Why I like to fish Oliver Lake when Alabama’s playing football with Jalen Conner

Fishing in Tuscaloosa County

Editor’s Note: 27-year-old Jalen Conner is a native of Tuscaloosa and has been fishing in Tuscaloosa County’s Holt Reservoir for eight years. A criminal justice student at Tuscaloosa’s Stillman College, Conner fishes two tournament trails – the S.A.B.A and the Jim Austin.

I like to fish the lower end of Oliver Lake during football season, when the University of Alabama plays its home games because the water in that section of the Black Warrior River tends to be a little-more stained at that time of the year. When most people are either at Alabama football games or deer hunting here in Alabama, my fishing coach and I can catch spotted bass all day long at Oliver. We may be the only boat on that section of the river at that time of the year.

We like to fish the creek mouths in the Moundville section of the Black Warrior River. When currents coming through Oliver Lake in the fall, bass like to hold in the creek mouths at that time of the year. They’ll be feeding on shad and worms being brought to them by the upriver current. We can consistently catch 2–3-pound spotted bass and often even bigger spotted bass in the fall at Oliver.