Georgia Bream Hotspots

May and June are special months in Georgia for fishermen — the time of year when bream fishing is at its best. Watching a bobber, or tossing a spinner to bream beds, is extremely fun whether you are seven or 70. It’s a great way to load up a livewell for the church fish-fry, or to introduce a kid to the fun of fishing. To help readers find some public fishing water for bream fishing, and to get you started if you’ve never gone after bream, GON offers our 2001 Georgia Bream Special.

Going from north to south, let’s look at some of the best public bream-fishing water around the state.

In north Georgia, most folks buying crickets and nightcrawlers or rigging up a Rooster Tail on their ultralight rod-and-reel are probably heading for a trout stream. But there are also plenty of public lakes where the bream fishing can be outstanding. In northeast Georgia, the chain of lakes on the Tallulah River — Lake Burton, Seed Lake and Lake Rabun — have long been known as good stops for bream fishing.

All three lakes hold bluegill and shellcracker, and the shellcracker are especially big. “I’ve weighed redears out of those lakes over three pounds,” said Fisheries biologist Anthony Rabern. “They get really big on all three lakes, and the bluegills are commonly over half a pound.”

The fishing pattern is simple: look for boat docks and brush or blowdowns. Considering that these lake banks are bristling with boat docks, you’ll have no problem there. Blowdown timber on the banks will also hold bream. Offer the standard fare of crickets and worms on bobbers or artificial spinners, focusing on the shady water back underneath boat docks, and the ends of blowdowns. Take off the bobber and let your nightcrawler sink to the bottom to get to the shellcrackers, and Anthony pointed out that the shellcrackers will generally be found a little deeper than the bluegill, out to 10 feet on the edge of rocky banks and off blowdowns. Also, around the full moon in May and June, put on your polarized sunglasses and scout the shallow backs of pockets and creeks, where you are likely to spot bream beds in shallow water where the bottom is sandy.

Popping bugs are deadly on bream. Here’s a good one, a Sneaky Pete, made by Gaines.

There are public ramps and marinas on all three lakes, and Lake Burton, the largest of the three lakes, is home to Mocassin Creek State Park. The park offers a place to camp, a boat ramp, and some bank access, plus it is one of several state parks participating in DNR’s Fishing Tackle Loaner program. Here, you can check out a fishing rod-and-reel, some sinkers, hooks and corks, free of charge for the day. You provide the bait (See the inset on p. 58 to find out about other state parks that offer this service).

In northwest Georgia, Rocky Mountain Public Fishing Area near Rome is still an outstanding choice for public bream fishing. Jerry Buffington runs the Big Texas Valley Trading Post, located right across the road from the PFA, and he said sadly that he doesn’t get to fish for bream when they are biting best — he’s too busy selling worms and crickets.

“I had a guy last Saturday, April 14, tell me that he got into some pretty good ones, but they normally don’t start biting real good until it gets a little warmer,” said Jerry. “Around stumps and around trees that beavers have dropped into the lake, places like that are real good. Also there’s a lot of shallow rocks around the bank and those are good places.”

There are two lakes at Rocky Mountain PFA, 357 and 202 acres, and both offer plenty of bank access for folks without boats. There are also ramps for folks who do own boats. For info on Rocky Mountain PFA and at the other PFAs around the state, click here.

Fishermen living around the suburban and metro Atlanta region have a number of good options for public bream fishing, courtesy of the many old and new drinking-water reservoirs that are open to fishing. Clayton County offers several small reservoirs, including Shamrock Lake, which produced the state-record bluegill, a 3-lb., 5-oz. whopper, way back in 1977. The excellent bream fishing at Lake Horton in Fayette County was profiled in the May 2000 issue of GON. Horton has big bluegill and shellcracker, and plenty of them, and like most of these reservoirs where boats are restricted to electric motors only, the bream fishing is often overlooked by anglers more interested in bass and crappie.

Newton County’s Lake Varner has long been known as a bream hot-spot. DNR Fisheries biologist Bubba Mauldin said that fisheries samples have turned up good numbers of hefty, 1/2-lb. shellcrackers lately at Varner, as well as big bluegill. Bubba said he once predicted that Varner’s outstanding bream fishing would not last long; in public lakes like Varner, competition from crappie and other species is often just high enough to eventually lower the number and size of bream. But that has not been the case at Varner, Bubba said, where the bream fishing continues to be strong. That makes Bubba wonder about the bream fishery at Black Shoals Reservoir in Rockdale County; will it remain strong or will it decline? Right now, for this new fishing reservoir, the bream fishing is good. Loads of 1/2-lb. bluegill and shellcracker turn up when DNR has sampled this lake. The clear water should make it easy to find and stalk beds in the shallow water in the backs of creeks this month.

In central Georgia, and well within reach of Atlanta fishermen, is Charlie Elliott PFA, which offers 22 different ponds up to 95 acres in size. Biologist Scott Robinson, who profiled the bass fishing at Fox Lake at Charlie Elliott in last month’s issue of GON, had several recommendations for bream, starting with Fox. Shepherd Lake is well known for big shellcracker, he said, and Margery Lake, which was drained for dam repairs and refilled four years ago, should have a strong population of bream this year.

“Lower Raleigh has historically produced some of the bigger bream on the area,” Scott said. “Whitetail pond is accessible, easy to bank fish, and it’s tucked away on the south end so not as many people go to it. Allen pond is another one that’s good for bream.”

Finding bedding fish near shallow banks is the best way in May to fish Charlie Elliott. Scott also pointed out that fly fishermen always seem to have good luck at the PFA, perhaps because they are showing the fish something a little different than most anglers throw.

Scott also mentioned Rock Eagle Lake in Putnam County as an overlooked but excellent bream-fishing destination. Scott fished Rock Eagle lake last spring while profiling the bass fishing for a GON article, and he saw some fishermen catching a load of big bream on the bank directly across from the boat ramp. The fishermen were hunting bedding fish by walking the banks.

Bream fishing at the state’s large reservoirs can be fair to good depending on which lake you head for. However, there are a couple of big reservoirs that have earned reputations for good bream fishing. For shellcrackers, Clarks Hill Lake north of Augusta, is tough to beat. If you can’t find them bedding in protected water in the backs of creeks and coves, look for sandy banks with lots of mussel shell exposed. The shellcrackers hang out thick around beds of mussels, and a red wiggler fished without a float will work fine. With the lake having been down for several months, there is a band of open water between the bank and hydrilla beds (in creeks with hydrilla). Now that the lake is up again, this band of open water is a great place to try.

Middle and south Georgia rivers produce big catches of redbreast bream each May and June. Crickets, artificial spinners or popping bugs will all fill a stringer.

Lake Seminole is the other great bream-fishing reservoir, located in southwest Georgia. The lake is loaded with bluegills, but like Clarks Hill it is the redears that are worth the trip. Look for pockets of open, shallow water among the hydrilla beds in sheltered water, particularly in places like Spring Creek and Fish Pond Drain. There, you should be able to spot beds in shallow water around the full moon in May and June. Red wigglers, crickets or any artificials are a good choice, or go with Jack Wingate’s favorite and fish a small popping bug on a fly rod.

You don’t have to go all the way to south Georgia to catch redbreasts. Both the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers in central Georgia offer good redbreast fishing with fairly easy access at some points. Redbreasts are a current-oriented bream species, and you’ll find them in slow to moderate currents around shoals on both rivers. Fish crickets on a float in the deeper runs, or throw a small in-line spinner or a Beetle Spin. On the Ocmulgee, some shoals are accessible without a boat from Forest Service roads on the Oconee National Forest in Jasper County, or you can launch a canoe and float from the Lake Jackson dam down to the access points on the national forest.

On the Flint River, bank access is plentiful at Sprewell Bluff State Park in Upson County. You can also reach the river from Big Lazer WMA in Talbot County, where there are several sets of shoals you can wade and fish without a boat. If the river fish aren’t biting, the 195-acre lake at Big Lazer PFA is nearby, and the fishing for bluegill and shellcracker in that lake is above average.

In south Georgia, your options for public bream fishing are almost unlimited. There’s the 189-acre lake at Treutlen County PFA and the 104-acre lake at Dodge County PFA, or for real options head a little farther south to the Tifton area and Paradise PFA in Berrien County. Paradise offers more than 70 different lakes totalling nearly 525 acres of water, and almost all of it holds plenty of bream. Near Savannah there is Fort Stewart, where the U.S. Army offers public fishing on more than 20 ponds and lakes that are intensively managed to produce good fishing. You can find out everything you want to know about fishing Fort Stewart by visiting www.stewart.mil/outdoorrec/ and seeing maps of the lakes, including depth, structure, boat ramps, etc. Fort Stewart also offers access points to several miles of the Canoochee River, one of the top redbreast-producing rivers in southeast Georgia.

River fishing makes a big portion of the public bream opportunity in south Georgia. If you are unfamiliar with fishing river currents, don’t worry. You can seek out the deadwater oxbow lakes off the larger rivers, like the lower Ocmulgee and Oconee, Altamaha, or Savannah rivers, where bluegill can be caught using standard techniques like worms and crickets on bobbers, or artificials. You have to get into the current, though, to catch south Georgia’s famous redbreast bream. Redbreasts will readily take a cricket on the bottom in slow currents or in eddy water next to fast water, and they’ll also hit spinners in a variety of colors. Later in May, as the water warms, redbreasts will also attack popping bugs.

The Ogeechee and Satilla rivers are perhaps the top blackwater rivers in southeast Georgia for redbreasts, but the Altamaha, Savannah, St. Marys, and Canoochee are also good, as are tributaries of any of these rivers.

For more detail on fishing Brier Creek for redbreasts, a tributary of the Savannah River, click here to read a feature article.

Lures For Georgia Bream

How you go about catching a bream can be as simple as a No. 5 Aberdeen hook, a small split-shot and a cork, with your choice of red wigglers, crickets, meal worms or other natural baits. This combination will catch just about any variety of bream there is, although shellcracker fishermen usually leave out the cork, opting for a nightcrawler on the bottom as the best way to attract big redears, which are natural bottom feeders.

Good spinners for bream include an in-line Hildebrandt and Rooster Tail (top), a Flip-R (bottom left) and a Beetle Spin (bottom right).

For an angle that requires a little more finesse and skill with a rod, any number of artificial lures will do the trick, and sometimes these will produce heavier bream than natural baits will.

Spinners are a first choice, like the lures pictured. Almost any color will work, with white or lighter colors being better for clear water and darker colors for stained water.

Popping bugs can be fished on a fly rod, but you don’t have to be a fly-fishing guru to use one. A cane pole or fiberglass “Bream Buster” will work just as well. Flip your popping bug over beds or around brushpiles or stumps, then pop it slowly or twitch it to make it vibrate like an insect on the surface. Just like topwater baits for bass, popping bugs work best for bream once warm weather is here to stay.