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Lake Oconee, Madison Georgia

Doug Nelms
May 29, 2003
Lake Oconee - Freshwater Fishing Report

Water Temp 76*

With the water temperature reaching the high 70’s the fish in Oconee will be heading for their summertime hunting grounds very soon. Not to despair, fellow anglers, they have to eat and we can catch them.

For all of the guys looking for hybrids, think about transition areas. Anywhere shallow water quickly drops of into deep water is where you will find the fish. Places like Flagpole Point come to mind. This week I counted 13 boats floating off this point and waiting for the hybrids and white bass to school. When they do school you can catch them each and every cast. Some guys work the shallow water with ½ oz. White rooster tails and pick fish up in the deeper water. Flagpole’s bottom rises from around 40 to 50 feet right up to 8 feet. If you set your boat up just off the point so you can throw over the shallow part you will have no problem catching them. Popping corks trailed with flies or popping things are the basic arsenals for this schooling fish. If you attach that lure to a light line Zebco 33, you can cast it a mile!

There are other places where these fish will show up over the next few weeks. You will see them around Goat Island at Sugar Creek, the pipeline off of Great Waters and around the bank at Port Armor golf course. If you want to take kids fishing there is no better time to do it. Just get rigged up, get in your boat in the late afternoon and ride until you find what looks like piranha attacking a small mammal. Stay outside the melee and throw over into it. EVERY CAST, BOOM!

Right now we are chasing the line sides with live bait and finding them can be a challenge but we are still managing. Once again look for deep water and don’t let the school fish cause you to get off your plans. If the small white bass and hybrids are feeding, you can be sure the big ones are somewhere close doing the same thing. Find them and drop a shad or bass minnow down to them and hang on!

The summer time pattern is starting and we should be in for some great fishing for the next few months. Hope to see you on the lake.

Doug Nelms

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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!

Contact Info:

Fishing Oconee
1230 Apalachee Woods Tr.
Buckhead, GA 30625
Phone: 770-354-0300
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