Table of Contents hide
What’s Biting
Gear & Rigging
Game Plan
Where to Eat & Stay

Anglers don’t visit Northern Alabama to experience the hustle and bustle of city life. They want to get away to the expansive forests, emerald mountains, vast lakes and endless rivers. And let’s cut to the chase. Most important of all, Alabama conceals a collection of world-class bass fishing spots where an angler can fight fish, not crowds and powerboats.

Chad Hoover stands and paddles while passing trees on the shore 8 Best Lakes For Kayak Fishing In North Alabama

North Alabama: Fishing Central In the Middle of Nowhere

What’s Biting

Northern Alabama is home to largemouth, smallmouth and Alabama spotted bass. Big lakes like Lake Guntersville and Pickwick Lake offer deep-water fishing for big bass. The swift rivers and cold water lakes host world-class smallmouth bass fishing. Many anglers come to the area to target spotted bass. Look for the feisty little fish hovering over gravel shoals and hiding behind boulders and drops.

aerial view of North Alabama fishing grounds in fall
The hardest part of visiting North Alabama is deciding where to fish. | Feature photo: Chad Hoover

Every season is fishing season in North Alabama. While bass are biting in the colder months, the best time to visit, and prime time for trophies, is spring or fall. The weather is cooler and the fishing heats up as transition seasons encourage the fish to feed heavily.

Gear & Rigging

Whatever your favorite bass tactic, you can test your skills in North Alabama. Work deep structure for schooled bass with deep swimming crankbaits and swimbaits. Or punch through shallow vegetation with jigs and frogs. Change gears and river fish for smallies and spotties using a crankbait or topwater buzzbait. The best plan is to plan for anything with a full arsenal of bass fishing favorites.

To get the most out of a visit to North Alabama, carry two kayaks. One boat is a full-sized, fully rigged fishing kayak ready for big water and long days. The other kayak is a grab-and-go boat ready for commando launching from the side of the road and dragging over rocks and deadfalls to reach hidden backwaters.

Game Plan

Stay in Huntsville, North Alabama’s centrally located fishing headquarters. The biggest city in the region provides plenty of options for accommodations and plenty to do off the water. From the city center, you are a short drive to the area’s famous bass lakes and hundreds of smaller lakes, creeks and rivers. In between fishing trips, visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, one of the country’s largest museum and space experience destinations.

Chad Hoover stands on his kayak and grabs hold of a fishing rod on a lake in Alabama 8 Of The Best-Kept Secret Bass Fishing Spots In Alabama

For the latest information and current fishing reports, stop at Kayak Bass Fishing headquarters and join a fishing trip with tournament founder and television personality Chad Hoover.

Where to Eat & Stay

Get the complete outdoor experience at Ditto Landing, a campground and RV resort with a full-service marina and access to the best fishing.

Refuel in style; eat at Superhero Chefs. For breakfast, try the waffle and pancake tacos and make lunch a southern eggroll stuffed with mac and cheese and chicken with a sweet potato sauce.

Cover of Kayak Angler Magazine Issue 53This article was first published in Issue 53 of Kayak Angler Magazine. Subscribe to Kayak Angler Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

The hardest part of visiting North Alabama is deciding where to fish. | Feature photo: Chad Hoover

 

Previous articleFirst Look: ISLE 12’6 Flywater Inflatable Skiff-Kayak
Next articleBest Fishing Lines For 2025
Ric Burnley
Kayak Angler editor Ric Burnley has been kayak fishing since the dawn of the sport. In 2007, Burnley wrote The Complete Kayak Fisherman, with chapters on how-to make a PVC rod holder and glue a fish finder transducer to the hull. In 2013, he landed his dream job as editor of Kayak Angler magazine. Burnley is a regular contributor to Salt Water Sportsman, Sport Fishing, Outdoor Life, In the Bite and other print and online publications. Burnley lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, adult daughter, daughter’s boyfriend and daughter’s two cats. Experience In 2004, Ric Burnley stole his first milk crate from behind a 7-Eleven and fashioned it into a gear crate for his Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. Many years and many milk crates later, Burnley has witnessed the rise of kayak fishing from a bastardized fringe element to a legitimate industry with millions of devotees. The journey to becoming an angler started early in Burnley’s life. His father, Eric Burnley, is a renowned outdoor writer and former fishing guide, so the boy grew up in the cockpit of a charter boat and in the pages of national magazines. After college, Burnley lost easy access to his father’s boat, but not his passion for fishing. Once he had exhausted the limits of land-based angling, Burnley decided to try out a new thing called kayak fishing. About the same time, Burnley was looking for extra work to pay for his expensive addiction. His father, editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman Magazine, offered him freelance assignments for the weekly publication. That led to a position as regional editor at Salt Water Sportsman, publication of The Complete Kayak Fisherman and editorship of Kayak Angler. Meanwhile, Burnley and his partner-in-crime, “Kayak Kevin” Whitley were exploring the boundaries of kayak fishing. With the bountiful Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean as their playground, the two anglers were the first to target big red drum, cobia, trophy striped bass, monster black drum, sheepshead and many other species. Once inshore species were exhausted, Burnley loaded his kayak onto motorboats and fished for bluefin tuna, blackfin tuna, king mackerel and amberjack. All the while, Burnley shared his experiences and knowledge with anglers through print, photos, video, radio, seminars and online. Almost 20 years later, Burnley continues to fish obsessively and share the stories. His recent projects for Kayak Angler cover the latest trends in forward-facing sonar and remote-controlled electric motors. Over the past two decades, kayak fishing and Ric Burnley have come a long way from PVC rod holders and stolen milkcrates. Education ● Radford University: BA English; Virginia Teacher’s License. Highlights ● Other Interests: Mountain biking, traveling, hiking, surfing and skateboarding ● Day Job: High School English teacher at an alternative school for at-risk students Fun Fact Ric’s name is a contraction of Eric. Ric is named after his father, Eric Sr. To differentiate between the two Erics, Mrs. Burnley removed her son’s E. To this day, she writes the boy’s name ‘Ric, with an apostrophe replacing the E.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Leave a Reply