Point A Reservoir

Fishing in Point A Reservoir

Point A Reservoir is a 600-acre reservoir located on the Conecuh River in central Covington County, Alabama. Point A Dam is owned and operated by Alabama Electric Cooperative. There are 2 public access areas available for Point A boaters. A small ramp is located on the west side of Covington County Road 59, and a larger ramp with a boat dock is located at the AEC Park on the east side of County Road 59. Picnic facilities and restrooms are also available at the park, as well as a recently opened handicap assessable fishing pier. A concrete pier is open to the public just below Point A Dam. Anglers often catch white bass, hybrid bass, and catfish from this tailwater fishery in the spring and early summer. Anglers can access this pier by parking at the gate and walking along the west side of the earthen section of Point A Dam.  Andalusia is the closest city to Point A Reservoir, with numerous hotels and restaurants available. The Andalusia Chamber of Commerce can be contacted at 334- 222-2030.

Point A Reservoir was impounded in the 1920s mainly to supply electrical power to local sawmills. The reservoir is still operated for hydropower generation, as well as swimming, boating, and fishing. Due to the watershed characteristics, Point A Reservoir typically has a tannic brown water color and fairly low productivity. The lake is mainly fished by local anglers for bass, bream, crappie, and catfish. Fishing pressure is usually light to moderate. Anglers typically have good success for bass, redear sunfish, and crappie in the spring and fall, while bluegill and catfish typically bite well in the late spring and summer.  Anglers also reported good catches of crappie at night fishing around lights during the summer of 2007.  Point A Reservoir also has an abundant population of longnose gar, bowfin, and chain pickerel. Flathead catfish over 45 pounds have been harvested from Point A in the recent past. Flatheads prefer live prey, so most successful flathead anglers fish trotlines baited with shiners or other large bait fish in the upper end of Point A.

Point A Reservoir was lowered approximately in 22 feet October of 2005 by the Alabama Electric Cooperative for installing sensors in the back side of Gantt Dam. This nearly drained the 700-acre reservoir to the original river channel. Initially anglers harvested many fish as the lake was drawndown, but most anglers report that fishing success declined after several weeks of low water levels. After the lake refilled, the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries stocked fingerling Florida largemouth bass, bream, channel catfish, and crappie. 

Trapnet sampling by the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Section in 2006 found the crappie population was fairly abundant and composed mainly of white crappie. The best areas to catch fish during fall and winter months are channel edges with structure at 10 to 20 feet deep, and in deeper sloughs and steep banks along Patsaliga Creek. By the spring time, anglers usually have good success fishing among submerged structure in the back of coves in the reservoir and along Patsaliga Creek.

Largemouth bass, bluegill, and redear sunfish (shellcracker) were sampled by electrofishing at Point A in April of 2007. Bass were still found to be growing slower than in most Alabama reservoirs. The biggest change from past samples was that annual mortality for bass was at 62%. This was nearly twice as high as previous samples, and is probably attributed in part to the drastic drawdown in 2005. The bluegill population was also composed mainly of smaller fish than was observed in previous samples. This was likely due to heavy mortality of adult bluegill during the 2005 drawdown. The bluegill would have spawned heavily in 2006 to fill the void after the lake was refilled, which resulted in a smaller than normal bluegill population observed in 2007. Redear sunfish (shellcrackers) do not appear to be as impacted by the drawdown. Shellcracker were fairly abundant, with many fish in the 8- to 10- inch size range. A spring creel survey confirmed this observation, with several anglers harvesting limits of nice shellcrackers. One interesting observation from the creel survey was that many anglers targeted crappie at Gantt Reservoir in the spring, but few were fishing for crappie at Point A. Most of these crappie anglers had been successful. Point A should be a good destination for crappie fishing in 2008.

Bass - Largemouth bass are fairly numerous but small. Most bass are 10- to 14- inches long, but a few bass over 21 inches are present. Largemouth bass appear to be more abundant in the sloughs and creeks on the west side and upper end of the reservoir.Crappie - Black crappie and white crappie are both present.  Fall sampling indicated that the crappie population was moderately abundant, with most fish in the 9- to 12-inch size class. Catfish - Channel catfish are the most common species.  Large flathead catfish are occasionally caught by trotline anglers using live fish for bait. Bluegill – Bluegill are fairly abundant along submerged shoreline cover throughout the lake.  Worms and crickets generally work well throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Shellcrackers (Redear sunfish) – Due to the abundance of snails and mussels, quality redear sunfish are common in Point A Reservoir.  Anglers often report good success fishing wigglers around cypress trees and weed beds throughout the spring and fall.

Contact the Fisheries Section's District IV office for specific questions about Point A Reservoir.