Lake Burton Fishing Report – February 2006

Burton: Level: 7.8 feet below full pool. Temp: 45 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Good. Last year in February the new Georgia state record for spotted bass was caught from Burton, and traditionally February is known as a good month for a trophy spot. Daniel Workman says the spots are usually schooled on main-lake points following the schools of bluebacks. If you get a windy day, try a jerkbait like a Staysee or Pointer 100 and rip it across the points. A deep-diving crankbait that will get down and plow the points is also a good bet. And finally a Texas-rigged Zoom Finesse worm in green pumpkin worked slowly through brushpiles on points is a wintertime standby on Burton. For details on Daniel’s Burton bass-fishing tactics, see page 70. Fishing guide Nathan Lewis was on the lake recently with J.R. Donalson, and they put two 6-lb. largemouths in the boat. Both fish were in the back of a pocket where a small creek running into the lake had muddied up the water. One fish hit a spinnerbait, the other a crankbait.

Trout: Skip McKeral said he was on Burton lately trying to catch a big walleye on a jigging spoon near the dam. The only fish he caught, however, was a brown trout. “Murray Cove is loaded with stocker-sized brown trout,” he said. Small spinners, like a Mepps or a Rooster Tail, will catch the trout. Pearl-colored Rooster Tails are a stand-by, but the trout like flashy colors, too, like pink, yellow and chartreuse. Fisheries biologist Anthony Rabern said that WRD released between 20,000 and 30,000 brown trout into Lake Burton last November. The fish averaged between 12 and 14 inches and weighed about a pound apiece. “They were some of the biggest trout I have ever stocked in the lake,” said Anthony. “I have seen a lot of boats back in the creeks trolling for trout. The lake is down, and the creeks are running right into the lake. The bluebacks are bunched up there, and the trout should be stacked up in the same place.” The other place fish are congregating is near the dam. Most people are trolling blueback imitations, but some are downlining live bait. Also, Nathan Lewis reports catching both perch and brown trout on small spinners and tube jigs on six- to eight-foot deep flats.