Lake Oconee Fishing Report April 2011

Oconee: Level: Full pool. Temp: Mid 60s. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Good to Great. Fish will be in spawn and postspawn patterns. Dirty water will limit sight fishing, but they can still be caught by pitching lizards or tubes to spawning areas in 1 to 3 feet of water. Dark colors like junebug and black will work well. Postspawn fish will be protecting fry and can be caught on moving baits like buzzbaits, spinnerbaits or topwater plugs. An original Pop-R could be hard to beat in April.

Crappie: Excellent. Doug Nelms reports, “We have had a great crappie season this year pulling jigs around the north end of the lake. Night fishing for crappie is just crazy good. Typically we catch really large numbers. On the big moons of April, May and June, there is no limit to how many fish you can put in the boat… well there is a limit according to the DNR, and typically we hit it. The boat is set up with Wally Marshall rods and Wally Marshall baitcasting reels, tons of florescent lighting and a cooler big enough to hold the night’s catch. We will be fishing over the many stump fields on Lake Oconee that hold plenty of our huge crappie.”

Linesides: Good. Doug reports, “The stripers have started at the dam. The last two days our boats have pulled over 30 fish from there and several of them hit 10 pounds.”