Doug Nelms
July 3, 2007
Lake Oconee - Freshwater Fishing Report
July 3, 2007
Water is 85 degrees.
The summer time fishing pattern is here and we are slaying the hybrids on Lake Oconee. Right now I would not worry about throwing the cast net for bait, when you can catch all of them on a goober rig. Yes I said a goober rig, and for the record I didn’t come up with the name of the thing. Maybe we should take a vote and rename it.
Anyhow you cannot pull one across the hayfields without catching a couple of hybrids each and every pass. No kidding. One of my friends who guides on Oconee did really well a few weeks ago. The customer asked, “Are we really going to catch fish with these silly things?” “Of course we are!” the guide replied.
The customer rolled his eyes in disbelief to which the guide responded. ‘I’ll tell you what; if we don’t catch your limit of hybrids and stripers, this trip wont cost you a penny. If we do catch a limit, you owe me double.” The client agreed with the insanity and at the end of the day my buddy was counting 6 Benjamin’s instead of 3!
You want to troll over the hump at Sugar Creek right now and the bite has been really good in the afternoon during water movement. This is a great time to go, call me if you are interested.
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!
