Doug Nelms
October 19, 2005
Lake Oconee - Freshwater Fishing Report
Water temp 77 degrees
Stained all the way to the dam.
Finally! Fishing season has broken and the hybes have recovered from the dog days of summer. According to my latest 2 trips it looks like this may be a wild fall and winter season.
Last year on this date the water temp in River Bend was a perfect 70 degrees. Today it is 78-79, which means things are going to be a little slower getting started up. This explains why the fish have been so hard to find. I met several anglers last week who lamented about the lack of fishing being caught. They were right! It has been horrible. But a large group of hybes showed up at the lower end of the lake last Saturday and they have been hanging out ever since.
We have been catching 10 to 15 on half day trips and some of these fish will go over 5 pounds; we even caught a few of them throwing top water with a big spook. Since their main appetite is small butter-bean shad, I am using the large bass minnows and having great results with them. You will need about 3 dozen for a half day and you can find them at Sugar Creek Marina. Flat-line the bait about 50 feet behind your boat and watch your graph. You will see the big boomerangs stacked up and when you do, get ready. When the sun gets up I switch to down-lines and it seems that 12 feet was the magic number over the last few trips.
There is nothing more fun than everyone in your boat working on a 5 pound crazed hybrid, unless you are the guide having to keep order and sanity! Give me a call and we will go get crazy!
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!
