FISHING FOR CATFISH IN GEORGIA is fun and produces some good eating.
SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. (July 2, 2025) – Don’t let summer slip away without heading out to the local fishing hole and casting a line for catfish. There are plenty of locations to land a catfish, and it’s a great experience for both new and experienced anglers, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD).
“Fishing can be a fun experience for new or young anglers, especially when you target catfish. The gear you need is relatively simple, and catfish are found throughout Georgia so angling locations are plentiful,” says Scott Robinson, WRD Fisheries Management Chief. “And, while catching fish seems like the best part, it’s really the memories being made. I don’t think anyone ever looks back on their life and says, I took my kid fishing too often. So, get out there and make those memories as you Go Fish Georgia!”
Georgia’s public waterways are home to several species of catfish, including channel, white, blue, flathead, and bullheads (yellow, brown, snail, spotted, and flat). Larger species, like blue and flathead catfish, can even exceed 50 pounds!
What to Use:
Use 8- to 14-pound test line and medium-sized hooks (size 2 to 1/0) under a bobber or fished on the bottom when targeting channel and white catfish. Best baits include worms, liver, live minnows, shrimp, cut bait, and stink bait.
For large blue or flathead catfish, heavy tackle is a must — large spinning or casting gear with 20- to 50-pound test braid or monofilament line, large hooks (3/0 to 8/0), and heavy weights (1–5 oz) to keep bait on the bottom. Flatheads prefer live or freshly killed fish, while freshly caught gizzard shad is ideal for blue catfish.
Other effective catfishing methods include trotlines, limb lines, and jug-lines. Regulation details on these methods are available in the Georgia Sportfishing Regulations Book at GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/angler-resources.
Where to Look: Target rocky shorelines, rip-rap areas, points, and outside bends of rivers or submerged river channels. Catfish often stay in deeper “holes” during the day and move into shallow areas at night to feed. When fishing rivers, look for deep holes with rocky or woody cover during the day and focus on shallow sandbars, flats, and shoals near these holes at dawn, dusk, and nighttime. Flatheads especially favor downed trees and structure on outside bends.
When to Go: Although catfish can be caught throughout the day, the best summer fishing is typically at dusk and into the night. Catfish bite year-round, but the peak action occurs from early spring through summer. Be prepared to move if you don’t get a bite within 30 minutes.
What are Some Good Locations?
Remember what we said about the best summer catfish fishing at dusk and into the night? Georgia’s Public Fishing Areas (GeorgiaWildlife.com/allpfas) are great places to target catfish, with most PFAs being open 24 hours a day year-round. For more lake and river fishing suggestions, check out the Fishing Forecasts webpage at GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing-forecasts.
Visit GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com to purchase a fishing license online or to view a list of retail license vendors or buy a license by phone at 1-800-366-2661.
GEORGIA PUBLIC FISHING AREAS PROVIDE A GREAT PLACE FOR FISHING, FAMILIES AND FUN and there is one near you
SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. (July 2, 2025) – Why should you plan a trip to one or more of Georgia’s 11 Public Fishing Areas (PFA)? Naturally, the fishing is great as PFAs are managed for fishing by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD), but did you know that most areas also offer additional experiences to entertain the whole family?
“Our fisheries staff takes great pride in managing these locations for the enjoyment of anglers and their families,” says Scott Robinson, WRD Fisheries Management Chief. “And, even if fishing isn’t the activity for all of the family, these locations provide something for everyone, including activities like hiking, bird watching, picnicking and camping.”
Waters on PFAs vary from lakes several hundred acres in size to ponds less than one acre with some designated as kids-only fishing ponds. Anglers can fish from a boat, along the shoreline, or from piers or docks at most locations.
All PFAs have concrete boat ramps, picnic tables, various nature and wildlife observation trails, fish cleaning stations and restroom facilities. Some PFAs offer camping opportunities (from primitive camping to RV) for those wishing to stay overnight on the area. All PFAs are open seven days a week, and except for Rocky Mountain PFA, also allow night fishing year-round.
Make plans to visit one (or more) of the following PFAs today:
Rocky Mountain PFA (Floyd County): Includes two lakes totaling 559 acres. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill and redear sunfish, channel catfish, crappie and walleye. Additional amenities: beach and swimming area, camping opportunities (tent, RV and group primitive camping), picnic shelters, archery range. Note: There is a $5 parking pass required to visit this PFA.
McDuffie PFA (McDuffie County): Includes seven lakes ranging from five to 37 acres, fish hatchery, and an education center. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish and channel catfish. Additional amenities: camping (tent and RV) opportunities (campground under renovation), archery range, covered pavilions.
Big Lazer Creek PFA (Talbot County): Includes a 195-acre lake. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, and crappie. Additional amenities: primitive camping opportunities, canoe/kayak launch onto the Flint River, and a firing range.
Marben Farms PFA (Jasper/Newton counties): Includes 20 ponds ranging from one to 95 acres, a wildlife management area and the Charlie Elliott Education Center. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, crappie and channel catfish. Additional amenities: RV and tent camping opportunities, archery, shotgun and firearm range, visitors center, covered pavilions.
Ocmulgee PFA (Bleckley County): Includes a 106-acre lake. Species: largemouth bass (catch and release), crappie, bluegill, and redear sunfish. Additional amenities: Archery and Shooting Range (Ocmulgee WMA), canoe access.
Dodge County PFA (Dodge County): Includes a 104-acre lake. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, channel catfish and crappie. Additional amenities: primitive boat-in camping opportunities, group shelter facility available for rent, archery range.
Evans County PFA (Evans County): Includes three lakes ranging from eight to 84 acres. Species: largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, redear sunfish, brown bullhead and channel catfish. Additional amenities: camping (tent) opportunities, event center (with commercial kitchen) available for rent, archery range, covered pavilion, boardwalk nature trail.
Flat Creek PFA (Houston County): Includes a 102-acre lake. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, crappie and channel catfish. Additional amenities: Pavilion with picnic tables and grills, archery range.
Hugh M. Gillis PFA (Laurens County): Includes a 109-acre lake. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, channel catfish and crappie. Additional amenities: primitive boat-in camping opportunities, picnic tables, and a fishing pier.
Paradise PFA (Berrien & Tift Counties): Includes 60 lakes totaling 525 acres. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, crappie, and channel catfish. Additional amenities: primitive tent camping opportunities and reserved group camping, canoe/kayak trail.
Silver Lake PFA (Decatur County): Includes more than 30 lakes and ponds totaling 537 acres. Species: largemouth bass, bluegill, redear sunfish, channel catfish. Additional amenities: Panic Pond (trophy bass pond), primitive camping opportunities, geocaching.
From Fins to Feathers! Let’s add bird watching to our outdoor adventures at Georgia PFAs. With an average of 154 species seen across all 11 PFAs, you are sure to find something to boost your birding life list. And, when you report those sightings through the eBird app, your observations provide great information for biologists and other birders.
Whichever activity you choose to enjoy at a Georgia PFA, be sure you have a valid fishing or hunting license or Lands Pass. Get a license online at GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com, buy a license by phone at 1-800-366-2661 or visit a license vendor (list of vendors found at GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com).
For more information on PFAs in Georgia or for detailed PFA guides and maps, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/allpfas.
This past Sunday I spent seven hours in a boat on West Point with Rob Boswell, his son Brent and Brent’s tournament teammate Dylan Thayer. They provided me with information for my September Map of the Month article.
Brent and Dylan won two high school tournaments at West Point during the past tournament year and both impressed me with their skill casting, knowledge of bass and use of electronics. Both just graduated and know more than I do after more than 60 years of bass fishing!
The thing that impressed me most was the maturity, courtesy and manners of the two young men. They worked hard trying to catch fish and never gave up. They never had a cross word for each other or me, even when I asked stupid questions. I told Rob he had trained them right!
Young men like those two give me hope for the future even on days when the news is full of the opposite kind of youth and adults.
The day was miserably hot, with bright sun, dead calm wind, water temperature 90 degrees and the air even hotter. It reminded me of why I prefer fishing at night this time of year.
One of my first night fishing memories is going to Raysville Bridge and fishing under it. I heard fishing under there was good and even back then I got fired up, just knowing I could catch catfish, bream, crappie and bass. I spent hours getting my rod and reel ready.
We got a bucket of minnows and walked the long causeway out to the bridge and got under it. I was tired from the walk and soon got sleepy – and irritable.
It seemed every cast got hung in the rocks and I had to break off and retie my line with sinker and hook. And we never got a bite.
Another memory is of daddy and how patient he usually was with me. We were camping at Elijah Clark State Park on Clarks Hill and could see the big Highway 378 Bridge a half mile across the water.
We had rented and old wooden jon boat and paddles. I talked daddy into paddling me to the bridge to fish one night. We loaded up the boat with rods, reels, ice chest with drinks, snacks and rope to tie up with and daddy and I, mostly daddy, paddled us to the bridge.
After tying up I got my rod and started to bait my hook, and there was no minnow bucket! I had forgotten to put it in the boat. Daddy patiently untied, paddled us back to the campground, got the minnows and paddled us back to the bridge!
I don’t remember getting a bite that night.
When I started teaching school in 1972 I had summers off so I often spent a week at a time at our camper at Raysville Boat Club. I would fish a lot at night, fishing from 6:00 PM to 9:00 AM and then sleep all day for a week at a time.
A few nights I tied up under Raysville Bridge in my bass boat and fished for whatever would bite. Two nights really stand out in my memory.
One trip I planned on fishing all night so I carried food and drinks with me. I tied up a few feet from a family in a big boat and we all sat there, catching a crappie or hybrid every once in a while.
About the time I started getting hungry the woman in the boat beside me pulled out a big box of fried chicken. The smell wafting across to me made my mouth water.
Although I ate my sardines and saltines, which I usually loved, they were just not that good that night. I kept hoping the family would offer me a piece of chicken. I even considered grabbing one of the bones they threw in the water and gnawing any tiny shred of meant left!
Another night worked out better. There were a dozen boats tied under the bridge but no one was catching anything. It was frustrating, we could see big hybrids holding about five feet down under our lights and sucking in tiny young of the year shad.
Drifting a shiner minnow in front of them did no good, they ignored it, the shad they were eating were no more than a half inch long. I remembered the adage “match the hatch” and got an idea.
I dug around in my tackle and found a black #6 long shank bream hook. I peeled some shiny foil off my pack of cigarettes and wrapped the shank the hook with it. When I dropped it down under a small split shot, the hybrids ate it!
I think they saw the tiny glint of my foil and mistook it for a little shad. Whatever happened, I caught more than a dozen big hybrids and no one else ever caught one. That laughed at me when I told them the “bait” I was using, I guess they thought I was lying, and they never tried it.
One of the most accessible groups of fish across the country are the various panfish species. They can be found just about everywhere and are generally prolific and tons of fun for all ages to target. Bluegill, crappie, perch, and other similar species are also some of freshwater’s best-tasting fish.
Two popular fishing guides, Western New York’s Capt. Joe Fonzi and Wisconsin’s Jeff Evans each spend a good portion of their seasons guiding for panfish, which end up making an excellent meal for their clients. Both shared insight into their favorite species, how to catch them, and their secrets for cooking the best-tasting fish.
It’s Crappie for Evans
Evans began with a borderline sacrilegious statement about his preferred fish to eat in a walleye-crazed state like Wisconsin. His choice is the crappie.
“I’ve told people I would trade a walleye for a crappie every day, especially fresh crappie; it’s hard to beat,” he said. “I love eating crappie, and they are so much fun to catch. After they spawn and transition to the deeper weed edges and weedy points, they will usually be in those places until they head to the basins in the fall.”
Targeting weed lines, Evans said it’s hard to beat a small 1.5-inch tube jig on a slip bobber. “It’s tried and true, we probably catch 90 percent of our crappies that way,” he said. “We try all sorts of colors but always seem to come back to pink and white. This rig is something we use all season long; it’s a super versatile way to fish because you can easily adjust your bobber for the depth.”
Evans also likes the rig for its ease of use in all weather conditions. “It’s great because if you have a breezy day, the waves will give the bait for the action you need, and then when it’s calm, you can pull the rod and get the action,” he said. “It keeps the bait right in front of the fish.”
Fishing lightweight 1/32 and 1/64-ounce heads can be tricky to keep the bait down, so Evans has learned to add a 1/8-ounce egg sinker a foot above the bait and connect his mainline and leader to a barrel swivel.
“That’s a great way to keep your bait below the surface, but it also helps with casting so you don’t tangle the slip bobber as much,” he said. “I like to use a 1/8-ounce Thill Wobble bobber and adjust the slip to the weight. For my mainline, I like 15 lb Seaguar Smackdown in the Flash Green color. It casts incredibly far and is good at holding the slip knot in place.”
Evans utilizes a 12-inch section of Seaguar Gold Label fluorocarbon leader material between the barrel swivel and tube jig. “6 lb is perfect for crappie because it’s such a thin diameter and gives you a nice natural finesse presentation for your jig,” he said.
Early and Late Season Perch
Primarily fishing Lake Erie out of Buffalo, New York, Capt. Fonzi is a well-accomplished smallmouth bass angler and a premier trophy bass guide, but perch are also a big part of his guiding business.
“Perch are the main target for me in April and then again in September and October,” said Fonzi. “Both times of year are in the same areas and deep; in the spring, our fish will spawn as deep as 50 feet of water, which most people don’t realize,” he said. “They come into those areas again in the fall and will stay there all winter until we pick back up the next spring.”
These areas that he’s looking for are breaks and depth changes. “In most lakes, perch spawn on the edge of weeds, but we don’t have that in Erie, and instead, they use the rocks and vertical structure of the depth changes,” he said. “They’ll use these same areas in the fall to feed up on baby gobies. Those elevation changes hold tons of baitfish, and the perch gorge on them and eat like pigs.”
Targeting depths around the 50-foot range, Fonzi’s most productive setup is a double drop-shot rig with either live shiners or small soft plastic baits.
“What works well is a 4-inch Yamamoto Senko cut in half; they eat the heck out of those in the white colors or chartreuse with gold flake,” he said. “I like to use as light of a drop-shot weight as possible and will start with a 5/8-ounce weight but will adjust if I need to based on the wind and waves. I’ll also adjust my leader length on the hooks based on how the fish act; some days, the first hook could be only a few inches above the weight, and other times, it could be higher if the fish are suspended chasing baitfish.”
His line setup is a 10 lb Seaguar Smackdown braid and a leader of 10 lb Gold Label fluorocarbon. “We may get a few more bites with a lighter 6 or 8 lb leader, but fishing this way, you run into a lot of big walleye and bass as well, which gives me some added strength to land those as well,” he said. “The other thing you run into is constantly swinging two jumbo perch at the same into the boat over and over, which can stress your line, so the heavier leader helps and won’t break.”
Cooking Your Catch
When targeting crappie, Evans is cautious and limits how many he and his clients bring home each trip to protect the fishery. He’s a fan of a good old-fashioned fish fry and has narrowed it down to how many filets it typically takes to feed each person in attendance.
“It’s hard to beat fried crappie, and it always seems to work about four filets per person since some won’t eat that many, and others will eat more,” he said. “Having a fish fry at the end of the day is a great way to celebrate your day on the water, but I also don’t take too many because our lakes can be susceptible to overharvesting, especially with all of our new technology for electronics. I never take more than ten fish home, even though the limits are much higher.”
Every lake is a little different in size, but Evans says generally, crappie between 8 and 11 inches are perfect for a fish fry, and he’ll release the bigger ones. One trick he learned to get great-tasting fish is to utilize hot sauce.
“If you dip the filets in Frank’s Red Hot and then coat them in whatever crumbs you prefer to use right before going into the hot oil, they taste incredible,” he said. “It’s not too spicy after they are cooked, but the flavor is incredible.”
Fonzi prepares his perch in many ways, but one of his most often requested meals is fried perch sandwiches. “I like to mix either House Autry, Shore Lunch, or Uncle Buck’s fish fry seasoning half and half with Italian-style breadcrumbs,” he said. “Then I’ll enhance the mix with some Romano cheese, extra Italian seasoning, or garlic powder. Then, I’ll dip the filets in egg and place them into that mixture. It helps fill the voids in the filets, and they turn out crispy and crunchy when you fry them.”
He finishes the sandwich with a slice of American cheese and homemade tartar sauce made of Miracle Whip, relish, and lemon pepper as the dressing on top.
Catching panfish is always a good time as you can often get into large numbers and catch them quickly. The reward for catching them is an excellent meal at the end of the day, and their great-tasting filets keep anglers returning for more.
Seaguar Smackdown braid is available in high visibility Flash Green and low visibility Stealth Gray. It is available in 150- and 300-yard spools in sizes ranging from 10 to 65 lb tests.
Seaguar Gold Label Fluorocarbon leader is available in 25- and 50-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12 lb tests for freshwater use, complementing the 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 lb test leaders available for saltwater.
I grew up reading the big three outdoor magazines of the time: Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Field and Stream. At one time I had every copy of all three from 1964 until about 2000. Those magazines made me want to catch salmon in an Alaska stream and shoot doves in Argentina.
Sometimes an article applied directly to this country Georgia boy. I distinctly remember a tip that redwing blackbirds often lit in bushes hanging over the water and watched a bass under them, expecting the bass to injure a minnow the bird could than eat.
A few days later while fishing Harrison’s Pond with my trusty Mitchell 300 and a Devil’s Horse, I saw a redwing blackbird sitting on a small bush growing from the top of a stump about 40 feet off the bank. It took me a couple of cast to place the Devil’s Horse perfectly and bring it by the stump, but I got an explosive strike from a nice two-pound bass.
More recently I had gotten my fishing stuff ready for a Jackson night tournament and was killing time waiting to leave. I read an online report on an Arkansas lake. It said the bass were hitting a jig and pig at night.
I went out and tied one on for the tournament. At midnight I had not caught a fish and had just two hours left to fish. Remembering the article and jig, I picked it up and started casting it to a rocky point. I landed five bass on it in the next hour and won the tournament.
The big three magazines were national and covered everything about the outdoors. Then around my senior year in high school, 1968, I heard about a new group that published a magazine. But it was different. The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) was nothing but black bass fishing.
Youth nowadays have almost unlimited information available to them and many of them take advantage of it. Some college bass fishermen have more bass fishing knowledge than I have accumulated in 65 years of bass fishing. They constantly study and read about bass fishing.
I share recaps of my tournament here and hope they help fishermen catch fish. Sometimes another fisherman sharing what they catch fish on and how they are caught is a big help. For the same reason I post a variety of fishing reports on my web site. You never know where or when a tip may help you in the future.
I hope somehow my reports help you catch a bass!
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I wish I had read something or heard something to help me at West Point last weekend! That lake has been my bane this year in tournaments, finishing near the bottom in Potato Creek and a Sportsman Club tournaments in February.
Last Sunday 12 members and guests fished from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM to land 40 bass weighing about 40 pounds at West Point. There were four five-bass limits and one person didn’t weigh in a fish.
Raymond English won with five weighing 10.31 pounds and got big fish with a 2.59 pounder. Second went to Billy Roberts with five at 6.33 pounds, third was Lee Hancock with five at 5.30 pounds and Jay Gerson was fourth with five weighing 4.97 pounds. My four weighing 4.69 pounds was fifth, one place out of the money again!
Before the tournament Lee said a big tournament there the day before produced a winning weight of 18 pounds. He asked “How do they do that?” I told him I thought they ran way up the river and threw topwater frogs around grass and other shallow cover, working hard all day for five bites from quality largemouth. I also said I could not fish like that anymore, my old body won’t let me.
Instead I tend to fish memories, trying to catch fish in the same places and the same ways I caught them the same time of year in the past. Sometimes it kinda works.
After a club member helped me launch my boat and I sat waiting on blastoff Sunday morning, the fairly strong wind make me change my plans. I knew the wind would be blowing right into three rocky points down the lake where I caught fish two weeks ago, usually a good thing. I decided to start there rather than a place upstream I originally planned to go.
Wind was blowing into the points and a crow walking the edge of the water, looking for shad I thought, made me think I had made a good decision. I quickly missed a bite on topwater and picked up a Carolina rig and landed a 11.9-inch spot. Not a keeper.
And it was the only bite I got until I ran back up the lake to where I planned to start at 9:00. I finally caught three fish on a shaky head worm on rocky points and one on a whacky rigged worm under a dock.
I hooked exactly five bass all day! I just could not catch that fifth keeper.
Want a nice get-away to the mountains for some scenery, cool air and fishing? I just got back from a few days around Blairsville and Lake Nottely. On the trip I ate some good food, looked at scenic views and fished for bass. And I was constantly having flashback memories of my youth.
All the years I was in elementary school, grades one through eight back then, my family went on summer vacation for a week in the mountains. We would load up the 54 Bel Air – and later the 1962 Bel Air – and head north from Dearing. All the roads were two lane back then and it was a slow, enjoyable trip.
Each night we would stay in a cheap roadside motel, four of us in one room, and eat at a local diner. Daddy insisted on country food just like we ate at home no matter how much I wanted a hamburger or hotdog. At lunch we would stop at a picnic table, often right beside the road but sometimes at a scenic overlook, and mama would make sandwiches.
My most vivid memory of lunches is not about the food. We always had Cokes in small bottles back then. I picked up mine for a swig and didn’t notice the yellow jacket on the mouth of the bottle. It took exception to being pressed against my lip and, after the burning sting eased a bit, I swelled up for two days!
The roadside attractions back then were not politically correct. At many you could buy a nickel Coke or candy bar and give it to a chained bear cub to drink and eat. I never wondered what happened to those cubs when they got too big, the owners probably ate them.
I learned about scams on one of those trips. A sign said give the owner a nickel and he would open the lid of a box cage and let you see the baby rattler and copperhead inside.
Sure enough, there was a baby shake rattle toy and a penny inside.
I loved the mountain streams and lakes but we never stayed in one place long enough for me to fish. But the year I was eight we changed our plans and I could not wait for my dream trip.
My family and another family, close friends, rented a cabin at Vogel State Park for a week. It was right beside a small stream that had trout in it, and only a couple hundred yards from the lake.
The other couple had a baby girl and she had colic. Her loud crying kept me up all night and almost ruined the trip. That is when I decided I never wanted kids of my own!
One morning before daylight I put on my overalls, slipped out of the cabin without waking anyone, picked up my cane pole and can of worms and headed to the lake. Where the stream entered it several row boats for rent were chained up. One was half full of water with its back end in the lake.
I sat on the edge of that boat for a couple hours as it got light, catching small bream, yellow perch and trout with live earthworms. I put my fish in the end of the boat that was full of water and it was supposed to work like a livewell.
Mama came hustling down the path to the cabin calling my name. When they woke and I was not there they panicked and went looking for me. Mama found me after she asked two teenage girls out walking if they had seen a kid.
Apparently they answered that yes, Huckleberry Finn was fishing down by the lake the lake! I guess that fit me with my bare feet, overalls and straw hat!
Many things have changed, you will not see chained bear cubs or baby rattlers. But a trip is still fun and fishing is good on Nottely and other area lakes.
My trip was to go out with guide Will Harkins and get information for my June Georgia Outdoor News article. Although Will is in college he is a great fisherman and knows Nottely and Chatuge well.
I stayed in a nice fifth wheel camping trailer through brooksiderv.com in a retirement camper community. It was cheaper than area motels and more comfortable and quieter than a motel would have been. It was only a few miles from Nottely and Blairsville.
About a mile from the camper and Nottely Dam is Papaw’s Bac-yard BBQ where I got some of the best brisket I have ever eaten, delicious and tender enough to cut with a fork. He has a wide variety of sauces and his Brunswick Stew was very good, too.
Next door at the Amish Store some interesting jelly is available. Frog jelly is fig, raspberry, orange and ginger. Toe Jam is tangerine, orange and elderberry. Traffic jam is mostly strawberry for some reason. There are also many other things, from furniture to funny signs, for sale too.
The first night I drove into Blairsville and ate at Mike’s Seafood. The scallops were delicious, cooked just right, and the bite of grilled tuna I tried was excellent. I always like walking into a place like Mike’s and see you order at the fresh seafood counter.
I planned on eating there on Saturday night before I left. Although Google Maps said they got less busy after 8:00 PM, an hour before the close, at 8:00 that night the wait to order was 90 minutes!!
Sicily’s Pizza & Subs Pasta was just down the street and there was no wait. The pizza I got was great but it was not the scallops I wanted!
This is from January 2024, but it is always true. In March Lake Martin was as muddy as I have seen it in 50 years and the next weekend Jackson was September clear, unusual for April
Fishing conditions can change fast this time of year. Last weekend Lake Sinclair was very clear, so clear I blamed the tough fishing on it. But the flooding rain Tuesday most likely changed that.
For many years our lakes got very muddy in the winter and spring from rain run-off. Muddy water was the norm back in the 1970s and 80s at my place on Germany Creek at Clarks Hill. But now it is not unusual to see the bottom three feet down like it was the week before Christmas.
I think farming practices are the reason. Fewer plowed fields mean less muddy runoff.
Sinclair has always been a popular bass fishing lake in the winter, mostly due to the warm water discharge from the power plant there. The warmer water made the fish more active than they were on other lakes in middle Georgia. After the power plant was torn down conditions changed.
Last Sunday I could see the bottom three to four feet down on Sinclair. And in anticipation of the coming rain, Georgia Power had lowered the lake about a foot to accept the runoff. But like other lakes, run off from a heavy rain will muddy up some of the lake. The bigger the lake the less it muddies.
Small lakes like Jackson can get muddy from dam to headwaters in a few hours. Sinclair usually takes a couple of days. And huge lakes like Clarks Hill almost never get muddy near the dam but the creeks and rivers upstream do get muddy.
The lower the water the more it muddies up. If the lake is full the muddy inflow just pushes the clear water downstream some, making it go higher. With the lake low the muddy water flows downstream with less clear water to slow it down.
One of the worst experience I have had happened at Jackson a few years ago. I was on the lake a few days before the tournament and caught nice spots off every rocky point from near the dam upstream to Tussahaw Creek. I could not wait for the tournament.
When we took off it was still a little dark. We could see well enough to run but details on the bank and in the water were vague. I stopped on the first point going upstream, planning on working my way up hitting every point.
Within a few minutes I caught a nice keeper spot on a crankbait. When I decided to go to the next point something didn’t look right. About 50 yards above the point I was on, the water changed from a greenish clear to red mud. It looked like someone had drawn a line across the lake and colored above it with a red crayon.
A heavy rain had hit the day before the tournament, but I never expected that change! The mudline moved past the point I started on within a few minutes. The whole lake was muddy upstream at daylight and to the dam by 10:00 AM.
And I never got another bite.
I don’t mind fishing cold water too much. My rule of thumb this time of year is that if the water temperature is above 50 degrees, I have a pretty good chance of catching a bass. If it is 45 to 50 degrees, I may get a bite. But if the water is colder than 45 degrees I might as well go home.
Muddy cold water is much worse. It is the worst possible condition this time of year to me.
Other factors affect fishing, too. I had information that a lot of bass were out deep on Sinclair, deeper than I expected. Some of my friends were catching bass 50 feet deep.
I planned on trying to catch a fish shallow this past Sunday then going out and looking for schools of deep fish. But the wind made it miserable fishing open water and boat control was very hard.
I did find one ball of bait 35 feet deep and another ball of either gizzard shad or crappie down 40 feet deep but got no bites around them.
Bright sun is not good when the water is warm in the summer, but it can help this time of year. I do get a laugh when I hear fishermen say sun warms underwater rocks and that warms the water the water around them. Water dissipates heat way too fast for that to happen.
Bass are attracted to shallow rocks and sun on them does seem to help in the winter. There is lots of food like crawfish living around rocks so bass feed there in the winter. And the sun may warm them some like it does us sitting in it, but I am not sure.
No matter the reason, fishing around rocks is a good tactic this time of year.
Many other factors affect fishing this time of year so the most important thing is to be adaptable.
Last Sunday only three members of the Flint River Bass Club showed up for our January tournament. Since there were less than four fishermen, the club paid our entry fees.
I won with two bass weighing 3.41 pounds and my 2.44 pound largemouth was big fish. Zane Fleck had one keeper weighing 1.77 pounds for second. That was it, the third fisherman zeroed.
I had two bites on a jig, one at 9:00 AM and the second just before 10:00 AM around rocks. After that I looked for deeper fish but never got another bite all day!
The Georgia Bass Slam 2024 Grand Prize Winner and how to enter this year
By The Fishing Wire
Winner, winner, fish for dinner! Congratulations to Michael Mooney of Grovetown, GA (Columbia County) on winning the Grand Prize for the 2024 Georgia Bass Slam.
Mr. Mooney was one of 67 anglers that got a Georgia Bass Slam in 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD).
“What a surprise! This is the first time I have ever won anything,” said Michael Mooney, who has been participating in the program since 2018 and gotten 4 total Bass Slams. “These programs are a lot of fun every year and I appreciate the opportunity to participate.”
The Bass Slam Grand Prize Winner receives a cooler, camp chair, tackle box and a beautifully framed bass print. Are you working on your 2025 Slam?
Georgia Bass Slam: Catch (at least) five of the different black bass species found in Georgia within a calendar year and you have a Georgia Bass Slam! This program recognizes anglers with the knowledge and skill to catch different species of bass in a variety of habitats across the state, while also stimulating interest in the conservation and management of black bass and their habitats. For complete rules and more info, visit BassSlam.com.
Other Fishing Recognition Programs:
Angler Award Program: This program recognizes those who catch fish that meet or exceed a specific weight or length for that species. There is an adult, youth, public fishing area and trophy bass angler award program category. For complete rules and more info, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/anglerawards.
State Records: In addition to the angler award program, the division also maintains a freshwater fish state-record program for anglers who land a catch that exceeds the existing record catch weight by one ounce or more. More information at GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/recordprogram/rules.
Trout Slam: Catch all 3 species of trout available in Georgia waters and earn a Trout Slam! More info at GeorgiaWildlife.com/trout-slam.
Kids First Fish Certificate: The division wants to recognize children across the state for catching their first fish with an online kid’s “first fish award” certificate available at GeorgiaWildlife.com/my-first.
Georgia Wildlife Resources thanks anglers that took part in these programs and appreciates all anglers that head out to state waters throughout the year to wet a line. For more information about fishing in Georgia, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/angler-resources.
The Flint River Bass Club held its first 2023 tournament last Sunday at Jackson. In it, six of us fished for eight hours in a mudhole to land 12 bass weighing about 14 pounds. There was one five bass limit and no one zeroed.
I landed five weighing 5.70 pounds for first, Doug Acre came in second with two weighing 3.36 pounds and had a 1.94-pound fish for big fish and Lee Hancock had three weighing 3.1 for third. Fourth went to Alex Gober with one at 1.71 pounds and new member Scott Smith had keeper weighing .63 pounds for fifth.
When we started at 7:30 AM I could tell the water was very muddy even in the cove at the ramp. My first cast I found out how muddy, my crankbait disappeared about two inches deep.
I fished one place in the muddy cove without a bite for about 30 minutes. When I headed up the river to try to find some clearer water to fish, I was shocked and scared when I saw all the wood floating in the water. Everything from twigs to logs twice as long as my boat covered the water from bank to bank.
That made me stop on a point and try to fish, although it was very muddy and almost every cast produced some kind of trash on my line and lure. After about 30 minutes the light breeze had moved the wood away from one side of the lake enough to run on plane if you were slow and careful.
I had hoped to go up the Alcovy River above the mouth of the South River where the water is often clearer, but when I got to the mouth of Tussahaw Creek I changed my mind. The wood going up the river covered it even worse from bank to bank and the wind had not made any open water at wall.
That condition made me go up Tussahaw Creek where there is often some clear water. And it did get better above the bridge, I could see my bait down a solid six inches!
I caught a small keeper spot by casting a brown three sixteenths ounce Bitsy Bug jig with a green pumpkin Creepy Crawler trailer to a cement seawall. Of course I dipped the tails of the trailer in chartreuse JJs Magic. There are rocks at the bottom of most seawalls and bass will hold against them to feed on crayfish and baitfish.
I kept fishing seawalls like that and every one of my fish, two more spots and two largemouth, hit the jig on a seawall. Lee was fishing the same area and caught his three on a variety of baits.
I invited the spots I caught home for dinner. When I cleaned them they had parts of small crayfish in their stomachs. That is why they liked my brown jig with the twin trailer arms!
Sometimes I ask myself, and I’m sure other people who enjoy fishing ask themselves, “Why do we go fishing”? I’ve found in recent years that my reasons for going fishing have changed. In conversations with other anglers, I’ve learned that their reasons for going fishing have changed also.
When I first started fishing many years ago, I went for one reason: To catch fish! I enjoyed being outdoors and didn’t enjoy being around people that much, so I would park my truck, put on my waders, and walk up and down area rivers by myself. I usually caught some fish. Mostly smallmouth bass and northern pike, but every now and then a walleye would bite my bait. And when a carp would try to eat my jig with his tail, that’s when things got really exciting!
Somewhere in the passage of time, my priorities while fishing changed a bit. Maybe more than a bit. I still like to catch fish. The more and the bigger the better. But I’ve discovered other elements of fishing that are taking on a larger role in my enjoyment of fishing.
It was in my late teenage years that I learned that sharing the fishing experience was enjoyable. I started inviting a family member or a friend to accompany me on those walks along the river. I also learned that it was as much fun to watch my partner catch a fish as it was for me to catch a fish.
As I got older and started fishing from a boat, I realized that not only was it more fun to fish with a partner or two, it was also easier. Two people putting a boat in the water and parking the truck was easier and faster than one person doing so.
It also sunk in that when a couple people were fishing, we could try different baits. One angler would use a faster moving bait, the other a slower moving bait. Or one angler would use a bait of one color, the other used a bait of another color. We could figure out faster what type of presentation the fish were most likely to respond to when we had more lines in the water. We caught more fish.
I learned that every now and then, I truly enjoy setting my fishin’ pole down and just watch the wildlife or water fowl. On a fishing trip a couple of years ago, for the first time, I saw a family of otters on a small rock island. I had never seen this many otters(6) this close. It really added to the day on the water. I’ve watched otters, beavers, deer, loons, and a variety of other critters since then and, every time, it’s enhanced the fishing experience.
Some anglers say they go fishing to catch a meal of fish. They say that it helps stretch their food budget. Going fishing probably isn’t the most economical way to obtain a meal of fresh fish, but it is definitely the most fun way to do so.
So, back to the original question: Why do we go fishing? I don’t know! It’s not one big thing that encourages me to go fishing, it’s a bunch of big things. But the biggest thing is that fishing is something that I enjoy and helps me get away for a while from the things that I and many others need or want to get away from. For me, that’s enough of a reason to go fishing.
Photo Caption—This above all: Never forget that fishing is supposed to be fun.
