Doug Nelms
March 20, 2004
Lake Oconee - Freshwater Fishing Report
Water Temp 58
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you have ever wanted to catch a trophy hybrid bass, NOW IS THE TIME. Don’t wait for the dogwoods to bloom, or the moon to change, or the vernal equinox, just get to Lake Oconee and have a blast.
Over the past few days the parties fishing with me have boated over 150 hybrids, ranging from 4 pounds to 9 ½ pounds. These fish are mean, full of eggs and hitting just about everything you can put in front of them. You will find them at Little Stone Mountain, River Bend, and the GA Power Park at the dam. If you don’t know where any of those areas are, just go to the barrels at the dam and get in line with the boat brigade.
They are biting down lined and free lined shad, minnows, sassy shad, and just about anything that moves with a little color on it. The bite has been the best when GA Power is pulling the water and right now there is no prediction about when that happens. In the afternoon we are seeing the water turn up and HUGE line sides chase shad to the top of the water.
We are catching them off Striper Point, Evans Point (as we locals fondly call it, may Mr. Evans rest in peace) and the boathouse.
The best thing I can tell you is that it is on, right now, wide open. Come on down and lets catch a big one.
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!
