Fishing forecast for Birmingham, AL

Birmingham anglers fish two Alabama Power lakes on the Coosa River that are operated in different ways. Logan Martin, about 30 miles east of the city, is a storage lake drawn down from late fall into winter and normally returned to summer pool in spring. Lay Lake, thirty-five minutes south off I-65, is a run-of-river lake with a fairly consistent level year round. On both, largemouth bass and Alabama bass, which the state's lake pages still call spotted bass, are the main draw.

Best fishing times in Birmingham this week

Majors run an hour either side of the moon crossing the meridian over Birmingham, AL; minors, half an hour either side of moonrise and moonset. Where those widths come from: best fishing times and how we compute these times.

When these windows are not the right tool

Solunar theory is John Alden Knight's 1926 prediction; the ±60 and ±30 minute widths are convention, not calculation. The times are computed astronomy, the claim that fish feed inside them is not. The day rating follows moon phase — identical nationwide, so every city shows it the same. A moving front beats the moon: apps that read pressure.

Where to fish in Birmingham

This page is built around Logan Martin, with Lay Lake (Coosa) in reach — fresh water, about 40 minutes from the middle of Birmingham.

Logan Martin Dam spills into the upper end of Lay Lake, which ADCNR describes as essentially a flooded channel north of Beeswax Creek. On Lay, the agency sends spotted bass anglers to the riverine portions of the lake and finds the best largemouth fishing in creeks and shallow water sloughs.

Logan Martin covers 15,263 acres and stretches 48.5 miles up the Coosa from its dam to Neely Henry Dam. ADCNR's lake page says striped bass and hybrid striped bass are stocked there at three to five fish per acre each year, and rates largemouth bass growth as excellent and spotted bass growth as good to excellent.

Alabama Power Company impounded Lay Lake in 1914. ADCNR puts the reservoir at 12,000 acres, bordering St. Clair, Talladega, Shelby, Coosa and Chilton counties, lists hydroelectric generation and recreation as its primary uses, and counts seven public access areas with bank and boat access.

The nearest grids we publish are Atlanta, GA (225 km, Lake Lanier) and New Orleans, LA (503 km, Lake Pontchartrain). Different water, and different minutes.

What you can catch in Birmingham

State listings put these 6 fish in the water around Birmingham. Plan around the peak, not the open season.

The spotted bass on the state's Coosa lake pages are Alabama bass, Micropterus henshalli: ADCNR notes that in 2008 Baker and colleagues raised the upper Mobile basin form to full species status. Redeye bass, Micropterus coosae, also called Coosa bass, are a different fish that lives in small to medium upland streams and only rarely in large rivers and impoundments.

ADCNR names early spring and fall as the best crappie seasons on Logan Martin. Statewide, the agency says black crappie school up and feed in shallow water before spawning, and that they spawn from April into May.

ADCNR counts 147 fish species in the Coosa basin, several found nowhere else, such as the holiday darter and Coosa darter. The agency calls the system's snail fauna one of the most diverse in the world, with 82 of its 91 species endemic, and believes 34 of those unique species went extinct as the river was turned into a series of reservoirs.

Tackle sits outside a forecast page: start with how to catch largemouth bass.

Water temperature and season in Birmingham

Air here swings 36.8 °F across the year, from 44.7 °F in January to 81.5 °F in July. No gauge measures water temperature here, so the chart below is air only.

Monthly climate for Birmingham, AL. The air line is the NOAA NCEI climate normal for 1991–2020 — the thirty-year average of a calendar month, not the weather of any one year — measured at BIRMINGHAM AP, AL US (USW00013876), 7.2 km from the middle of town, with 28–29 of the thirty years behind each month. No gauge measures water temperature here, so this chart is air only. Water lags air by weeks and the lag grows with depth — a deep reservoir turns later than a shallow bay — so air is never a stand-in for a thermometer in the water. Read into this site on 2026-09-14.

October is the driest month in the normal year at the airport, 3.34 inches, and March the wettest at 5.66. That rain falls on one gauge, though, not across the Coosa basin that feeds these lakes, and Logan Martin's level follows Alabama Power's winter drawdown and spring refill rather than a wet month in town. Read the rainfall column as weather at the ramp, not as a forecast for the lakes.

Sunrise, sunset and daylight in Birmingham

The moon window moves daily; the sun does not. Plan a season against this block.

The longest day of 2026 is June 21, 14h 23m; the shortest, December 21, 9h 56m. The meridian passing drifts about 50 minutes later daily: a dawn window this week is an afternoon window in a fortnight.

ADCNR says water level and flow on Logan Martin are controlled by power generation at Logan Martin Dam. In summer, according to the agency, striped bass feed in the main river channel while the dam is generating and hold in spring-fed creeks and springs when it is not.

ADCNR rates bream as a good summer fishery on Lay Lake, in creeks with woody cover and around weed beds. Statewide, the agency gives redear sunfish a spawning season from late April to early June.

Striped, white and hybrid bass make annual spring runs upriver on Logan Martin, and ADCNR says many are caught near Neely Henry Dam in March and April. Statewide, the agency puts striped bass spawning from late March through April and rates striped bass angling best in the cool months and in tailwaters.

License and seasons in Alabama

Rules for Alabama come from Outdoor Alabama, and the calculation behind the table is set out in how we compute these times.