Lake Oconee Fishing Report July 2013

Oconee: Level: Full pool. Temp: 81-86 degrees. Clarity: Stained up the rivers and clear on the south end.

Bass: Good. Aaron Batson reports, “Fish have now moved mostly deep and can be found on main-lake humps and points in 12 to 18 feet of water. Dragging a 3/4-oz. Net Boy Baits football jig or a 1/2-oz. Carolina rig will work well, since you can cover water quickly with these baits. Tip the jig with a Wackem Crazy Baits Tater Bug in watermelon or green pumpkin. Adding chartreuse or red JJ’s Magic will help improve the number of bites and your hook-up ratio. Fish eat the bait better, and just won’t let it go. You can also work a big crankbait in these areas, but expect to catch some hybrids and stripers on the crankbait out there.”

Crappie: Very good. Guide Al Bassett reports, “Fish are holding in deeper water, over brushpiles, standing timber and deep drop-offs. Use your Lowrance HDS and LSS-2 to find the fish on the brushpiles or the deep drop-offs before you start fishing. You may have to check many areas before you find the fish, but when you locate them you have found a school and should be able to limit out within just a few hours. Once you find the fish, there are two ways that I use to catch the fish. No. 1, use live minnows and fish directly on top of where you find the fish. No. 2, use a buoy marker to mark the fish and cast a Jiffy Jig curly tail to the area. Tie two 1/16-oz. jig heads on 6-lb. test line about 8 to 10 inches apart. Put a different color on each jig head to see what color they want. When you locate the fish on the drop-offs, you should be able to see the fish right on the bottom. Drop your bait to the bottom, and then reel until you are just off the bottom. If you find them in the brush, fish your bait just over the top of the brush. The fishing has been so good lately that two people can catch as many as 100 fish in four hours.” Guide Jody Stephens said, “Shooting docks will produce crappie right now and so will night fishing with lights or daytime double minnow rigs in 25 feet of water or deeper over submerged timber or brushpiles.”

Linesides: Guide Mark Smith reports, “The striper fishing remains strong on the main-lake humps and points. The pipeline has been out producing the other humps over the past week. It has been an afternoon bite, when Georgia Power is pulling water. If the water is not moving, the fishing can be slow. The bait of choice has been the Capt. Mack’s Umbrella Rig. I have been using the four-arm 3-oz. rig. I am pulling it at 3 mph 100 feet behind the boat. The fish are staging in 15 feet of water. This bite will last until the water temp hits the high 80s and low 90s. As we move into the month of July, the bite will switch to an afternoon topwater bite. The hybrids will start chasing shad that will be in big schools all over the main lake. A popping cork with a small jig on a short 1- to 2-foot leader will catch most of the fish.”