Monthly Archives: May 2013

How and Where To Catch Stripers, Hybrids and White Bass Near Atlanta

I caught this Lanier striper on a jerk bait

There are some sleek, swift fish swimming in waters near Atlanta that will stretch your string like no other freshwater fish. Stripers, white bass and hybrids fight harder than other fish you can hook in Allatoona and Lanier and this time of year is a great time to catch them.

White bass, stripers and hybrids are all closely related and are in the Morone family of fish. They are true bass, unlike black bass that are actually in the sunfish family. White bass are a freshwater species, stripers are a saltwater fish that spawns in fresh water and hybrids are a man-made cross between the two.

White bass are not native to Georgia waters but have been stocked here since Allatoona and Lanier filled. They can reproduce naturally in both lakes so they are no longer stocked. The average size is about a pound but they get much bigger. The world record white bass weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was caught in Virginia in 1989. They fight hard on light tackle and are good to eat.

Striped bass run up Georgia rivers to spawn from both the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. They can live in freshwater year-round and have been stocked in many of our lakes, including Lanier and Allatoona. They can not reproduce naturally in either lake so all stripers in them are stocked fish. Lanier and Allatoona get two to three stripers per acre each year.

Stripers get big. The record land-locked striped bass weighted 67 pounds, 8 ounces and was caught in California in 1992. They are extremely hard fighters and will test your tackle with long, strong runs.

Hybrids are a cross between a white bass and a striped bass. At Georgia fish hatcheries eggs are taken from stripes and mixed with sperm from white bass. The fry are grown to a few inches long then released into our lakes, usually in larger numbers that the stripers. They can not reproduce naturally. Hybrids are not stocked in Lanier.

The daily limit on white bass, stripers and hybrids at both Allatoona and Lanier is 15 fish in any combination. Only two of the 15 may be longer than 22 inches. There is no minimum size limit and the upper limit was set to protect bigger stripers.

White bass are the easiest of the three species to catch and stripers are the most difficult. Although hybrids are sterile and can’t reproduce, and stripers don’t have enough moving water in Allatoona or Lanier to spawn successfully, all three species make spawning runs up the rivers and creeks and this is an excellent time to catch them.

Lanier and Allatoona are similar in some ways and tactics for catching linesides will work on both, but there are some differences, too. Try the following to catch these fish now.

Allatoona

Lake Allatoona is an 11,860 acre Corps of Engineers lake on the Etowah River about 30 miles north of Atlanta. It gets heavy boat traffic but spring is a good time to fish it. Since it has all three species of linesides you can concentrate on one or try for all three during a fishing trip.

White bass are plentiful and can be caught in a variety of ways. Although the population suffered from the low water levels in the past few years they seem to be making a strong come-back. Spawning runs up both the Etowah and Little River arms of the lake should be good this year.

In March and April the whites make runs up the rivers feeding the lake and the fishing is fast. Early in the spring try trolling small jigs and spinners around points where the rivers start to narrow down. Troll at different speeds and depths, using a variety of colors to see what the fish want.

As the water warms move further up the rivers. White bass often go as far up the rivers as they can so you can find them stacked up in deeper holes. Cast small jigs like Hal Flies, spinners like Rooster Tails and small crankbaits and work them with the current. Try to cast to shallow water and work back to deeper water. Vary your speed to make the lures work different depths.

Use light tackle. It is easier to throw the small jigs and spinners that white bass prefer and they will give you a better fight. Keep your drag set light so if you happen to hook a hybrid or stripers you can let it run and play it, giving you a chance to land a big fish on light line.

Stripers will also move into the rivers in the spring and you can catch them in similar places. Use bigger baits for bigger fish, switching to a bucktail or curly tail grub three or four inches long for trolling or casting. An even better bet for stripers is live bait. Catch some shad in a cast net and slow troll them along point drops and outside bends in the river.

When trolling always watch your depthfinder. You will often see balls of baitfish that will let you know you are in the right areas, and you can spot the bigger fish hanging under them. Seeing the stripers under the baitfish lets you know they are there and also tells you how deep to fish.

The low water levels over the past few years have reduced the numbers of bigger stripers but increased stocking means there are more three to five pound fish available. The Georgia DNR has been stocking stripers at a 2.5 fish per acre rate to bring the numbers up and these fish will grow and produce bigger fish each year.

The same tactics that catch stripers will work for hybrids and they will take big baits like the stripers. Another good area to look for all three species is near the dam. For some reason these fish will stack up near the dam in the spring. It seems they move toward the current there. Hybrids are especially attracted to deep points just above the dam where they can be caught on live bait or jigs dropped down to them.

An effective way to catch hybrids is to tie a 3/0 hook 18 inches below a swivel. Above the swivel have a one ounce sinker on your line. Hook on a live shad or big shiner and drop the bait straight down. Slow troll the baits, moving so slowly the line stays straight down, along river channels and long main lake points. Put several rods out in rod holders and cover different depths. When you hit a school of hybrids the action will keep you hopping from rod to rod.

Increased stocking of hybrids has brought the numbers of them up and the DNR says Allatoona should be one of the best hybrid lakes in the state now. Most fish will be two to three pounds this year but there are also good numbers of five to eight pound fish you can catch.

One of the most exciting ways to catch Allatoona hybrids, stripers and white bass is to fish the “jumps” when the fish are chasing baitfish on top. You can often follow gulls as they wheel and dive to pick up injured bait from the surface. On calm days you can ride and watch for splashes as the linesides tear into bait on the surface.

Keep different size jigs and spoons rigged. When you spot a school on top you won’t know which species it is until you catch some and you want to throw smaller baits to the white bass. Sometimes a hybrid or striper will prefer a smaller bait, too.

Start out with a big spoon, jig or topwater since you can cast it further and stay will back from the school. Work in to it and try smaller baits as you get close, especially if you are not getting hits on the bigger baits. Don’t get right in the middle of the school since that will put them down. Try to see which way the school is moving and stay out from them keeping up as they move along.

Warmer weather means it is more comfortable to fish at night this time of year. Tie up under a bridge or anchor on a main lake point near the river channel, hang a lantern over the side and drop live bait down to different depths. As the fish move up the rivers on the spawning run and then back down them you can catch a lot of fish when a school moves by.

Bridges are good because they form a “squeeze” point to force the fish into a smaller area. Long points on narrow sections of the lake do the same. Watch your deptfinder for the depth the fish are at but try baits at different depths until the fish tell you what they want.

Lanier

Lake Lanier is a 38,000 acre Corps of Engineers lake on the Chattahoochee River about 40 miles north-east of Atlanta. Boat traffic makes it almost unfishable on the main lake on weekends and it gets worse as the weather warms. You can still catch stripers and white bass there if you can put up with the crowds.

The white bass run up the Chattahoochee River is almost legendary at Lanier but low water has hurt it during the past few years and the presence of blueback herring has devastated it. The fish have less successful spawns when the lake is very low and the ones that do spawn have most of their eggs eaten by blueback herring.

The state record 5 pound, 1 ounce white bass was caught in Lake Lanier in 1971 so it can produce some big white bass. . Light tackle is the way to go to take advantage of these hard fighting but smaller fish. Unfortunately, with the numbers of bluebacks that are very efficient at eating white bass eggs, the downward spiral in the white bass population is likely to get worse.

Head up the river until it gets very shallow. For years anglers ran up above the Lula Bridge but now you will find shallows far from it. Work deeper holes near shallow bars and points with small baits for white bass running up the river. Keep moving until you find fish. Watch for any activity in the water that tells you fish are present.

If you fish often enough you can find the schools of white bass and follow them as they move up the river then back down. Or if you find a productive point up the river you can stick with it and rely on new schools of fish coming up and restocking the area. A small boat helps get to places that are inaccessible by bigger boats but hold large numbers of fish.

Lanier is known for its big stripers and 30 pound plus fish are caught every year. The DNR says there is an abundance of two to 10 pound stripers and a good supply of 10 to 15 pound fish in the lake. The introduction of blueback herring has made this baitfish the choice of stripers and striper fishermen. You can buy live bluebacks or net them yourself.

Slow troll or drift a seven inch blueback on a tight line below a sinker and swivel and use a 3/0 hook. Locate the schools of stripers under balls of baitfish and drop your bait down just below the school of bait. Make it look like an injured herring that is separated from the school and an easy target.

Look for the stripers above Brown’s Bridge this time of year. They will make a spawning run up the river and then back toward the main lake in the spring. You can drift live bait or troll big plugs and bucktails for them over main lake points near the channel to find the schools of fish.

Fishing the jumps at Lanier will often produce big stripers. Watch for birds and surface activity and cast to fish, staying well back from the activity. A jerk bait or bucktail will work but try a double bait rig, too. Tie a small bait like a front runner or small topwater plug on your main line then run a three foot leader to a big plug like a Zara Spook.

Working the double bait rig looks like a fish chasing a smaller fish and will drive the stripers crazy. You can sometimes get a double hook-up, too. A popping cork with a fly behind it also casts a long way and works well. For added excitement add two flies on separate leaders behind the cork. If you hook one fish you will often see others chasing it trying to get the bait from it. With a trailing fly on the double bait rig a second fish will often hit. You may be able to land two at the time.

Sometimes white bass are schooling alone or with the stripers and the smaller bait is more likely to catch them. Also, when the schooling activity stops on the surface you can often catch more fish by easing around watching your depthfinder in the area where the fish were on top.

The stripers and whites will often go down and hold in the tops of standing timber or on nearby points. When you spot them on your depthfinder get over them and drop a live bait or bucktail down to them. If they are suspended count your bait down to the depth they are holding and fish it there. If the fish are near the bottom drop your bait down and hop it in one place.

If the fish don’t hit, try downsizing your bait. Sometimes a big striper will eat a 1/8 ounce jig after ignoring a bucktail or big spoon when they are not real active. They always have a hard time ignoring a live herring no matter what mood they are in.

Night fishing under all the bridges on the Chattahoochee can be very good this time of year, too. The bridges often look like a small city from a distance with all the lights under them so arrive early to get a good spot.

Tie up, put your lantern and baits over the side and relax until a school of fish give you all the action you can handle. Good rod holders are a must and a reel with a clicker on it will allow you time to get to the rod and get it out of the holder before setting the hook. A big striper can hook itself and put so much pressure on the rod it is hard to get out of the holder.

Give both Lanier and Allatoona a try this spring for linesides or concentrate on one lake and learn its secrets. You can catch them a lot of different ways and the fishing is good day and night for several weeks on both lakes.

Bass Fishing Middle Size Lakes In Georgia

I can catch a bass!

Fishing for Bass In Middle-Sized Georgia Lakes

Choices, choices. Fishermen in the central part of Georgia might have a hard time deciding where to go fishing this summer. From big lakes to farm ponds and from rivers to middle sized lakes we have many choices. Pick one of the mid-sized lakes in this part of the state and you will find willing bass. You may also find calm waters and relatively peaceful fishing.

In middle Georgia High Falls, Juliette and Tobesofkee offer excellent fishing but two of them have special motor restrictions you must follow. Those restrictions translate into calmer fishing but make it more difficult to cover water if you are used to zooming around in a fast bass boat.

Head to middle Georgia this month and fish one of these lakes. Each has differing cover, structure and age classes of bass so you can pick what you like best. Or fish all three for a variety of fishing experiences.

High Falls

High Falls is about two miles east of I-75 north of Forsyth. It is an old Georgia Power lake of 650 acres and all of it is a state park. The lake is closed from sundown to sunrise to boats and has very restricted bank access. Motors are limited to 10 horsepower or less but boats with bigger motors may be used if the motor is not cranked. State size and creel limits apply to the largemouth bass in the lake.

Located on the Towaliga River, High Falls is a very fertile lake and the largemouths grow big. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division the numbers of bass in the lake has been increasing over the past several years and half of the keeper bass are over 15 inches long. High Falls ranks near the top of Georgia lakes for numbers of 15 to 25 inch bass

Ted Will, Regional Supervisor for the DNR WRD West Central Georgia Fisheries Management Division says the healthy population of largemouth coupled with the relatively low fishing pressure means you should catch good numbers of nice bass. There are many big bass in the lake so your chance of catching a quality fish is good at High Falls, too.

High Falls is shallow and most channels have filled in with silt over the years, making the bottom bowl shaped. It is full of stumps and other wood cover and that type cover is the key. Docks and brushpiles add to the amount of wood and there is a good bit of grass in the water by summertime.

Glen Jones and Tracy Parks live in the Griffin area near the lake and were childhood friends. They got back together a few years ago and fish the lake a lot with each other and with friends and family. Both have caught seven pound plus bass from High Falls. They have also fished some of the Jon boat tournament trails tournaments on the lake.

Worms are Glen’s and Tracy’s favorite baits and they fish both Texas and Carolina rigs. When fishing together they vary what each is using until the bass show them what they want. Glen likes big worms and will usually start with a Zoom Old Monster or a Chompers 10 inch worm. Tracy will rig a smaller worm like a Zoom U-Tail on his Texas rig. For Carolina rigs Glen will start with a Zoom Mag 2 and Tracy will usually start with a Zoom Trick worm.

Fish worms through and around any wood cover you can find. Most docks are on posts and have brush piles around them. Stump beds are common in many areas of the lake and you will see blowdowns on banks all around the lake. All hold bass.

Topwater baits are also good and Tracy likes a white buzz bait with Glen following up with a Chug Bug or Pop-R. Spinnerbaits and Rattle Traps will catch fish, too. All these baits are fished along grass edges and over shallow grass to draw strikes.

You can put in using the ramp at the park at the dam and work up from it. The left bank going up is lined with docks while the right bank is open. The state park campground is on the right side. Above it there are some areas with stumps and grass beds to fish. With a small motor it will take a good while to get to the area where Buck Creek, Watkins Bottom and Brushy Creek split into arms off the river.

If you put in on Buck Creek at the ramp there you will be closer to more shallow fishing. Buck Creek is full of stumps and docks not far above the ramp and bridge. Just downstream of the bridge Brushy Creek enters on the left and has good fishing around wood and grass. Out and across the Towaliga River is Watkins bottom that is similar.

One good summertime pattern is to go up the Towaliga River as far as you can. Where the lake narrows down to just river channel you will find some good flats with grass to fish and up in the channel you can flip to blowdowns and overhanging brush to catch some big largemouth. Many tournaments are won on that pattern. Just make sure you leave plenty of time to be back at the ramp and off the lake by sundown.

Juliette

Lake Juliette is a 3600 acre Georgia Power lake about 15 miles east of I-75 and Forsyth. It provides water for coal fired Plant Scherer and has little inflow from Rum Creek so the water stays very clear. Juliette is filled each spring by pumping water from the nearby Ocmulgee River. Since the water is so clear grass grows all over the lake and down to surprising depths.

Standing timber was left when the lake was built. On the lower lake it was topped out well below the surface in most areas but the upper lake is filled with stumps right at the high water line. You must follow the channel in that area.

Motors are limited to 25 horsepower on Juliette but you can put in boats with bigger motors if you don’t crank them. The lake is too big to effectively fish with just a trolling motor, though. Much of the best summer fishing is out in open water and you can fish at night but you must be very careful due to the standing timber.

Ted Will and the WRD say the lake is infertile and populations of largemouth are lower than most middle Georgia lakes. Due to the slow growth rate there is no size limit on bass on the lake so you can keep ten bass any size. The lake is on a Wildlife Management Area but you need only a Georgia fishing license, no WMA stamp is required to fish here.

Baitfish in the lake include big gizzard shad and blueback herring. The bluebacks complete with bass fry for food and even eat them and the size of the herring and gizzard shad means it is tough for a small bass to grow to a size big enough to eat them. This may create long term problems for the lake but right now there are more than enough bass fry and small bass in the lake.

Although populations of bass are low there are good numbers of quality bass in the lake. About one-fourth of the bass are 15 inch long or longer and average bass caught weigh about a pound and a half. Monster bass weighing 12 to 16 pounds have been caught from the lake and it is not unusual for a tournament limit of five bass to weigh 20 pounds at the monthly tournaments on the lake.

The timber and the grass combine to offer lots of cover for bass and they are key to catching them. Grass lines form in deep water and standing timber with the grass just improves the fishing. The blueback herring in the lake mean bass are oriented to the surface during the summer.

Chad Hitt grew up in Forsyth and he and his father fish together in the monthly tournament at Juliette. They have been consistent in their catches and last year through nine months they had a 3.2 pound average for the fish they weighed in. Their best five-fish limit in a tournament weighed 17.66 pounds and their biggest bass was a 6.11 pounder. Chad’s best bass from Juliette is a 7.75 pound fish.

Bass at Juliette hold fairly deep, from 10 to 18 feet in the summer and fall, according to Chad. They hold in the grass and wood cover and will come up and eat a bait worked over them or through the cover. Topwater and worms both work well now.

Chad will start out with a topwater plug like a Pop-R or Rico and fish the grass line around the bank. There is often a visible grass line where the hydrilla grows up to the surface then drops off. There will be grass deeper than the line but the bass often hold near it. Fish at an angle working your popper close to this drop.

If the bass don’t want the topwater bait or after the sun gets high Chad will switch to a Texas rigged Zoom Mag 2 worm with a fairly light lead to fish through the grass. He works it slowly moving it through the grass where the bass are holding. If the bottom is clean with little grass Chad will switch to a jig head Trick worm and fish it on the bottom.

You can put in near the dam to fish the open lower end of the lake. There are many good pockets and small creeks with grass and timber in them, and the humps and shallows on the main lake are covered with grass beds. The open water in this area can get rough in a hurry when the wind gets up so be careful in small boats.

The upper end of the lake has a ramp and it is right in the standing timber. Follow the channel in this area because most of the trees have rotted off right at the high water mark. If the lake is down a little you can see many of them but if it is full it is very dangerous.

In this area fish the points and creek channels in the timber. You will see an old road bed crossing the lake between the ramp and the power plant and both ends of it can be good, too. There will usually be grass on these spots mixed in with the wood and you will need to fish it slowly and carefully to cover the places a bass will hold. Use heavy tackle so you can get them out of the wood when you hook a fish.

Tobesofkee

Lake Tobesofkee is a 1750 acre lake owned by Bibb County and located a couple of miles west of I-75 in Macon. It is ringed with houses and there are several parks open to the public on the lake. The lake gets very crowded in the summer with pleasure boaters and skiers since there are no motor restrictions.

The lake has a good bit of rock and grass cover in it and there are many brushpiles built by fishermen. The docks around the lake also add to the type of cover the bass like. State size and creel limits apply and you must have a Georgia fishing license. Access to the lake is expensive at the county operated parks.

Will says there are lots of keeper size bass in the lake and fishing has been improving for the past several years. Good spawns two and three years ago mean large numbers of those year class bass are reaching keeper size and better now. You should be able to catch a lot of 12 to 14 inch bass at Tobesofkee this summer.

Local pot tournaments move to night fishing this time of year because of the crowds during the day and the fishing is better in the dark. Weekdays are not too bad but you can hardly fish the lower lake on a pretty weekend summer day. The upper lake offers some protected shallows with grassbeds and brush that holds fish but that area is better late or early in the day as well as at night, too.

Ricky Randall has lived in the Macon area all his life and has fished Tobesofkee often. He fished with two local bass clubs and now he and his dad fish mostly pot tournaments. They often get a check at the weekly tournaments on Tobesofkee.

A few years ago Ricky and his dad had their best catch ever on the lake, seven keepers that weighed 30 pounds on a day they just went to the lake to check it out since the water was low. They have weighed in a six bass limit at just over 21 pounds in a tournament there.

Weedbeds and riprap are good places to catch bass on Tobesofkee and Ricky fishes them with a variety of baits. He will parallel the rocks with a small crankbait like a #5 or #7 Shadrap then go back along it with Trick worms and a jig and pig. The grass beds are water willow and they are fished with Trick worms, topwater and a jig and pig.

A lot of bass at Tobesofkee will hold around 14 to 15 feet deep on structure and cover out on the lake. Ricky will look for schools of shad and expects bass to be on the closest brushpile or channel drop. A big plug like a Mann’s 20 Plus, Norman DD22N or Fat Free Shad will catch them when cranked down to the depth they are holding.

You can put in near the dam at the big county park and fish all over this small lake if you have a bass boat. The creeks that go back under Mosley Dickson Road on your right as you go up the lake all have good riprap to fish as does the bridge up the river on Lower Thomaston Road. Those creeks and the structure near the mouths of them hold fish this time of year, too.

The lake will narrow down then open back up above the bridge on Lower Thomaston Road. This big area has several small feeder creeks with grass lining them and are good places to fish. They are more protected than the lower lake but skidoos and skiers still make it difficult to fish even here in the summer.

Try these mid-size lakes in the middle of Georgia for different kinds of bass fishing this summer. Explore them to find honey holes that will pay off in numbers of bass as well as some big fish, especially on High Falls. All of them will provide good fishing and you can find peace and quiet on two of them if that is what you are looking for while bass fishing.

Alabama Rig Inventor Andy Poss

The Alabama Rig and its inventor Andy Poss

Man Behind the Controversial Alabama Rig

By Brad Wiegmann
from The Fishing Wire

  Every angler has an opinion on the Alabama Rig. Even bass tournament trails are divided on sanctioning it for use during tournaments. For or against it, the Alabama Rig has changed the fishing industry, bass tournaments and one man’s life forever. 
Andy Poss, lure designer and inventor of the Alabama Rig, couldn’t have fathomed the controversy that his lure would create. Professional bass anglers are taking sides either steadfast for or adamantly against it. The debate rages on every fishing website with the naysayers claiming it will be the doom of bass fishing while other anglers point out there is no legitimate argument that it harms bass populations.

For Poss, the Alabama Rig was a lure that he had designed to catch fish like stripers, smallmouth, largemouth and other gamefish once they start feeding on shad. It was so effective that Poss once won 19 of 21 bass tournaments he entered. “Most anglers were bringing in 15 pound stringers and we would have around 28 pound stringers. We hardly ever had less than 25 pounds,” recalled Poss.

All the controversy seems strange to Poss over the Alabama Rig. “When I was 14 or so my Dad, Houston, a well-known lure designer and builder, would drop me off to go fishing in the morning at city lake and pick me back up in the afternoon. Everything about fishing was uncomplicated back then,” said Poss.

Later, Poss would make a living diving for mussels on the Tennessee River. During this time, he learned about rivers and how fish related to structure, cover and bait fish. He would use this knowledge to design and build the Alabama Rig.

Life for Poss all changed in August of 2009 when he built the first Alabama Rig–although he didn’t sell the first one until July of 2011 for $25. “I filed for a Patent on December 12, 2010 and officially filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 12, 2011. We met with Mann’s Bait Company in November of 2011 and signed a three year OEM Licensee and Trademark agreement on December 4, 2011,” recalled Poss.

Also influenced by the Alabama Rig phenomena, Seeker Rods began producing the technique specific official Alabama Rig rod with input from Poss and professional bass angler Paul Elias on the rod design.

Before signing the contract with Mann’s Bait Company, Poss and his wife Tammy did everything when it came to producing the rigs–building, taking orders and shipping. It consumed their lives and over took the house. “The house was the command center where we would build them, take the orders and package them for shipping,” explained Tammy.

Family members and friends pitched in to help out. At the peak of the selling frenzy, Poss had ten people bending wires and even that wasn’t enough to meet the demand.

Demand for the Alabama Rig brought about unbelievable prices on EBay and soon other lure builders were capitalizing on Poss’s invention.

“I saw some being sold on EBay from $99 to $600 at one point Sunday night after Paul Elias won the FLW Tour Tournament on Lake Guntersville in Alabama,” noted Poss. Through it all, Poss never changed the cost of the Alabama Rig, keeping it at $25, and built in the USA.

“We never jacked the price up to take advantage of anglers like others did during that time. We even went up to a Kentucky Lake Everstart tournament and sold them to anglers at $25 insuring that they weren’t going to be taken advantage of by tackle stores selling them at a high price,” acknowledged Poss.

Once the Alabama Rig took off, Poss put his fulltime job as a pipe fitter on hold. A union worker with all the benefits it was one of the biggest decisions he would ever make.

Now Andy and Tammy are waiting for a decision from the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the Patent they applied for back in 2010. “It’s really taken a toll on me, my family and friends. Really it’s just the uncertainty of it all that has me concerned,” Poss continued, “everyone assumes that if you designed a lure that created such a demand you would be rich or would get rich, but that’s not the reality of it.” Copycats and knock-offs in the fishing industry siphoned substantial potential and future income from Poss.

Knowing what Poss knows today, he would approach it differently next time. “If I had to do it all over again, I would build 250,000 of them along with a line of jig heads, soft plastic swimbaits, hats, shirts and other items we could sell,” insisted Poss.

Poss noted that the boost in sales directly related to terminal tackle like snaps, jig heads, swimbait hooks and swivels was just the jolt the fishing industry needed. Sales of terminal tackle was rivaled only by soft plastic lures that anglers were rigging the Alabama Rigs which require multiple swimbaits or spinnerbait blades to rig.

If Poss is issued a patent, the next phase of his life will be extremely challenging, but that’s another matter all together. Right now all Poss can do is pray and wonder while waiting for the patent outcome.

For more commentary and fishing tips, visit Brad Wiegmann’s website, http://www.bradwiegmann.com

Early Spring Striped Bass Fishing

You can catch early sprain striped bass

Conquer cold water early spring striped bass fishing with this easy technique 

from The Fishing Wire

It’s been a long winter followed by an unseasonably cold spring that has been keeping water temperatures down. These cooler temperatures have many eager striped bass fishermen suffering from a case of dampened enthusiasm. Instead of lamenting the cool days of spring, try breaking out of the doldrums with some clams.

Striped bass, like all fish, are affected by the temperature of the water that surrounds them. Cold temperatures keep a striper’s metabolic rate low. They move slower, burn fewer calories and therefore they don’t need to eat as much. They tend to gravitate toward foraging rather than actively hunting live prey, and their shortened feeding forays are very tide-dependent. When foraging, they show a preference for food sources that require less effort to digest, what veteran striper fishermen often call “soft baits.” The number one soft bait you can offer stripers in cold water, and one that will continue to produce even as water temperatures rise, is clams. A nice hunk of fresh-shucked clam on a circle hook fished on the bottom in a prime tidal area will catch early stripers – and lots of them.

Northeast striper authority, Gary Caputi, has years of experience fishing inside waters for early season stripers. Here’s what he had to say.

“Depending on weather and how fast the water temperature starts to rise, clams can produce as early as March in some areas and still be going strong well into May. This gives you almost a three-month window when clams are a top producing bait,” said Caputi. “Early season fishing starts with smaller, non-migratory bass, the ones that winter over in the waters near where they were spawned in the Mid-Atlantic. That means the estuaries surrounding the Delaware and Hudson Rivers are all prime
locations for this technique.

“In the case of the Delaware Bay, clams can produce both striped bass and bonus black drum, which move into the bay system each spring and feed on the shallow flats adjacent to channel edges. The technique is not difficult, but you will need a chum pot, which in this case is a weighted wire mesh container that gets filled with crushed clams and dropped to the bottom under your boat to attract stripers to your baited hooks. Use a good supply of clams, either whole surf clams or fresh shucked in containers, but avoid frozen as they simply do not put out that strong scent that really gets a striper’s attention,” advised Caputi.

The fun part of this type of fishing, according to Caputi, is that the angler can use very light tackle and still enjoy the fight of these smaller, but very feisty stripers. Light spinning rods or baitcasting gear is all it takes. Rigging up to fish with clams is simple.

Slip your running line through a sinker slide, also called a fishfinder rig, and then tie on a small barrel swivel to prevent the hook from sliding all the way back to the sinker. Next tie a three-foot leader of 20-or 30-pound fluorocarbon leader material to the swivel, and snell a 7/0 light-wire circle hook onto the other end. Add a one- or two-ounce bank sinker to the sinker slide, and you’re done.

“Next you have to pick some good places to fish and determine the tides for each,” Caputi said. “Tides are very important as the bass will use them as feeding windows, and they will feed most heavily on the outgoing tide when warmer water will be spilling out of the shallows.

“Just a degree or two increase in temperature is all it takes to spark a strong feeding reaction. Pick places in relatively shallow water adjacent to channels, and anchor the boat so it is still well up on the flats with the current flowing under the boat toward the deeper water. Once you’re anchored, fill the chum pot with crushed clams, shells and all. You can do this by crushing a few clams in a bucket with a piece of wood. I keep an old baseball bat handy for this purpose, but a short length of 2×4 works fine, too.”

After the chum pot is on the bottom with the line tied to a spring line cleat, it’s time to bait up. Grab a good hunk of clam, preferably with some of the belly attached, and thread it onto the circle hook. Then cast it a short distance behind the boat so that bass attracted by the chum pot will find your hook-bait first. Twenty feet back is a good distance and an easy cast for anyone. Then just settle in and wait as the tide brings the scent of your chum and baits over the channel edge. Remember, if they smell it they will come.

“You can keep a couple of rods in the rod holders in the back of the boat or hold them, but be sure to pay attention to them at all times,” said Caputi. “The bites will come in several ways. The easiest to see is when a bass grabs the bait and moves away from the boat. All you have to do is let the line come tight and lift the rod. The circle hook will do the rest.

But when one picks up the clam and keeps swimming towards the boat, the strike is harder to detect. You might see the line between the rod tip and the water go slack for just a moment or the rod tip might twitch. Pick it up and start reeling to come tight to the fish, and keep reeling until the rod tip dips and the hook wraps around the fish’s jaw. Remember, when fishing circle hooks never jerk the rod tip to set the hook. Circle hooks will hook bass around the mouth opening and not in the gills or stomach if they swallow the bait. That makes live release of short fish, or the ones you don’t keep, easier on you and the fish. A release today represents a fish you might catch another time when it is bigger.”

So if the water stays cold, break out the clams and get in on some great early season striper fishing. And be sure to bring the kids because this is fishing everyone can enjoy!

How and Where To Catch Middle Georgia Catfish

Most People Call Bullheads Catfish

Angling For Middle Georgia Cats

What could be better this time of year than kicking back under a shade tree with a rod or two set out for catfish? The bigger lakes are churned with pleasure boats and the sun is hot, but you can go to smaller waters and have a ball catching cats. And it is hard to find a better meal than fried catfish.

If you live in the mid-Eastern part of Georgia you have some great catfish waters near you. From Public Fishing Areas to rivers to state parks, you won’t have to drive far to catch a mess of cats. You can fish from the bank or from a boat and enjoy the peace and quiet while filling up the stringer.

The following waters are all good for cats and at least one should be close to you. Pick one and learn more about it by fishing it often or try them all for a nice variety in your catfishing.

McDuffie PFA

McDuffie PFA is a few miles from Highway 278 east of Thomson. There are signs from the highway to the 570 acre site and it is open from sunrise to sunset each day.
With a few exceptions, a Georgia fishing license as well as a Wildlife Management Stamp is required to fish there.

Campsites are available for tents and RVs and they have ADA sites, too. There are restrooms and bath houses and some of the ponds have picnic tables and grills. You can use the covered picnic pavilion. You may not fish from sundown to sunrise even if camping there.

You can choose from seven different ponds to catch catfish and they vary in size from five to 37 acres. The ponds are fertilized and each fall harvestable size channel cats are stocked in some of them. The fishing is good year round for channel cats since this stocking raises the numbers in the pond and are not all caught quickly.

All the ponds have boat ramps and most are easily accessible from the bank all the way around the water. Boats are restricted to electric motors only but can have a gas motor attached as long as you don’t crank it. Your boat must be registered if it has any kind of motor on it. The ponds are small enough to cover them by paddling a small boat.

You are allowed to use two poles per person but no live minnows are allowed as bait. You may keep five channel cats per day and you are unlikely to catch any other species from these ponds. Watch for closed ponds and any special restrictions posted on a specific pond.

Most cat fishermen target eating size channel cats but some big fish are in all the ponds. Early and late in the day offers the best time to catch catfish and it is much more comfortable to fish when the hot summer sun is not beaming down.

To catch your limit of cats from the bank, pick a spot near the dam where you can reach deeper water. Bait a #4 Eagle Claw 100 hook or other short-shanked heavy wire offset hook with liver, earthworms or blood bait and fish it on the bottom. Use a small split shot to take it down but don’t use more weight than necessary to cast it out and keep it on the bottom. Eight pound test line will get more bites and give you a better fight than heavier line.

Since you can use two rods have a second rod with heavier line and a bigger hook. Bait it up with a big chunk of gizzard or cut bait and fish it for bigger cats. The tougher, bigger bait won’t be eaten off or swallowed by smaller cats.

Hugh Gillis PFA

Hugh Gillis PFA is ten miles east of East Dublin on Keens Crossing Road off US Highway 80. The area is open from sunrise to sunset and you will need both a Georgia fishing license and, in most cases, a WMA stamp to fish here. If you buy a one day fishing license or have a honorary license, either senior or disability, or a Sportsman’s or Lifetime licensee you don’t have to have a WMA stamp to fish any state PFA.

There are restrooms and picnic tables available on the site and some are ADA accessible. The 109 acre lake has a concrete boat ramp and a fishing pier you can use. You can use any outboard motor here but you must stay at idle speed only.

As on all PFAs you are limited to two poles in use at any one time so you can try for eating size cats with one and bigger cats with the other. Fishing from the pier is often good and about half of the bank is accessible around the lake. There are channels, coves and points to fish but you need a boat to fish most of them.

Some standing timber was left when the lake was built and many brush piles have been added. Cats often hold around this wood cover but sometimes are hard to land. They get tangled up if you wait too long to set the hook and reel them in, but fishing around the wood is often productive. A boat gives you better access to this kind of cover.

Since cats often bite slowly, a good method is to stick a rod holder or forked stick in the bank, put out your two rods and sit back and watch them. You can clamp a rod holder on the side of your boat, too. Bait up with liver, earthworms, stinkbait or cut fish and use bait appropriate for the size of the fish you want to catch. Watch your line for bites and be ready to reel in the fish when it hits. Don’t let it pull your rod in the water.

In the summertime deeper water is usually better for cats so fishing near the dam is best. Look behind the dam to find the channel and fish around it above the dam for the deepest water. You can also locate channels from a boat with a depthfinder. Cats often hold near the old channel. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon is best since you can not fish at night.

Evans County PFA

Evans County PFA is off US Highway 280 east of Claxton on Old Sunbury Road and is open from sunrise to sunset each day. It has the same license requirements as other PFAs and the area consists of three ponds. You can pick from an 84 acre lake, a 30 acre lake or an 8 acre lake to fish.

The lakes have concrete boat ramps and fishing piers and there are restrooms and picnic tables available. Primitive camping is offered on the area and some of the facilities are ADA accessible.

The ponds are managed for good fishing and they contain brown bullheads as well as channel cats. There is good bank access available on the lakes and the fishing piers get you out over deeper water, but a boat will let you cover more of the lakes.

Each year there are two kids fishing events at the PFA and the eight acre lake is stocked with 2,500 eating size channel cats for each one. Fishing is real good after the events when the lake is opened back up to the public. There is a five fish limit on channel cats but there is no limit on bullheads.

Dana Dixon is a fisheries technician at the Evans County PFA and he says chicken liver and shrimp are the best baits for both kinds of cats. He also said there are some big cats in the lakes. One has never been drained so it has the potential of a real big cat. The eight acre lake has not been drained in about 15 years so it could have some big ones, too.

Oconee River

Rivers offer a different kind of fishing for cats and more variety in species. In the Oconee River you can catch flatheads, channel cat and blue cat and some grow to huge sizes. The lower Oconee, from the Sinclair dam downstream to the junction with the Ocmulgee River where they form the Altamaha River is an excellent catfish river.

Access to the river in this section is very limited. The only state boat ramp is way down stream in Laurens County at Shady Field but it is a long run up the river to fish this section. The only bridge over this section of the river is the Highway 57 Bridge near Toomsboro. You can put a small boat in there and float down or motor upstream.

This section of the river is in the upper coastal plain and you will find undercut sand banks and bluffs, lots of fallen trees and a sand or silt bottom. The river gets wider and deeper when you get downstream of Dublin. The area between the Sinclair dam and Dublin offers good cat fishing for all three species. The DNR reports good numbers of 2 to 4 pound channel cats and some big flatheads sighted while doing population studies.

Flatheads grow very big and usually are caught out of the deeper holes in the river. Big live bream are the best bait for them. Blues and channel cat will hit live bream but cut bait, liver, shrimp and earthworms are best for channel cats.

A lot of big catfish are caught on limb lines and trotlines set in the river but you can catch them on a rod and reel, too. You need a boat to get to the best fishing on the river since shore access is limited. Find a sandbar on the upstream side or the inside bend of a deep hole and put out several rods in holders. Hard bottoms are best and an eddy in the current offers a resting and feeding spot for the biggest cats.

Use a big hook and heavy sinker to take it to the bottom and hold it in one place. Hook the bream so it will stay alive and move around. Watch your pole carefully for bites. For channel cats use smaller hooks but you will need a heavy sinker to keep your bait on the bottom in the current.

All three species of cats feed better at night so set up camp, build a fire, put on lots of bug repellant and spend the night. If fishing from a boat make sure you are anchored securely and keep a light on in case other boats are running the river. If you are going to fish all night fishing from the bank is much more comfortable.

Ogeechee River

The Ogeechee River is one of our most pristine rivers and has no dams on it. Rivers with dams upstream have regulated flows and predictable rises and falls. The Ogeechee does not and fishing can vary a lot depending on river level.

There are no flatheads in the Ogeechee and anglers should help keep it that way. If you happen to catch one, kill it. There is no limit on flatheads anywhere in Georgia since they are an invasive species and harm local populations of fish, especially redbreast. Never transport flatheads to this river.

There are good populations of white cats and bullheads in the river and they seem to concentrate where there is swift water and lots of cover. You will find many trees in the water, some all the way across the river, and breaks in the current hold cats. There are also good numbers of channel cats. Cut bait, shrimp and earthworms are all good for these three kinds of cats. Live minnows, shiner or small bream, also catch white and channel cats.

DNR boat ramps at Highways 88, 1 and 78 offer access to the river and you can also put a small boat in at several other bridges. A small jon boat, canoe or kayak is best for fishing this small river. There is also bank access around most of the bridges where you can fish.

Savannah River

The Savannah River from Augusta to Savannah is a big river with big catfish. Although the most common catfish in the river are white cats, some monster blues and flatheads live here. This is the best place to target a trophy cat in the area. There are many five-pound plus blues in the Savannah.

Cats in the Savannah are most likely to be in deep holes with strong current during the day but they will move out of them at night to feed in more shallow water. Fish live bream or cutbait on shallow flats and sandbars near deep holes at night. During the day set up above the holes and fish big live bait on the bottom. Outside bends in the river are best.

If the bank is undercut you can hook some of the biggest cats in the area by drifting a live bluegill under the bank. Use just enough lead to keep it down and control it. Hooking them is one thing. Getting them out from the heavy cover under those banks is difficult. Use heavy tackle and line.

Access to the river is good with several DNR boat ramps from Augusta to Savannah. You can fish from the bank around them, too. Bigger river boats and even bass boats can be used on this river but smaller jon boats will work fine.

Hamburg State Park

Hamburg State Park is the sleeper catfish hole in this area. Although the state park website does not mention catfishing, channel cats are stocked into the 225 acre lake for kids fishing events and it is managed for good fishing. The lake is full of stumps and is well known for crappie and bass, but catfish are common and grow big.

The state park is located just south of Jewell and Highway 16. Signs from I-20 at the Highway 80 exit point the way. Camping is available and there are docks to fish from in the campground. There are boat ramps and fishing piers, and bank access is good, too.

Kay Clark, clerk at the park, said there are pictures of several big channel cats on the wall there. A 16 pounder was caught from a dock in the campground last July and others have been caught all during the year.

According to Kay, shrimp is the best bait for the cats at Hamburg and there is a bait machine there that dispenses shrimp and other bait. Reserve a campsite or go for the day. Fish shrimp, earthworms or cut bait on the bottom from the bank or a boat and you will catch some channel cats.

You have many options for catfish this summer. You can fish from boats, piers or the bank and use a wide variety of baits to catch several species of cats. Pick what you like best, grab your tackle and go fishing.

How and Why To Fish Riprap Banks In May

Riprap banks hold bass

Don’t Overlook Riprap Banks for Bass In May

By Lawrence Taylor

from The Fishing Wire

Bass anglers often fly wide open right past one of the best locations on almost any lake, and it’s so easy to see that even non-fishermen know where to find it. It’s riprap, those rocks and chunks of concrete stacked along shore to prevent erosion, and there are a bunch of reasons bass love it.

Riprap creates a great spawning site for shad during the late spring, and produces the algae these baitfish feed on during summer and fall. Other forage such as crawfish and aquatic insects also makes their homes in the rocks. Just the food factor alone makes riprap a productive bass fishing hotspot.

“What’s neat about riprap is that bass use it multiple times throughout the year,” said Alabama guide and tournament angler Jimmy Mason. “I start fishing riprap in winter and catch bass off of it throughout the year with the exception of the hottest summer days.”

Mason guides anglers on Guntersville and Wilson Lakes, and said that he may spend less time fishing riprap on his home lakes than when fishing a tournament on a less familiar body of water. That’s because each stretch of riprap features only a few hotspots, and once these sweet spots are located they can be quickly fished.

Mason is currently leading the Points Race in the Weekend Series North Alabama Division, and placed 4th and 2nd respectively in the first two tournaments of the year. The tournaments were held on his home lakes of Guntersville and Wheeler, and he mined riprap areas in both tournaments. He weighed in a limit of almost 29 pounds at the Wheeler event and logged a bass weighing 8.94 pounds at Guntersville.

“At the Guntersville tournament I started on what is probably the least productive riprap bridge area, but I didn’t have the competition there like the other stretches of riprap,” he said. “I caught all of my fish on a Flash Mob Jr. with Mud Minnows, and in the next tournament (at Wheeler), three of the five bass I weighed came on the same thing.”

Mason knew the riprap areas like his own back yard at these tournaments. When fishing an unfamiliar stretch, however, he first idles along the entire length and checks it out with his electronics to identify potential sweet spots. He pays special attention to areas with a steeper grade than the rest, as well as larger-than-average boulders, points, corners and other “different” structure.

Mason says that bass pull away from the edges of riprap and start schooling and holding in deeper water when water temperatures rise above 70 degrees, but come back in fall as the temps hit 75 and falling.

“Once the bass spawn and the shad spawn is over, I become much more deep-water oriented,” he said.

The shad spawn is a key time to focus on riprap. All of the cracks and crevices in the structure make for a perfect spawning areas for the baitfish. Because shad spawn in the early morning, he’s sure to make riprap his first stop. When the sun hits the water the spawn is pretty much done for the day, so he’s quick to move to other areas or pull off the bank to deeper water.

Three lures excel during the shad spawn on riprap banks. Mason says that a wacky rigged 5-inch YUM Dinger in Watermelon Red or Bream is a key bait. Not only does it allow him to thoroughly fish an area slowly, but the rig’s attitude in the water keeps it from slipping into the rocks and snagging. He selects the Watermelon Red color if the water is clear, and Bream if there’s some stain to it.

He also throws a ½-ounce Booyah Blade double willow leaf spinnerbait in Snow White or White Chartreuse, again selecting color patterns depending on water clarity, Snow White in clear water and White Chartreuse in stained. He says he knows when he’s in the right areas when he feels the shad hitting the bait on the retrieve, or sees shad following the bait to the boat.

“You’ve fooled those shad into believing your spinnerbait blades are other shad and they’re trying to spawn with them,” he said. “When you see that, you’re fixin’ to get into them.”

His final lure for this time of year is an XCalibur Xcs100 square lip crankbait. Later he adds a small topwater popper like the Zell Pop to his arsenal. Then, when fall kicks in and brings cooler waters, he may throw a shaky head with a 6- or 4-inch Mighty Worm.

“In wintertime, it’s the 4 ½-inch Suspending Rattlin’ Rogue in Foxy Shad or Foxy Momma, depending on water color,” he said, “or a 5/16-ounce Bed Bug with the smallest size Craw Papi as a trailer.”

At times, all other lures take a backseat to the Flash Mob Jr. Mason throws the rig from fall until the fish are ready to get on beds in the springtime. He rigs it with YUM Mud Minnows or the new 2 ½-inch Money Minnows.

Of note: Mason says that in the Tennessee River impoundments he fishes most, riprap comes into play during the actual spawn. Many marinas and bays are protected by stretches of riprap, and bass find the calm waters on the inside of these bays perfect for building nests.

“In our area when you’re fishing for bedded fish you can’t see them,” he said. “Those areas protected by riprap are high-percentage areas for bedded bass.”

Mason’s lure selection for these bedded bass is the same 5-inch YUM Dinger he throws for post-spawn fish on riprap.

How To Catch Bass In May At Lake Wedowee

Nice spot and largemouth from Wedowee

Catching May Bass at Wedowee

May is an amazing month for bass fishermen. Many big bass are hungry after the spawn and feed heavily. Some are still on the beds early in the month so you can sight fish if you like that. And males are guarding fry, making them aggressive and easy to catch. This is a good month for catching lots of bass as well as landing one big enough to brag about. You would be hard pressed to find a better May lake than Wedowee.

May bass fishing on Lake Wedowee is a pleasant surprise to many who have not tried it. Limited access keeps big tournaments off the lake so it is not real crowded. The lake is full of good sized spots that are very aggressive. And you can catch some big largemouth if you target them.

Dammed in 1983, Wedowee is the newest Alabama Power Lake and is officially known as R.L.Harris Reservoir. It is on the Tallapoosa River and covers just less than 11,000 acres on it and the Little Tallapoosa River and has 270 miles of shoreline.

The steep, rocky banks and clear water favor spotted bass and they are the predominate species on the lake. Wedowee is not a real fertile lake so the Alabama DNR set a slot limit, requiring the release of all bass between 13 and 16 inches long to give that group of bass a chance to grow. Spots became so common that they are no longer included in the slot and fishermen are encouraged to keep spots to eat. You are also encouraged to keep largemouth under the 13 inch limit to give more food for the bigger bass.

In the 2008 Bass Angler Information Team (BAIT) survey, Wedowee ranked first in angler success in club tournaments. That means club anglers caught more bass per fisherman on Wedowee than any other lake in Alabama. It ranked third in bass per angler day and a surprising fourth in the amount of time it took to catch a bass weighing over five pound. So, you will catch a lot of bass and have an excellent chance at landing a five pound plus fish.

Due to all those factors, Wedowee was ranked as the best lake in Alabama for bass fishermen in 2008, and it seems to be getting better and better. Plan a trip in May to take advantage of some excellent bass fishing.

Eric Morris loves bass fishing. Right now Eric is service manager of All Pro Auto Group in LaGrange. A few years ago he, his father and brother bought and now operate Wedowee Marina on Highway 431 right at the bridge on the Little Tallapoosa River. They are taking on Legend Bass Boats this year and Eric is on the Legend Pro Staff. He is also sponsored by Falcon Rods. He visits a wide variety of lakes and fishes more than 40 tournaments a year but Wedowee is his favorite lake.

Although he never fished a tournament until he was 25 years old, the first one his father took him to got him hooked to the point of addiction. He loved it and now fishes tournaments every chance he gets. He has fished with a couple of bass clubs and now competes with the Harrelson Hawg Hunters bass club in Georgia, where he won the point standings two years. He also fishes every pot and charity tournament he can enter on Wedowee.

Eric has won four straight January club tournaments on the lake, but May is his favorite time to fish Wedowee. He loves topwater fishing and it is excellent this month, and he catches some big fish on Spooks and Zell Pops all month long. And he can catch numbers of bass on a variety of baits.

We fished Wedowee on a rainy day the second week of April and some bass were already on the beds. There should be a big wave of bass moving onto beds in late April around the full moon on the 28^th, and some will bed even after that. So, for the next few weeks, you can catch bedding bass, a few pre spawn fish, and a lot of hungry post spawn bass.

An 8.5 pound largemouth is Eric’s best from Wedowee, and he has landed a 4.45 pound spot there. His best tournament catch on Wedowee was five bass weighing 21.36 pounds and, surprisingly, included three largemouth and two spots. And that weigh gave him third place in the tournament. It often takes well over 20 pounds to win on Wedowee.

Largemouth are Eric’s target in tournaments since they get bigger and weigh more, but he may fish all day for five or six bites to win. For fun catching lots of bass, Eric will go after spots, especially when taking kids and inexperienced fishermen out. He separates the methods and areas of the lake to catch each although you can catch some bass of each species on either pattern.

For largemouth, Eric says fish the upper stretches of either the Tallapoosa or Little Tallapoosa Rivers. There is a higher percentage of largemouth to spots up the rivers so you are more likely to catch them. And Eric uses baits that bigger largemouth eat, like a full size Spook.

In late April and early May Eric will fish back in the pockets, looking for fish around the bedding areas. Any small pocket is likely to hold bedding bass on Wedowee since there are not many creeks for them to go to. Work every inch of the bank with your Foxy Shad or chrome and blue Spook or a ghost pattern Zell Pop with a feather trailer since there is a lot of underwater wood you can’t see that will hold fish. Make repeated casts to wood you can see.

As the water warms and it gets later in May, Eric will work more toward the outer banks of the pockets and the main points at their mouths. Post spawn bass will migrate out of the backs of the pockets and feed as they work their way out to the main channel.

Early mornings are best for topwater baits but Eric will fish them any time there is low light. If the day is overcast he will throw a Spook or popper all day long. On sunny days, anytime there is a patch of shade on the water he will work it with the topwater baits, too.

A spinnerbait is another good bait for big largemouth, especially during the shad spawn. Watch for shad on the rocky banks early in the morning and throw a double willow leaf bladed white spinnerbait right on the bank. If there is no activity, slow roll it from the bank back to the boat. Eric says he will reel four or five turns of his reel handle then stop the bait and start it moving again with a twitch of the bait to give it more action.

If the bite is slow and the largemouth sluggish, Eric will pull out a green pumpkin Senko and work it weightless around all wood cover in the pockets. A big Senko works best and he lets if fall slowly by any cover he spots.

Watch your line carefully for any twitches as a bass inhales the bait, and tighten up your line very slowly before moving it. If you feel weight, set the hook. Bass will often take the Senko and not move, and the first thing you feel when you move it is them spitting it out!

The main lake below the Highway 48 Bridge is the area to fish for spotted bass. The water is clear, most banks are rocky and it is ideal spot habitat. A wide variety of baits will catch fish down the lake.

First thing in the morning a small topwater bait like the Zell Pop will draw strikes when cast close to rocky bluff banks. The strike will usually come within two feet of the rocks, so get in close and make parallel casts to the rocks, keeping your bait it the strike zone longer.

A jig head worm is Eric’s “go-to” bait and he uses it to catch, in his words, a “whole lotta numbers” of spots on the lower lake. He fishes a one-eight ounce jig head on eight pound fluorocarbon line and puts a green pumpkin or Bama Bug color Trick worm on it. He says the lower lake is full of rocky points that hold large numbers of spots.

The best points are flat points at the end of a bluff wall, where the vertical rocks change to a flatter, gravel and rock area. Eric will sit out in the channel with his boat in 20 feet of water, but near the end of the bluff, and cast up onto the flat point, working his bait from the shallows out and down the drop.

Cast your jig head right against the bank and make sure it goes to the bottom. Eric says too many fishermen keep their line tight and that makes the bait swing away from the edge of the rocks, and many start moving the worm before it hits bottom. Eric says he makes sure the jig is on the bottom then starts moving it “a half-inch” at a time, shaking his rod tip to make the tail of the worm dance.

Bass will often hit as the bait falls, so be ready as soon as your jig hits the water. And move the bait slowly. Some of these points drop off steeply and if you pull your bait too far it will drop right past the fish holding on the bottom.

Jig head worms are great baits to let a kid use to learn to catch bass. They will get a lot of bites on this bait fished on this pattern so they don’t lose interest, and they will catch some hard pulling fish.

If the wind is strong, making it difficult to fish a light jig head worm, Eric will throw a Carolina rig in the same areas. Fish the same worm or a green pumpkin lizard on a three-foot leader behind a heavy enough sinker to keep your bait near the bottom. He fishes Carolina rigs on 12 pound Segar Fluorocarbon line, his choice of brand of line for all his fishing.

Also ride the points on the lower lake and watch your depthfinder for brush piles. Eric says every point on the lake seems to have a man made brush pile. Look for them where you would make one and there is probably one there. Back off them and fish them with the jig head worm or a Carolina rigged worm. Brush from 15 to 20 feet deep will hold bass best, in Eric’s opinion.

By the middle of May night tournaments start on Wedowee and night time is a great time to catch fish there. Eric fishes as many of the night tournaments as he can, and enjoys the change from daytime fishing. He says by early June the lake will be on fire at night, with lots of bass feeding in the dark.

Dock lights attract bait and bass in the dark and Eric will fish any lights he can find with a small light colored crankbait. He tries to match the shad swimming around the lights and works the edges of the light first, then under them in the brighter light.

Spinnerbaits work well at night when fished on the down-lake points, too. Eric surprised me when he said he uses a white spinnerbait with silver blades in the dark. He does use a black or sapphire blue trailer on his white spinnerbait. Make long casts across the points and reel the bait back steadily to give the bass an easier target in the dark.

You can catch bass at night on the points and brush piles, too. Fish them like you do during the day, but fish even slower. When you hit brush or a rock, jiggle your bait in one place longer to let the bass find it in the dark.

Wedowee is a great lake for catching bass right now and will just bet better and better over the next several weeks. Give Eric’s patterns a try and see how he catches them. These tactics will work for you.

How and Where To Catch North Georgia Bass

Rainy day bass

North Georgia’s Top Bass Waters – How and Where To Catch North Georgia Bass

Ask a bass fisherman which month of the year is best and the response is likely to be “April.” April is a dream month for bass fishing in the north half of our state. The weather is comfortable and fairly stable for you and the bass are shallow, feeding and looking for bedding areas.

You have a wide variety of big lakes to fish north of Macon and you can catch largemouth and spotted bass in many of them. No matter which lake you choose, from the South Carolina line to our border with Alabama, you can catch bass several different ways. And you have a good shot at catching a wall hanger as well as filling up your livewell with keepers.

Pick any of the following lakes, give the suggested tactics a try and you will love April fishing even more.

Thurmond Lake

Called Clarks Hill by Georgia fishermen, Thurmond on the Savannah River is our biggest lake at 72,000 acres. Georgia fishermen love it. The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Creel Census Report shows it as the most popular lake for Georgia bass club tournaments year after year.

Jon Hair grew up fishing Clarks Hill and landed a dream job as the office manager for Buckeye Lures. He gets to fish Clarks Hill a lot and does well in tournaments there. Last April he and his partner won the Easter Seals tournament in April with a five bass limit weighing 20.10 pounds.

“You can catch bass pre-spawn, on the bed and post spawn during the month of April,” Jon said. He concentrates his fishing on the Savanna River side of the lake due to current there when the Corps of Engineers is generating power and the water is usually clearer.

Early in the month Jon will throw a Carolina rigged green pumpkin Zoom lizard with a chartreuse tail on secondary points and gravel banks going into coves. Bass are on them looking for bedding spots and will eat the lizard or a three-eights to one-half ounce brown Buckeye Mop Jig with a green pumpkin trailer. Both are dragged on the gravel bottoms and the jig can be hopped for added action.

When bass are on the bed Jon will sight fish for them and throw a Spot Remover jig head with a Zoom Trick worm into the beds. The Spot Remover head will make the worm stand up in the bed and drive the bass crazy.

Later in the month the blueback herring spawn on gravel beds on the main lake, mostly in “blow-throughs,” shallow areas between the bank and off shore islands and humps. Early in the morning Jon will throw a JWill Swimbait Head with a Zoom Super Fluke, a topwater bait like a Sammy or a Gunfish and a weightless Fluke around those area. As the sun gets high he will fish a little deeper with a Mop Jig, working the same areas.

Lake Lanier

Lake Lanier is well known for its huge spotted bass. Our second biggest lake at 40,000 acres located just outside Atlanta, it is a very heavily used lake by pleasure boaters and fishermen. But the spots are there and you can catch them this month. If you want a wall hanger spot Lanier is a good place to land it and April is a good month to get it.

Eric Aldrich lives near Lanier and fishes tournaments on it almost every week, as well as doing some guiding there. He writes fishing reports for three local newspapers and is on the pro staff for Hummingbird, SPRO, Gamakatsu, and Tru Tungsten. He and his partner finished 4^th in the Boating Atlanta trail on Lanier last year.

A seven pound one ounce spotted bass is Eric’s personal record from Lanier and he has also landed a 10 pound largemouth on the lake. His best five fish catch was five spots weighing just over 30 pounds.

“Big spots are in a pre-spawn pattern much of April, with a good many going on the bed during the month,” Eric said. You can catch them on secondary points and in pockets with flats where they bed all during the month and the main lake and creeks below Brown’s Bridge are the best areas.

A couple of baits will cover what you need. Eric will keep a Spro McRip or McStick jerk bait rigged on one rod and a Spot Remover jig head with a Big Bait Finesse Worm on it on a second rod. His targeted depth is five to 20 feet, but he says you will catch a lot of big spots at the upper end of that range.

“Look for cover like rocks on points and docks back in pockets with flats,” Eric said. Throw a jerk bait on the points and around the docks first for active fish. Try a variety of retrieves, from a steady jerking motion to a jerk, pause, jerk. Let the fish tell you what they want.

Then throw the jig head worm around the same areas for fish that don’t want to come up to hit the jerk bait. Work it slowly on the bottom, giving the Spot Remover jig head time to sit and hold the worm up, its signature action. Then hop it, let it fall back and sit again. Big spots can’t stand that action.

Also, watch for beds and throw the jig head worm into them. Remember that spots often bed in five to ten feet of water, so look deep. Spots are usually aggressive on the beds and you can sight fish and land some big spots in April.

Lake Oconee

Lake Oconee is one of our newer lakes located on the Oconee River right in the middle of the north half of the state. It is a popular lake with lots of big house and golf courses, but the fishing for largemouth is outstanding. Georgia Power has a several good ramps on the lake and two campgrounds give fishermen a chance to stay on the lake and fish for several days.

Roger McKee has fished Oconee since 1985 and lived on the lake since 1995. He is on the lake almost every day checking out the bass and guiding other fishermen. He fishes most tournaments on the lake and does well in them.

In April there is no better lake for largemouth fishing than Oconee in north Georgia. Bass are shallow for their spawn as well as taking advantage of the shad spawn. Numerous sea walls and lots of riprap give the shad many places to lay their eggs. And numerous pockets and small creeks offer bass excellent bedding areas.

Roger likes to fish fast in April, looking for post spawn fish that were on the beds in late March, as well as pre spawn fish still looking for a bedding spot. The stained water at Oconee makes sight fishing difficult so sight fishing for bass on the bed is hard to do, but it can produce some big fish.

“Tie on a bait that will cover water and get a reaction strike,” Roger said. He will have a spinnerbait and a crankbait tied on two rods and those are his key baits. Roger said he would depend on the crankbait when covering water and would throw it on points and banks going into spawning areas, fishing it fast so the bass don’t get a good look at it.

Bass fishing doesn’t get any better than when the shad spawn on Oconee. You can see the schools of shad running the seawalls and riprap banks early in the morning in April, especially the last half the month.

Tie on a double willow leaf three eights ounce spinnerbait with silver blades and a white skirt and throw it right against the seawalls and on the riprap rocks on the main lake. You can’t cast too shallow so get your bait against the wall or right on the rocks out of the water. Expect a strike as soon as the bait hits the water, but fish it back to five feet deep or so before reeling in to make another cast.

You can contact Roger for a guide trip through his website at http://lakeoconeesinclairguideservices.com/.

Carters Lake

If you want a record spot, a trip to Carters Lake might produce it. Carters Lake is a Corps of Engineers lake in northwest Georgia east of Dalton and I-75. At 3220 acres, Carter’s is a fairly small lake. There is no shoreline development other than a few boat ramps and a marina, so fishing Carter’s gives you a natural setting.

Louie Bartenfield grew up around Carter’s Lake and he and his father fished it often, with good success. His father has landed three largemouth weighing over 10 pounds at Carter’s, and Louie learned from him. They fished tournaments together for a year or so then Louie teamed up with family friend Tony Hill.

Now Louie concentrated mainly on the big spots in Carters that have come on strong over the past few years. He is a well known guide and tournament fisherman on Carters and he catches some huge spots there every year.

Since spots on Carters spawn late in April or in May, Louie will be looking for fish on a main lake pattern. There is also a good creek pattern that develops as the fish move into the creeks and both patterns work most of April.

“An easy pattern on Carters in April is to fish the alewife spawn,” Louie said. Many people don’t realize there is big population of alewife in the lake. Unlike blueback herring, which are also in the lake, alewife spawn during the night. As the sun comes up they pull out off the main lake spawning area and suspend 10 to 12 feet down. Louie says you can see huge schools of them on your depthfinder.

To catch the big spots feeding on them Louie will tie on a big War Eagle three-quarters ounce white spinnerbait with two silver willowleaf blades. He will get way off main lake points and humps and make as long a cast as he can toward the bank. Slow roll the spinnerbait back to the boat in a steady retrieve, making it run down 12 to 14 feet deep where the big spots are holding under the alewife.

This pattern is best in the mornings and some wind helps. Wind breaks up the water surface and makes it harder for the bass to see the bait, and they are more likely to hit it in the very clear water. Louie will fish this pattern all morning, or until the bite fades.

“Everyone loves catching bass on top, and in the middle of the day there is a fun pattern that anybody can enjoy,” Louie said. He will go into the creeks on the lake and throw a small topwater bait like a Pop-R under overhanging brush and trees, working any shade he can find. The sun concentrates bass in the shade and they will hit the topwater bait all day long.

To contact Louie check out his website at http://carterslakeguideservice.com/. There are pictures there of some of the huge spots he catches as well as videos of some April fishing trips.

West Point Lake

West Point Lake on the Georgia Alabama line is a great lake for both spotted bass and largemouth. A Corp of Engineers Lake with 25,900 acres of water and 525 miles of shoreline, fishing opportunities are varied and you can find any kind of cover and structure you desire. A huge range of methods work during April, from sight fishing for bedding bass to working the shad spawn.

Last April in a club tournament I started on a gravel point near the dam back in a big creek and hooked seven bass on the first casts seven casts I made. I landed five of those bass and had a limit in the livewell in 12 minutes. All hit a Sammy worked across a couple of feet of water. Although I culled four of those first five bass, that fast action was fun.

Early in the morning bass are looking for shad spawning during April, especially later in the month. Find any hard bottom like gravel points and riprap and you will find bass. Throw a spinnerbait or topwater bait near the hard bottom and you will catch bass.

As the sun gets high later in the month, or early in the month before the shad spawn, throw a jig head worm on points leading into small spawning pockets or on secondary points back in the bigger pockets. Work any cover you can find from wood to rocks in two to ten feet of water, bumping the worm through the cover. That is how I culled four fish in the tournament last April.

I like the lower lake, from Wehadkee Creek to the dam, including the big creeks like Wehadkee, since the water is usually more stable and clearer.

Try these lakes this month. You can’t go wrong anywhere you go in April, but these tips should help you get on the fish quickly and catch a lot of bass.

How and Where To Catch Big Bass In Georgia

I caught this bass in a club tournament in January at Jackson Lake a few years ago

How and Where To Catch Big Bass In Georgia

Catching your limit when bass fishing is always fun. But there is something very special about catching a big bass. Landing a five pound plus largemouth or spotted bass will bring a smile to any fisherman’s face. Putting a true trophy in the boat, a spot over six pounds or a largemouth over eight pounds, is something to brag about for years.

Where you fish can make or break you when trying to land a bragging size bass. Some waters produce trophies on a regular basis, others not so much. We are lucky here in Georgia to have choices where big bass are not rare. After all, our waters produced the world record bass!

When trying to decide where to go hunt your trophy there are several things to consider. An important one is access. It does not matter how big bass get in private ponds if you can’t fish them. And some public waters have so many restrictions on boats and times you can fish that they are not good choices.

Our big lakes offer a wide variety of choices for a big bass. But how to determine which ones are best? The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Creel Census Report compiles data from about 100 bass clubs each year. The clubs submit information from each tournament and most have 12 per year, so there is a lot of water covered. And one of the data points recorded is bass over five pounds caught.

By keeping up with the number of five pound plus bass landed and the hours fished in the tournament by the number of fishermen, a category “hours to catch a five pound bass” is produced for each lake. That can be a good guide to show you where your have your best chances of landing a big bass.

The following lakes will all give you a good shot at a bass over five pounds. Right now is a fun time to be after them with good weather and stable conditions. Make your choice, head to the lake and hook a wall hanger.

Seminole

Lake Seminole is hands down the best big lake in Georgia to land a five pounder. In club tournaments it took only 85 man hours to weigh in a five pound plus fish. That may seem like a lot, but in an average club tournament lasting eight hours with at least 11 fishermen there was probably a five pounder brought to the scales.

Seminole is about as far south as you can fish in Georgia. Located right in the corner of Georgia, Florida and Alabama where the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers join to form the Apalachicola River, its waters are filled with a wide variety of kinds of water plants. Bass love things like water hyacinths, hydrilla and lily pads and they are everywhere.

All the plant life is the bottom of the food chain that produces all kinds of goodies bass love to eat and grow fat. From eels to shad, just about any kind of baitfish and other food for bass is plentiful for them. And they have lots of shallow cover so you don’t have to go dredge the depths for them.

The big water in the lower rivers and near the dam is full of shallow flats, ridges, humps and channels and they are covered with stumps, standing timber and a variety of grass. By now most bass are done spawning and have moved toward the old river channels so that is the area you want to fish.

Find a ditch or channel coming out of a shallow spawning area and follow it to the main channel. Look for flats covered with grass on both sides of it. Bass will hold and feed on the edge of the grass, right on a drop. They use grass edges for cover to ambush passing food.

Work a big bait for a big bass. On cloudy or windy days a big spinnerbait slow rolled right along the edge of the grass will produce strikes. A big vibrating bait like a one-ounce Rat-L-Trap can also be run along these edges. When it hangs on grass rip it free. That sudden surge will often draw a reaction strike.

A huge plastic worm will eliminate some smaller bass but will attract the hawgs you want. The Zoom Old Monster 10.5 inch worm and the Big Bite 10 inch Kriet Tail worm are good choices and a big worm will get big bites. Rig it on a big 5/0 hook with a light sinker to work along and through the grass line and fish it slowly. A big bass usually does not like to go far or fast for its meal.

Lake Walter F. George

Just up the Chattahoochee River Walter F. George, called Eufaula by most, also produces good catches of big largemouth. It took 156 man hours to land a five pound plus fish in club tournaments, a lot higher than Seminole but still second best in the state.

Eufaula is on the Georgia Alabama line just south of Columbus and is known for its river and creek ledge fishing. Its shallows are full of grass and stumps where largemouth grow fat in the spring and the water is fertile enough to produce lots of schools of big shad.

Big largemouth stack up on deep drops out in open water by this time of year and you can sometimes find a school and land several big bass from one spot. Cowikee Creek and the lake downstream of it contain lots of good channel ledges. It may seem strange to be sitting so far from the bank you could not hit it with a 30-06, but the bass are there.

You want to look for a sharp bend in the creek or river channel and a ditch or cut in the ledge formed by it helps. Cover like stumps, brush or rocks also are important to holding bass on the ledges, and you need some kind of hard bottom.

Current is critical on these ledges. Fish during the week when power is being generated at the dam, pulling water and bait across the drops. It is an amazing difference in the bite when the water is moving.

A big crankbait like a Mann’s 20 plus, Fat Free Shad or Norman’s DD22N are good baits to fish on the ledges. Right now look for ledges that top out 12 to 16 feet down. Position your boat downstream and down current of the ledge and make long cast upstream across them. You want your bait to bump the bottom along the ledge to draw a strike.

If you don’t want to throw a big crankbait all day, or can’t hold up to throw one that long, try a Carolina or Texas rigged worm dragged across the same ledges. Go with big worms like the Old Monster and use sinkers heavy enough to keep it on the bottom in the current. Drag the Carolina rig across the ledge and stop it when you hit cover. Hop the Texas rig and let it rise and fall, but stop it too when you hit cover.

Jackson Lake

Back in the 1970s and 80s Jackson Lake produced more big bass than just about any other lake in the state. I landed my first two eight pound plus largemouth at Jackson in club tournaments in the 70s and my best ever, a nine pound, seven ounce fish, hit in a club tournament in 1991. Although smaller spots have hurt the lake the past 20 years, you can still land a big largemouth there. Two years ago I landed an eight pound, thirteen ounce largemouth there in a club tournament.

Jackson was a very fertile lake years ago with sewage from Atlanta fertilizing its waters. The water is much cleaner now but that means it is less fertile and bass grow slower. You might have to work harder for a five pounder now, but you will catch some.

Jackson is almost in the middle of the state about 15 miles east of I-75 and south of I-20. It is formed by a dam just downstream of where the Ocmulgee River starts. The waters of that river produced the world record bass so you know it has potential.

Bass have been feeding on the shad spawn for several weeks in April and are fat and happy now. They are still holding near the main lake seawalls and riprap where the shad spawn and will look for late spawning shad still. But they will quickly back off as the sun comes up and you will need to fish a little deeper during the day.

Start early in the morning with a big topwater bait like a Zara Spook and work it along the main lake points with seawalls and riprap. Cast right on the bank and work it all the way back to the boat with as steady, slow walk the dog action. Be ready for a hit any time.

As the sun gets higher, try a Zoom Trick worm or Fluke fished weightless in these same areas. Start with the bait just under the surface but let it go deeper and deeper as the sky gets brighter. Work both baits slowly, offering an easy meal to a fat hawg.

Bumping the bottom with a jig and pig will work well on these points, too. Use a black and blue jig and pig in stained water or a brown one in clear water and slowly hop it down the sloping bottom, working from a couple of feet deep down to 15 feet. Slow down and fish it carefully if you hit wood or rock cover.

Lake Burton

For a big spotted bass, go where the state record eight pound two ounce bass was landed. Lake Burton has been producing big spots since blueback herring were introduced into the lake and five pounders are fairly common. The eight pounder shows what is possible.

Lake Burton is a Georgia Power lake on the Tallulah River west of Clayton. It is an old lake and has steep rocky shorelines with lots of wood cover like dock posts and blowdown trees. Seawalls and riprap line the banks with the rocks, too, and the water is very clear

The blueback herring spawn in early May in Burton and that is a key to catching a monster spotted bass. The big spots will be holding right on seawalls on the main lake, watching for the herring first thing in the mornings. Cast a white spinnerbait against the rocks and seawalls and slow roll it back out. It usually won’t go far!

As the sun get higher the bass will back off but will still hit the spinnerbait. Also try a topwater plug like a Spook worked from the bank out over deeper water. Follow up with a Fluke. Get your boat in fairly close and make angled casts since the bottom drops fast. Work the Spook and Fluke fast, drawing the bass up to hit them.

Also try swimming a Buckhead Pulse Jig with a Zoom Fluke on it just off the bottom. If the big spots won’t come up they will often eat a more subtle bait like the Pulse Jig. Use a natural colored Fluke behind the head.

Blowdowns hold big largemouth and spots on Burton, so after the sun gets high work trees in the water with a jig and pig. Find the nearest blowdown to the areas where the herring spawn and work a brown and green jig and pig through them, bouncing from limb to limb, from the bank all the way out to the tip of the tree.

In the clear water, use fluorocarbon line and make long casts. Also, be aware of the sun position and make your casts to cover the shady side of the tree trunk and limbs in the water. Use as light a jig and pig as you can work depending on wind and depth water.

Lake Lanier

Lake Lanier may produce more quality spotted bass than any other lake anywhere. With the introduction of blueback herring and the 14 inch size limit on all bass, Lanier has become a well known trophy spot lake. Five fish limits of spots weighing over 20 pounds are common in tournaments and seven pound spots are weighed in each year. Several people say they have hooked a new world record spot but only time, and landing the fish, will prove if a record spot is on Lanier.

Located just northeast of Atlanta on the Chattahoochee River, Lanier is a big Corps of Engineers lake with good access but heavy usage. It is difficult to impossible to fish the lake on warm weekend days but week days are often uncrowded this time of year. If you fish the weekend, try to be on the water at first light and fish as long as the waves will allow.

Laura Gober lives near Lanier and fishes it often with husband Trent. They fish a good many tournaments there and do well. Laura fished the Woman’s Bass Tour and did well in it during its run, too. She won one tournament and had 11 top 20 finishes on that trail. Lanier is her home lake and she loves to catch big spots there.

By late spring the bass are mostly done spawning and are moving deep on main lake humps and points. Big spots will come up to hit topwater baits like the Chug Bug, Laura’s favorite, and jerkbaits like the Staysee 90, especially early in the morning. Laura will fish both these baits over humps and points.

If your boat is in 35 feet of water and you are casting over 15 feet you are about right this time of year, according to Laura. She will work the faster moving baits as long as the bass will hit, but she then slows down and fishes a Texas rigged Senko through cover on the bottom in the same places.

Rig a green pumpkin Senko behind a one-quarter to three-eights ounce sinker and dip the tail in chartreuse JJ’s Magic to give it scent and flash. Work it slowly through rocks and stumps in 17 to 30 feet of water. Laura says she catches bigger spots by fishing deeper than most anglers do on Lanier, so back off some and fish deep for a wallhanger.

No mater which lake you choose, use quality line and equipment when fishing for big bass. On big public lakes the fish are getting more and more wary so fluorocarbon line is a good choice. Use as light line as you can depending on water clarity. Pick a reel that has smooth drag and set it so your trophy pulls drag and does not pop your line.

All of the above lakes will give you a shot at a bragging size bass this month. Decide if you want a largemouth or spot and fish the lake that offers the best of that species. Fish long and hard to increase your odds and you will get that big one.

How and Where To Catch Georgia Catfish

If you want variety in your fishing, go for catfish. They are in all our waters so you have a wide choice of places to fish. You can try for small eating size channel cats or you can go for a huge flatheads that approach 100 pounds. And you can use just about any method you want to catch them, from jugs to rod and reel.

The following offer a place to catch cats in a wide variety of waters around Georgia. Check them out for some fun this summer.

McDuffie Public Fishing Area

Located about eight miles east of Thomson and a couple of miles off Highway 278, McDuffie PFA offers seven ponds ranging in size from five to 37 acres. Six of the ponds are stocked with channel catfish. Bank fishing is good and you can use a boat with an electric motor. In most cases you will need a Wildlife Management Stamp as well as your fishing license.

The ponds are maintained for easy bank access and offer bank anglers good fishing. Some of the ponds have fishing platforms on the water that are handicapped accessible. Concrete boat ramps make loading and unloading your boat easy. Restrooms on the PFA as well as hiking trails and picnic tables make this a good place for a family outing. Camping is available on-site but fishing is limited to sunrise to sunset.

Channel cats are the only cats you are likely to catch here and most will be eating size in the one to two pound range. There are cats up to 20 pounds in some of the ponds so be prepared for a strong fight at any time. You can not use live baits like minnows so stick with earthworms, chicken liver, stink baits and crickets.

I grew up less than three miles from the McDuffie PFA and spent many happy hours there. My best luck for catfish came late in the afternoon although cats will bite all during the day. Warmer months were best so right now through the end of September is a good time to go.

Find a sandy spot on the bank near the pond dam and drive a forked stick or rod holder in the ground. Cast out a cricket, earthworm or piece of liver on a #4 hook and a light split shot, let it hit bottom, tighten up your line and place the rod in the holder. Watch your line for bites but wait to pick up your rod when the cat starts swimming off with the bait. Channel cats often bite slowly and you can pull the bait away from them if you try to hook them too quickly.

High Falls State Park

This 660 acre lake in a state park is just a few miles east of I-75 north of Forsyth. There is limited bank access at the dam and at the park and boat ramp on the Buck Creek arm, but most fishing is from a boat. Motors are limited to 10 horsepower and two concrete ramps offer easy loading and unloading. You can be on the water only from sunrise to sunset each day.

Some big flatheads are caught each year with fish in the 30 pound range showing up fairly often. There are tales of much bigger flatheads, too. I took a picture of a 35 pounds flathead from High Falls that was the state record for a short time many years ago so there can be some huge fish in the lake.

But your best bet will be for channel cats. In 2008 there was an exceptional spawn and survival rate and those fish have now grown to a good size for eating. Almost half the channel cats will be in the 12 to 18 inch size and weigh an average of about two pounds. You will have a good chance at a five pound channel cat.

The best fishing for all cats will be in the deepest water in the area this time of year. The old channels at High Falls are silted in badly but the depressions formed by them are still the deepest water. A depthfinder helps find this deeper water to concentrate your fishing and the lower lake will be best.

If fishing for flatheads a live bream or shad is best, and bigger channel cats will hit them, too. For smaller fish go with cut bait. You are more likely to catch channel cats if you use earthworms or stink bait.

Rig up a sinker heavy enough to keep your bait near the bottom and tie your hook on a short leader. Put the bait on a #2 to #4 hook for smaller cats and slowly drift the bait right on the bottom. There is a lot of slimy “moss” on much of the bottom at High Falls and the leader will allow your sinker to stay on the bottom without getting the gunk on your bait.

Lake Oconee

I-20 crosses the upper end of Lake Oconee west of Greensboro and the lake extends south, covering 19,000 acres and 374 miles of shoreline. Access is good for boat anglers at several marinas and public boat ramps, and bank fishermen can fish around bridges and in the parks. The lake is so big a boat is definitely the way to fish.

There are lots of channel and white cats and bullheads in Oconee but the population of big flatheads and blues is increasing. Oconee may be the sleeper lake in the state for big catfish. I landed a 20 pound blue cat on a spinnerbait three years ago in Double Branches and a 35 pound flathead on a jig and pig last summer in Lick Creek while bass fishing. If you target cats there is no telling what size you might catch!

There are a lot of 15 pound plus blues and flatheads in the lake so use stout tackle if you are fishing for them. Live shad or bluegill are best for the bigger fish but cut bait also works well. For smaller channel cats and bullheads live earthworms are good.

Both big cats I caught hit in the middle of the day but late afternoon to early morning is the best time for catfish. On a big lake like Oconee it pays to bait up a hole for them. Pick out a small cove that drops off to deep water and throw out sinking catfish food for several days. Although cats like the standing timber on Oconee, make sure you pick a cove a good ways from it or any big cat you hook will likely wrap you up.

Come back late in the afternoon and anchor, cast out several rods baited with live bait, cut bait and earthworms and wait for the action. Offer a variety of kinds of baits and sizes of baits since you may draw in smaller channels or trophy size flatheads and blues. You can fish all night during the summer and catch fish.

Andrews Lake

Although Andrews Lake offers good cat fishing, the best area of it is just below the Walter F. George dam. The bigger cats tend to move up the lake to the fast water in the tailrace just below the dam on the Chattahoochee River and feed there. There is some bank access but a boat is a better way to fish. The dam at Walter F. George is near Fort Gaines.

You can catch a lot of ten pound plus flatheads and blue cats here and a real trophy is possible. The state record blue was held for a short time by a 67 pound, 8 ounce monster caught just below the dam in 2006. Then in February, 2010 an 80 pound, 4 ounce monster caught here set the new state record. There are good numbers of 40 pound plus blues in the area. Channel cats are also abundant and will average from two to four pounds.

For smaller blue and channel cats try earthworms and blood baits fished on the bottom. Bigger fish are used to eating shad injured or killed at the dam so live or cut gizzard or threadfin shad are excellent baits here. Bream and live shad or suckers are best for flatheads but will also catch big blues.

During the day fish your bait on the bottom in the deepest water near the Walter F. George dam. At night you can anchor and cast your bait up onto flats and sandbars near the deeper water. The big cats hold in deep water during the day and move up into the shallows to feed at night.

Use heavy tackle and a one ounce sinker will often be needed to hold your bait on the bottom in the current. Try to find eddies or slack water where the current washes injured baitfish and let your bait soak on the bottom in those places.

Be careful of water release at the dam when fishing from a boat or the bank. Water can rise quickly and become very strong when power is being generated so be aware of the changes. Don’t get caught by rising water and strong currents.

Coosa River

Most fishermen think of spotted bass when the Coosa River in northwest Georgia is mentioned, but it is a quality catfish river, too. From its start north of Rome to where it crosses the state line into Lake Weiss, big cats are caught in this river. Boat fishing is the best way to find the fish here since you need to seek out the places they hide.

One thing may help to make this river a trophy catfish hole is the restriction on eating big cats from it. The Georgia DNR says you should not eat blue cats over 32 inches long from the Coosa and should limit eating smaller cats, so many of the cats here get released to fight again. If you want a fight the Coosa is a good place to head but if you want catfish to eat you would be better fishing another spot.

You can catch blue, channel and flathead cats of all sizes in the Coosa and 50 pound blues are not uncommon. For smaller fish use stink baits, earthworms and liver. For the bigger trophy size cats the best baits are live bream and shad, or cut bream and shad.

The Coosa is full of log jams on the bank and big blues and flatheads love to hide in them. Drift a live bream or shad into eddies created by brush and log jams and be ready for a strong fight. Use very heavy tackle to get the fish away from the wood and out into the main river to have a chance of landing it.

Deep outside bends in the river where the current creates slack water can be excellent, too. You can anchor on the inside part of the bend and fish your bait on the bottom toward deeper water. Drifting it with the current will also take it to where the catfish hold, rather than waiting for them to come to your bait. But they are going to be harder to get out of the place they are holding since it is likely to be in heavy cover.

Also look for current breaks in the middle of the river. Bridge pilings, logs and deeper holes will hold fish. Let your live bream or shad or cut bait drift into those areas and the current will take it right to where the catfish is waiting. Use the current to move your bait in a natural way.

These spots offer you examples of the wide variety of cat fishing hole we have in Georgia. Check them out for some fun fishing and, in most of them, good eating. There are many similar lakes, rivers, state parks and Public Fishing Areas around the state to try if one of these is not near you. The same methods that work on these should work on one closer to you.

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Monthly Archives: May 2013

How and Where To Catch Stripers, Hybrids and White Bass Near Atlanta

Bass Fishing Middle Size Lakes In Georgia

Alabama Rig Inventor Andy Poss

Early Spring Striped Bass Fishing

How and Where To Catch Middle Georgia Catfish

How and Why To Fish Riprap Banks In May

How To Catch Bass In May At Lake Wedowee

How and Where To Catch North Georgia Bass

How and Where To Catch Big Bass In Georgia

How and Where To Catch Georgia Catfish