Lake Oconee Fishing Report – March 2022

Oconee: Level: Full pool. Temp: 48 to 54 degrees. Clarity: Stained but cleaner toward the dam.

Bass: Tournament angler Karl Pingry reports, “The current fishing conditions are pretty inconsistent and hard to pattern unless you pull into the right area, (see last month’s issue), but things are about to change. Randy Bush was willing to give GON insight on what is one of the best bass fishing months. There is a short feeding period for the first hour of the morning. Whether you are fishing rip-rap, a seawall or a hard-bottom bank, stay shallow with a slow-moving squarebill, crankbait, Rat-L-Trap or ChatterBait. Right now SLOW is the key. Randy will start reeling his baits faster and add a spinnerbait to his arsenal when the water is 55 degrees or warmer at first light. The other time he will speed up his retrieve is after two or three warm nights in a row, and he may have his bait in the shallowest water possible. For the first week in March, Randy will start in the middle of the pocket and work his way back. He’ll fish out to 5 feet with his moving baits an he’ll make multiple casts down the sides and especially the fronts of the docks as he works his way into the pocket. He’ll finish with a worm or jig before leaving the dock. After the first hour, Randy has had a lull period where getting consistent bites has eluded him, so he works fairly quickly and covers water. If the sun is out, by 11:30-12 Randy will focus on docks, brush located on a hard bottom and really fish tight (parallel to 30 degrees out) to any seawalls he finds as he fishes his way toward the back. I will add that a Carolina-rigged lizard is hard to beat on a rocky point this time of year—but Randy prefers to fish faster than a C-rig allows. Keep your colors simple. Rat-L-Traps in gold or silver and crankbaits in crawfish, shad or chartreuse and white. Fish spinnerbaits with thumping blades in muddy water and Colorado/willowleaf in clearer water. Right now, Randy is catching a lot of males and only a few females, but that will change quickly as the water warms. If a cold front knocks the water temps backward, Randy will slow down his retrieve and focus on the pockets that have a little steeper bank. If the water temp is still above 60, Randy does not follow that rule! He may come back to a shallower bank in the afternoon if the sun has been on it all morning. Randy’s other recommendation is to fish a 3/8-oz. buzzbait as slowly as it can be retrieved on the surface once the water hits 58 to 60 and higher. It won’t get a lot of bites at 58 to 60, but it is one of the big-bass secrets on Oconee. Don’t look for a big splash, the bass will just barely suck it under. Look for the first big wave of spawning bass on the full moon in March. Randy says once the water hits 60, the bass will bite if you can put a bait in front of them. Enjoy.”

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