# Lake Seminole SW Ga, fishing problem.



## Son (Jul 27, 2010)

First let me say, I've been fishing Lake Seminole since 1984 and know how to fish. In the first years, I fished all over the lake, with some favorite spots being in Cypress Pond, Hickory Pond and Rays Lake. Those areas always provided good fishing for Bass, bream, shellcrackers and specks. In 1992, I bought a lot on the water between Cypress Pond and Hickory Ponds. Built a house and my neighbor and I put in a dock. Finally got my dream, to live on a lake where I could enjoy sitting on the dock early mornings, and late evenings catching fish. That's the way it was when the house was first built, but now there's a big problem. The problem started when the Corp installed electric fish barriers at the far ends of Hickory Pond and Cypress Pond. Since then our fishing has gone south. All those areas that used to produce fish, are now void of those fish. No longer do we have fish migrating in and out to Lake Seminole. Instead I suggest that most fish when reaching a certain size, escape the compounds and go to the main lake. Over the last couple years, I've surveyed our waters in search  of bream and shellcracker beds. Tried tightlining for channel cats and shellcrackers. Also tried several methods of bass fishing. The results of my fishing tell the story. There are some of all species in these waters, but not enough to make it worth a fishermans time to try and catch a mess. I think it a shame that so many have seen the fishing around their docks go to pot. I also suggest the Corp take out those experimental fish barriers. The experiment didn't work. The White Amura have for the most part excaped into the main lake. We want our local fishing back. 
For a comparison. I can go out past the gates and catch a mess of fish anytime. Can find bream and shellcracker beds, and bass fishing is still great out there.
Another reason the fish barriers are bad. Tournaments take bass out, release em elsewhere, and they can't come back.
Back when bass were bedding, seven males were fanning around the dock. Like an assembly line, fishermen came by all day long from daylight to dark picthing at those beds. End result, one bed managed to get by and hatched out fry. Consequently, our bass numbers are also down. I challenge anybody to come here and take a tour, fish all you want, and see for yourself. Thanks for listening.


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## brunofishing (Jul 27, 2010)

" Experimental fish barriers " What is that?


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## Son (Jul 27, 2010)

Where barriers are installed to keep fish in or out of a certain body of water. The first barriers had gates that boats had to push open. These ruined the front of my bass boat, and cost me a couple of trolling motor props before they removed the swinging gates and installed electric charged zones. They claim fish wont pass thru the charged areas, but I have sat and watched fish and minnows go thru the gates.
Originally installed to contain grass carp, to eat the grass and clean up our lakes. Some carp are still within the compound, but many have escaped out into Seminole. I'm not the only property owner complaining here. Others have also noticed the problem.
The grass carp that were stocked now are about 3 feet long and look like a huge mullet in shape.
They probably do some good, but there's a problem there too. Too many people are feeding the carp from their docks. A feed full carp isn't going to eat much grass. The experiment just hasn't worked. This subject is also discussed in my weekly outdoors column in the Donalsonville Ga News this week.


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## brunofishing (Jul 27, 2010)

I heard they were putting in some kind of worm that will eat the grass. Then it will turn into a gnat.


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## vagrantprodigy (Jul 27, 2010)

brunofishing said:


> I heard they were putting in some kind of worm that will eat the grass. Then it will turn into a gnat.



Sounds great. The world needs more gnats.


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## Ronnie T (Jul 27, 2010)

A lot of bass have been cause inside those electric gates this year.
But you're right, they've all been taken out and released in the flint.
If I had a nice home on Seminole I wouldn't be worrying about the fence.  
I'd be worried about all the hydrilla that's been killed at the request of homeowners.
Oops.  Sorry, offtopic.


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## Son (Jul 27, 2010)

I don't worry about the hydrilla, can always work around that. It's a pest at times, but provides good cover for fish, and food for ducks. For the last week, our water lever has been down low, can't get thru at the mule lot right now without risk of hitting bottom. And if you lose plane, you wont get back up. So, it will be Put, put all the way thru. Low water, shows the stumps good though. So many people have moved in around here, it's difficult to fish around the edges. Most don't want anybody fishing near their docks. I don't mind folks fishing around my dock, just wish they would leave those bedding buck bass alone and let em get it done.


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## Doyle (Jul 27, 2010)

Son, have you tried keeping your small bluegill and shellcracker in the live well for releasing inside your barrier?


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## Son (Jul 27, 2010)

Ever since I noticed our fishing going bad, I've always released a few shellcrackers and bream at the dock. They hang around for awhile, but eventually disappear. I never keep more than 15 to 20 panfish, that's a mess for us. Anything over that's still good and lively gets turned loose at the dock. And if I only catch a few, they get loose at the dock. Tell you what I do see at the dock is, jackfish and stumpknockers. Before the gates were installed we never saw a stumpknocker. We caught shellcrackers, bluegills and a few warmouth. As prolific as specks are, their numbers are declining too. I met a couple guys who take a vacation each year to fish here. They used to catch specks out in front of our dock. Last year, they said they were giving up and going to the main lake. Didn't see em this Spring. It would be nice to catch a mess of fish without having to burn a tank of gas getting to where the fish are. My property taxes keep going up, and the fishing is going down. There's a bunch of houses for sale around here right now, but it's not because of the fishing. So, if you drive through Holly Isles East, don't get the wrong idea.


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## Ronnie T (Jul 27, 2010)

Son said:


> I don't worry about the hydrilla, can always work around that. It's a pest at times, but provides good cover for fish, and food for ducks. For the last week, our water lever has been down low, can't get thru at the mule lot right now without risk of hitting bottom. And if you lose plane, you wont get back up. So, it will be Put, put all the way thru. Low water, shows the stumps good though. So many people have moved in around here, it's difficult to fish around the edges. Most don't want anybody fishing near their docks. I don't mind folks fishing around my dock, just wish they would leave those bedding buck bass alone and let em get it done.



Try parking a boat that would limit access to those bedding bass.  Might work.


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## Chris S. (Jul 27, 2010)

vagrantprodigy said:


> Sounds great. The world needs more gnats.


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## Ronnie T (Jul 28, 2010)

vagrantprodigy said:


> Sounds great. The world needs more gnats.



Yes.  I've often sat on a hydrilla bed on Seminole, on a calm hot day, wondering to myself.....
"I wish there were 30 million knats swarming me rather than only 20 million."


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## Pondworm (Jul 28, 2010)

Seems to me every time someone tries to do something to benefit fishing it seems to backfire.A friend of mine who lives on Spring Creek said the hydrilla is gone from there now. Must have turned the drip system back on. But the fish are gone also. Personally I hate the hydrilla,rather I hate fishing in it. I know it has allowed the shellcracker to get enormous in Seminole, much bigger than they were for years. I also know that the drawdowns they did in Talquin were to help the fishing in the long run,particularly the bass. All I know for sure is they decimated the shellcracker in that lake and they havent come back in almost 30 years,sizewise. I guess what I'm saying is I feel your pain.Each tactic used to help in one way seems to hurt in another. Just my 2 cents.


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## GABASSMAN (Jul 28, 2010)

Yea that drip has a lot of anglers hot right now. I also heard that some individuals thought it would be wise to bring apple snails and deposit them throughout the lake to control the hydrilla in the flint. Now this is just a rumor but I have had some pretty reliable sources tell me this. It seems when people try to make things better they screw them up way worse. I wish everyone would just leave lakes and rivers alone because the fishing was great before and will continue to be great unless wanna be fisheries biologist step in


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## Ronnie T (Jul 28, 2010)

And why is there less hydrilla on the florida bank of the lake than the creek?
There's no real purpose for killing it on the fla side.


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## diamondback (Jul 28, 2010)

I have never thought about the fact that alot of bedding fish get taken out of those clear water ponds and then get put back in the main lake.makes sense that could hurt the fishing some.

I knew when the wanted to kill the hydrilla that it would hurt the all around fishing.I guess folks would rather go skiing than fishing.

I heard those gates damaged alot of boats also.

If the state would just leave things alone we would be better off but they gotta try to push their way into every part of our lives.Usually catering to a small group with alot on money and influence.

I would guess that there is more grass in the creek because of the year round clear water that lets the grass get all the sunlight it needs to grow.the hooch side tends to be stained and at times has alot of current that removes the grass.


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## flint river nut (Jul 28, 2010)

*In a nutshell.....*

In a nutshell....you got a chemical company selling chemicals to the Corp of Engineers.....you got a complete moron siging a grant because he is getting money under the table...currently you have dying grass using up oxygen in the hottest part of the year....you had a great lake with record catches...in the future you got a creek full of timber with jet skis running through the stumpfields....welcome to the modern government situation.

Guys don't get me started....my blood pressure is going up!!


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## Son (Jul 28, 2010)

The worse thing the corp can do during the summer is to let the lake get low. This provides more sunlight to all aquatic weeds and caused em to explode. The lake is full of nutrition provided by runoff from farms. Combine the fertilizer with sunlight, and there is the weed problem. I can now show you areas I used to fish, that are either cattails or land now. Mule lot, Spooner Field etc.. can't get around in those two places anymore, like we used to. Hydrilla cover does keep greedy people from cleaning out all the shellcracker beds each spring. I just can't understand people who think they have to catch all they can. I keep what I can use, and that's about 15 to 20 panfish, or a 8 or 10 catfish. Rarely do I fish for bass anymore, but if I do, I will keep a few of the larger ones to fillet for an older member of the family that can't deal with bones anymore. Bottom line, if one does as I do, they'll never hurt the fishery in Lake Seminole. 
Speaking about people fishing for bedding buck bass. A neighbor had words with some young fishermen at his dock this past spring.  They were rude, and later came back and painted obscenities on his dock. Some people don't care if you fish around their dock, some will politely ask that you don't. Some dock owners will get absolutely rude. So, the problem can be on either side. Fact is, it's legal to fish around a dock, as long as you don't get on their dock. Where I live, it's getting difficult to fish around the edge, if you try and avoid the docks. that sort of puts fishing out in the middle if you  don't want to have words with the neighbors.  I remember fishing Seminole and adjoining lakes when there was very few docks. That was the days folks, gone forever.


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## Ronnie T (Jul 29, 2010)

Some places that use to hold very productive hydrilla patches have now been taken over by pads.  Acres and acres of pads up on the florida side.


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## dawg4028 (Jul 29, 2010)

Son said:


> The worse thing the corp can do during the summer is to let the lake get low. This provides more sunlight to all aquatic weeds and caused em to explode. The lake is full of nutrition provided by runoff from farms. Combine the fertilizer with sunlight, and there is the weed problem. I can now show you areas I used to fish, that are either cattails or land now. Mule lot, Spooner Field etc.. can't get around in those two places anymore, like we used to. Hydrilla cover does keep greedy people from cleaning out all the shellcracker beds each spring. I just can't understand people who think they have to catch all they can. I keep what I can use, and that's about 15 to 20 panfish, or a 8 or 10 catfish. Rarely do I fish for bass anymore, but if I do, I will keep a few of the larger ones to fillet for an older member of the family that can't deal with bones anymore. Bottom line, if one does as I do, they'll never hurt the fishery in Lake Seminole.
> Speaking about people fishing for bedding buck bass. A neighbor had words with some young fishermen at his dock this past spring.  They were rude, and later came back and painted obscenities on his dock. Some people don't care if you fish around their dock, some will politely ask that you don't. Some dock owners will get absolutely rude. So, the problem can be on either side. Fact is, it's legal to fish around a dock, as long as you don't get on their dock. Where I live, it's getting difficult to fish around the edge, if you try and avoid the docks. that sort of puts fishing out in the middle if you  don't want to have words with the neighbors.  I remember fishing Seminole and adjoining lakes when there was very few docks. That was the days folks, gone forever.



I agree Son.  I've seen both sides of the dock issue.  Most of the time it comes down to common sense and being nice.  People fish around my dock.  I fish and fishing around docks should be expected imho.  There is a lot of docks where I'm at.  I'm  sure many may disagree.  Docks certainly do hold fish though.


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## Ronnie T (Jul 29, 2010)

Up the hooch is an area known as the 'cornfield'.
In the summer it fills completely up with lilypads.
Are any of you able to catch bass out of there once the pads completely take over????

Not me.


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