Lake Blackshear Fishing Report – June 2010

Blackshear: Level: 0.1 feet below full pool. Temp: High 70s to low 80s. Clarity: Slight stain on the main river; clear in the pockets.

Bass: Good. Brian Davis said the fish have moved out to the deeper trees and deeper docks with brush. Brian said it may seem strange, but the quality bite has been on topwater all day long, and the key is bream beds. Brian said to look to the shade of the docks and trees where there are nearby bream beds. Throw a Heddon Baby Torpedo. The best color he’s found has been a custom bluegill paint job by Custom Bass Tackle. In the next few weeks and on into June, look for the fish to leave the trees and head out to the points, where they will hold around the deep docks. Once this happens, Brian said he will skip a jig-head worm around docks all day long. His favorite jig is a round-head jig by Custom Bass Tackle, and he likes a green-pumpkin Trick Worm with the tail spiked chartreuse.

Bream: Excellent. Brian said the shellcracker bite has been outstanding. His son Flint Davis caught a 1-lb., 8-oz. cracker the Saturday before this report went out. Brian said he’s been finding good beds in the mid-lake area around Cedar Creek and Collins Branch. They’ve been in the clustered cypress trees. The way Brian finds shellcracker beds is to get on the trolling motor and cruise likely areas with his nose to the wind. Sometimes you can smell them, but other times you’ll need to look around cypress roots where they have been fanned clean by the fish. They’ll look whiter than the rest of the roots. Once you find a bed, back off and throw a pond worm to it. Once they stop biting the pond worm, throw a cricket. Once they stop biting the crickets, go find another bed. You can come back to it later. Rusty Parker said he likes to fish a pond worm, or jumper, on either a light Carolina rig or a slip float. Let it settle, then bounce it along a little if it doesn’t get hit. Rusty suggested the Smokehouse and Wolfs Thick areas as places to start looking. The bluegills were just getting started at presstime, but they should be biting well by the time you read this. Play the moons, and find them on shallow sandy banks. Rusty said to look in the Cedar Creek area or at Valhalla Cove by the 280 bridge.

Crappie: Fair. The crappie are postspawn and have moved out deeper. Rusty said you can catch them at the 280 bridge, the railroad trestle or fishing the river-channel ledges at the mouth of Collins Branch. Try fishing two minnows on a double-hook tightline. Tie your sinker on bottom, come up 1 1/2 feet and tie on a hook with a minnow. Then come up another 1 1/2 feet with your second hook and minnow. If you find a good concentration of fish, Rusty said to pitch a jig to them.