Mr and my girlfriend will be making our first trip to Lake Athens this Saturday for her birthday. I was looking for any pointers or tips that anyone would like to share. Not looking for exact locations or baits but more along the lines of a general starting point. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

The schoolers suck, I would ignore them. Use s frog around pads and c rig on main lake points

Be there at 5:30am

I'll give you a map with 4 of them marked on it.
And with the baits to use

Lots of Grass, so fish the edges of the grass. Weightless trickworms, C-Rig watermelon rattlesnakes, and drop shot a plum colored finesse worm. Fish points, but cast out in the 6 to 8 foot depth while your boat is in 18 fow. Not a lot of shallow water fish unless your flippin Lilly Pads, Water is ultra clear, so get you some 14lb or less florocarbon. I just love that lake. Give us a report when you get back.

And listen to anything Nutman tells you.

What he said

Ive caught a few t rig light bullet weight grande rattlesnake 4 to 10 ft weeds.

Nutman must know everything about that lake lol. It's a good lake with a lot of fish. Shouldn't have a problem catching an over or two!!

Nutman I need to find you next time I am out there. Of course I made the mistake of spending all morning trying to get the schoolers to bite.

the schools and the size of the fish in the schools seems to be smaller this year. Either way, they won't eat what I throw at them.

I can usually catch a few in/around the grass on weightless Granda Bass Snake-O in green pumpkin. A purple trick worm works pretty good too. It is a fun lake, enjoy.

Good choices,,,,.
Morning dawn, Aaron's magic, purple white tail
Before sunup: black or black with blue fleck

Look for those weed beds near drops or deep water

I'm guessing from this thread that Lake Athens is open. Can you tell me where the public boat ramps are located? May have to try this one out.

if you get into the schoolers you have a better chance if you go "small". When I have caught them they have been spitting up real small shad 1 & 1/2 inch to 2 inches is all. I have been catching them on a tiny torpedo and real small swim baits. A 1/8 oz spinnerbait will laso get them to bite. Any bigger and they are picky.

if you fished at Athens Saturday or today (Sunday) and didn't catch a bunch, something was wrong with your worm, frog or buzzbait. It was a lot of fun out there this weekend. Going to miss it for a while.

There's only 1 ramp. but the fishing has been very slow lately. It will pick up in a few weeks after cold fronts, but right now it sucks. I'd go elsewhere if I were you.