Doug Nelms
January 14, 2003
Lake Oconee - Freshwater Fishing Report
Lake Lanier/Stripers
Water Temp 48.5
The bite at Lanier is getting better all of the time. Went fishing Friday in Flat Creek and we did all right, I guess. I (accidentally) caught some of the biggest blue back herring that I have ever netted. I blind threw the net without seeing bait on the screen and picked up some around 8 inches long. If you want blue backs you need to be there before the sun comes up and you need to throw a big, heavy net. It seems to me that when it the sun comes up, everyone has a hard time catching them.
We pulled free-lines and down-lines throughout the morning and we landed 3 fish, 12, 18, and 15 pounder respectively. I thought the afternoon bite would be really good and we waited, but with no luck. I did not see any stripers schooling in F.C. and actually I think it is still a little early.
All of our fish came on flat-lines (which surprised me) and the 18 pounder blew up on the poor BB and knocked him out of the water. I was retying a line when it happened and it sounded like someone dropped a stove in the water. We got to the rod in just the nick of time!
Again, I think it is still a little early, due to the fact that we didn’t mark a lot of fish there, but if you go now there is a great chance you will pick up one or two, here and there. I know there are three nice ones still there because we released all 3 in great shape!
Doug has been guiding on Lake Oconee for over 10 years. His specialty is trophy Striped and Hybrid Bass, and huge Crappie during certain months. His boat is a Ranger 2300 Bay Series powered by a 225 Yamaha 4-stroke motor. It is spacious and can fish up to 6 people! Lake Oconee is the second largest reservoir in the state of Georgia with over 18,000 surface acres of water. The lake is heavily stocked each year with Striped and Hybrid Bass. Doug tries to catch all of them!
