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Help with Marinas and Lakes in North Alabama

ElJefe

ElJefe

Well-Known Member
Messages
17
Reaction score
7
Points
62
Boat Make
Scarab
Year
2018
Boat Model
Wake
Boat Length
21
Howdy! We just finished moving from Michigan down to Decatur, AL. Glad to be back in the south. Since it's not snowing here I'm looking working to get the boat ready and out on the water.

We're close enough to Lewis Smith Lake, Lake Guntersville, and the Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake?) to make any of them an option...I think. Would love some experienced guidance from someone familiar with the area. We have teenagers so we're usually towing someone (wake surf/board or tubing) and occassionally trying to find a spot to cool off. Any recommendations on marinas and lakes would be greatly appreciated.
 
I’m also in North Alabama, but spend most of my time at Tim’s Ford Lake in TN.

Smith Lake: only put my boat in the water once there, but can’t say anything bad about it. The water is clean and deep. Big lake with plenty of quiet spots to anchor and relax. I’ve been considering putting my camper at one of the campgrounds there


Guntersville: another good choice. You’ll find more fishing happening here. Water isn’t the cleanest and the grass is often a problem in the shallow areas. Honeycomb campground is nice if you want to make a weekend out of it.

If it were me, I wouldn’t put my boat in the water anywhere in Decatur or downstream of there. You might want to do some research on what the 3M plant there has been dumping in the water, plus the well known issue the city of Decatur has with sewage runoff into the river. I put my old boat (Bayliner) in the water there, and it came out with some funky brown staining on the gel coat that I could never get quite clean.

Hope that helps.
 
I'm in Decatur also. Welcome to AL. We boat on Wheeler Lake mostly, put in at Ingalls Harbor and then head up river towards Huntsville. There are calmer waters up river and you get upstream of all the industrial areas.

We've gone to Smith Lake a few times and love it. Really clear and really deep water, as in you'll just be scooting along and all of a sudden your depth guage goes blank - deep water. You'll need a chartplotter for smith lake, or remember to drop a pin on your phones map to mark the boat launch. There's lots of fingers that go off in many directions, very easy to get turned around.

Tim's Ford is great too. I've only been there once with a friend, but the lake is nice.
 
There’s a member map feature on the toolbar at the top, it shows you where everybody is at on this forum. I know there are many folks in the N Alabama area on here, I’m sure they will chime in with recommendations!
 
I'm originally from Decatur but moved to Florida back in 02. I second what people say about Smith Lake. Clean water. I fished in lake Guntersville a lot and like it too, but prefer Smith Lake for watersports.
 
I appreciate the info here. How long once you put in at Ingalls does it take to get to a place thats good for water sports?
 
10-20 minutes
 
@El Jefe well are you loving it over there?
 
We are having a pretty great time. Keeping the boat out on Smith Lake. We've only missed a couple weekends so far.
 
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