and other folks kept complaining about the smell. Smells fishy to me but the bottom line is no fishing is allowed anymore in those ponds and lakes.

[Steve D]

FF,

We finally got moved into our new house down toward Newnan (in Timberidge on Hwy 29). Was wondering if you might have any good info on lakes down our way. I know about the county lake off of Cedar Creek Rd. and have slipped into Redwine a time or two but need to find some good water close by. Any suggestions?

Steve

[Ivan]

EG: Sorry about johns creek, I had plan to ask about those lakes myself. Toward Webb bridge park is towards the post office. call Alpharetta parks for exact address.
Flyfish: I fished kimball "wow" bream, bass, shellcrackers. Did I mention there are actually two lakes across the street from one another. Ran into couple people fishing the larger. From the looks of things this place been the refuge for a lot of worm chuckers. (little blue cups around the bank). Saw lots "Large" bream I will fishing that lake next.
EG: there is also a lake on web bridge close to 400.
Vickery creek from behind Roswel square to the park at hooch has been extremly productive for all species trout, large bream, catfish, bass. carp, crappie and yellow perch.

[Eddie]

Where exactly is the Isuzu building? I'd like to go try that lake. I haven't had a chance to fish the lake by the MCI building but about a year ago I saw a number of really nice size shellcrackers. Has anyone else fished there and are there any other species of substantial size? I went and looked at the lake off 400. I had seen the lake for many years without going to check it out and it looks like it is completely empty. They have built an office building in front of it and now its shores are completely landscaped with trails and it even has a bridge over it. I didn't see a single fish in it except for some small minnows and maybe one or two TINY bluegills. I did look in the middle of the day so I might have been missing the fish but it definitely didn't look too productive. I run at the Webb Bridge park and the lake in there is really no more than a muddy puddle. If it was clear it might be able to hold some fish but it is always completely stained with mud not unlike the the Hooch after a few days of rain. There is one I can see from the jogging trail but it looks like it is on someone's property. Anyone else know about John's Creek? There is another lake across Medlock Bridge that looks pretty big but I don't know how to get to it. Ivan, I have two questions for you. The first is where is the second lake by the MCI building. I live off Kimball Bridge so these would be perfect for me. Also, tell me more about fishing on Vickery Creek. I've heard there are some big carp around there. What have you used to catch them? Where are the best fishing spots? The only place I know of is right at the park next to Roswell Road.
Thanks,
Eddie

[Allen]

If you call the DNR they will send you a booklet entitled "Small Lakes Open to Public Fishing"

[Ivan]

Eddie the lake is about two blocks past The MCI/Excutrain Lake going toward winward. Caught a lot of nice bluegills and two bass 2-3 lb Friday AM . Look for the Royal 400 sign,, I talked to some of the old timers who have been fishing there for over five years they told me it was ok to to fish the part of the lake that is on North point Pkwy and the **** but not to fish behind the Etna bldg. As for Vickery Creek you can also access the park from Oxbow st. or rd. From Alpharetta/Roswel drive south on Hwy 9 going toward Roswell square its somewhere around that Krispy Kream on the left. There is a parking lot there on the left walk across the steet to the waterfalls or you can hike the length of the park from park entrance near Roswell rd. I have done both there are a lot of hikers and mountain bikers there on weekends very few fisherman! Yes there are large carp also large bluegills, crappie, spots. lm and shoal bsss.

[Ivan]

Eddie - The lake behind the Izusu : from pep boys take Hwy 9 to to Hempre Rd turn right at the Jauguar store, go up to old roswell rd take a right make a right a hembree park look for red brick warehouse a halfblock in on the left. The lake is to the left of the parking lot in the back of the parking lot.
I fished The MCI?Excutrain Lake thursday fish on EVERY cast!; all shellcrackers. I used #10 humpys (yellow, green and white) and a madame X #10. There was a lot of surface activity I not could make out what kind fish they were but there were some big splash's..saw some large carp.

Ivan

[Eddie]

I fished both lakes off Kimball Bridge today. The impression that I got was that the MCI/Executrain lake had nothing but small shellcrackers and some carp. It was amazing how these shellcrackers would hit literally anything you could throw in the water. I tried to fish for bass but no matter where I cast the shellcrackers would just attack my Zoom worm. Judging by the fact that there are so many of them it really didn't seem like there were any predatory fish in the lake. There were some large grass carp on the inaccesable side of the lake but I don't know how to catch grass carp effectively. I also tried the lake by the Aetna building. I fished the Northpoint Pkwy side and saw a few very small bass and a couple of decent size bluegill. I did see some chicken liver wrappers so I am hoping there are some catfish in there. Does anyone know about what species this lake might have? It looks like the perfect like but there really didn't seem to be too much activity. Just thought I would throw out an update if anyone is interested. Please let me know if you know something I don't about either of these two lakes.
Eddie

[Ivan]

Eddie
I Fished the Aetna lake this morning before work. Hit into a 3lb bass on a deer hair mouse. There were several 5 to 6 lb fish around as well. I catch a lot of large bluegill on a purple zonker strip streamer #12. The locals like spinner baits , live minnows and small bluegills for bass (go across to the MCI and catch a bucket full for bait..ha.). I like a rattle trap! As for the catfish ....? Where's my eagle claw when I need it.
Have you fished the North Alpharetta park pond (someone left an empty bottle of gink there!) or the Providence park lake off of Mayfield rd in North alpharetta.

Think big:fish small lakes !

Ivan

[Goldman]

I've been fishing in Johns Creek for the past 3 years and have not had anyone run me off of the lakes. I did call someone at Technology Park, they manage Johns Creek, and they said they had no problem with me fishing. I don't remember the persons name, but their title was something like director of cummunity relations. That was a few years ago, so their policy may have changed. I usually only fish one lake, which is full of juvenile bass, a few biguns, and virtually no bream.