Every time I go to High Falls Lake, I am reminded of what a great fishing spot we have close to Griffin. The lake is very quiet since motors are limited to 10 horse power and there are no skiers, skidoos or run-abouts there. And the fishing is excellent.

Jim Berry and I went there last week to try to find some bedding bream. We were disappointed, the few beds we found had only small bream on them. We caught a good many fish, but most were not at big as what we were looking for.

On Friday I talked with Keith Weaver, the state fisheries biologist that keeps up with High Falls. He told me this was a strange bedding year for all species of fish because of the unstable weather. Bream usually bed on the full moon but the cool mornings last week may have delayed them some. They might be in full bed right now.

Keith said High Falls has an excellent population of bluegill and you should be able to catch a lot of fish in the half-pound range. That is a good size for lake fish. I have been spoiled catching 12 to 14 ounce bream in my pond, but I feed them every day. Lake fish don’t have it that easy.

There are a good many shellcracker in High Falls, too. Keith says they are probably done bedding by now and you could catch them along the old creek channels in 5 or 6 feet of water, especially in Watkins Bottom. He also told me the bigger bream would probably come from the deeper water nearer the dam and up in Buck Creek.

Jim and I met Tommy Lance at the boat ramp as we loaded my bass boat back on the trailer. He said he did not know you could put a big boat in the lake, but we told him it was ok if you did not crank the big engine and used only the trolling motor. If you put a boat in with a motor over 10 horse power and crank it, you can just about bet a game warden will be waiting on you with his ticket book before you leave.

Tommy said he caught a lot of big bream up the river near the area called the Duck Pond, and in Buck Creek. He said those were good bedding areas. All this information will be used in a June Georgia Outdoor News article I am working on.

Bream should be bedding now at High Falls. Grab a bucket of crickets, a tub of worms and your light fishing stuff and head to High Falls to catch some fine eating, hard pulling bream.