Lake Oconee Fishing Report – June 2006

Level: Full pool. Temp: 72-74 degrees. Clarity: Stained all the way to the dam, except for Richland Creek which is clear.

Bass: Good. There was major shad-spawn activity around May 20 that was still going on when this report was filed May 22. Also, some mayflies are hatching. The combination makes for some great topwater action for the first hour and a half of daylight if you’re in the right spot. Try a Pop-R or a Baby Chug Bug along rock seawalls for the shad spawn. Watch for any surface acvitity around overhanging bushes and trees, and check it out to find a mayfly hatch. Once the sun gets up, fish the same areas but deeper with a Suddeth Little Earl crankbait in chartreuse/blue, or try a Carolina-rigged Trick Worm. The jig bite under the boat docks is fair, but it should get better as the days heat up.

Crappie: Good, according to guide Al Bassett. “These fish are starting to school up over brushpiles in 10 to 15 foot of water. They also are staging over drop offs in 15 to 20 feet of water. Use live bait, and fish on a drop shot with the weight on the bottom of the line and a hook 12 to 18 inches up from the weight. When you catch your first fish, you have usually found a school, so work the area real good,” he said.

Hybrids: Fair. The cooler weather has kept the hybrids from getting on their early summer pattern, which is topwater early on main-lake flats, points and humps, then flatlining and downlining shad over the humps that top out at 12 to 16 feet of water. Guide Doug Nelms has still been catching decent numbers of 4- to 6-lb. hybrids on the south end of the lake by pulling shad, including some big gizzards, over the humps, especially when Georgia Power is pulling water.