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Home › Waters › Alabama › Lake Tuscaloosa
Lake · Tuscaloosa County, the city-owned water-supply reservoir impounding North River above Tuscaloosa · Alabama

Lake Tuscaloosa Fishing Guides

A large city-owned water-supply reservoir on North River above Tuscaloosa, with good ramp access and a deep, clear main lake holding largemouth, spotted bass and crappie.

The bow of a boat on flat reservoir water in early light
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Lake Tuscaloosa

Lake Tuscaloosa is not a federal reservoir, and that single fact shapes almost everything about fishing it. The City of Tuscaloosa built the dam on North River at the end of the 1960s to secure its own drinking water, and the city still owns and manages the lake. The practical consequence is that the rules here are municipal as well as state, and anyone launching a boat should check the city’s own requirements rather than assuming the usual arrangements apply.

The lake covers roughly nine square miles when full and reaches well up North River and its tributary creeks north of the city. Because its job is water supply rather than flood control or power, it is held far more stable than a Corps or utility impoundment, and it runs clearer and deeper than most Alabama reservoirs of its size. Those two characteristics together make it a genuinely pleasant lake to fish and a slightly technical one, since clear water pushes fish deeper and makes them harder to fool in bright conditions.

Largemouth bass are the main draw, with a good population of spotted bass in the deeper, rockier main-lake water and up toward the dam. Crappie are numerous and hold on standing timber and around the bridges, bream fishing along the shoreline is excellent through the early summer, and catfish, including large blues and flatheads, use the channel. White bass run the upper river arms in spring.

The gauge reports gage height, reservoir elevation and rainfall, but no water temperature. For a clear, thermally stratified lake that is the one series worth having and not having, so anglers relying on temperature to find summer fish will need a boat-mounted gauge. Elevation is still useful, since shoreline cover and ramp usability both change with pool level.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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Pool right now

221.08ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.05 ft → steady
  • For the dateLow for the date

Reading taken 32 min ago at USGS 02464800, LAKE TUSCALOOSA NEAR TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Lake Tuscaloosa.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Lake Tuscaloosa ft (NGVD29)

Now: 221.08 ft pool elevation, read 5:15 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 02464800, LAKE TUSCALOOSA NEAR TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Binion Creek Landing - a well-used public ramp on the lake's west side with parking and a courtesy dock.
Tierce Patton Landing - a second public launch giving access to the middle of the lake and the creek arms.
Rock Quarry area - popular main-lake shoreline and deeper water toward the dam, good for spotted bass.
North River arm - the upper end of the lake, shallower and stained, where the spring white bass run sets up.
Tuscaloosa - the city immediately south, with full services, tackle shops and guides.
Lake Nicol - a small city-owned lake nearby, a quiet alternative for bank fishing.
Holt Lake - the Black Warrior River impoundment below the city, the usual pairing for a longer trip.

Seasons

Spring: the best fishing of the year, with bass spawning in the creek arms, crappie shallow and white bass running the river.
Summer: clear and stratified, with bass and crappie holding deep and the shoreline bream fishing at its peak early and late.
Fall: cooling water pulls bass back up to chase bait in the creeks, and crappie fishing picks up again around structure.
Winter: cold and very clear, with spotted bass deep near the dam and slow but reliable crappie fishing on timber.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lake Tuscaloosa?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Bream, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Longear Sunfish, Longnose Gar, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Bass, Warmouth, White Bass, White Crappie on the Lake Tuscaloosa in Alabama.

Where can you access the Lake Tuscaloosa?

Binion Creek Landing - a well-used public ramp on the lake's west side with parking and a courtesy dock. Tierce Patton Landing - a second public launch giving access to the middle of the lake and the creek arms. Rock Quarry area - popular main-lake shoreline and deeper water toward the dam, good for spotted bass. North River arm - the upper end of the lake, shallower and stained, where the spring white bass run sets up. Tuscaloosa - the city immediately south, with full services, tackle shops and guides. Lake Nicol - a small city-owned lake nearby, a quiet alternative for bank fishing. Holt La...

When is the best time to fish the Lake Tuscaloosa?

Spring: the best fishing of the year, with bass spawning in the creek arms, crappie shallow and white bass running the river. Summer: clear and stratified, with bass and crappie holding deep and the shoreline bream fishing at its peak early and late. Fall: cooling water pulls bass back up to chase bait in the creeks, and crappie fishing picks up again around structure. Winter: cold and very clear, with spotted bass deep near the dam and slow but reliable crappie fishing on timber.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lake Tuscaloosa?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Alabama agency site: https://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater-fishing-regulations