Lake Oconee Fishing Report November 2013

Oconee: Level: 0.4 feet below full pool. Temperature: 65-73 degrees. Clarity: Very little stain.

Bass: Tournament angler Aaron Batson reports, “The normal fall patterns are still producing fish. For numbers, work the backs of the pockets with the 1/4-oz. Rat-L-Trap or square-billed crankbaits. For quality fish, working docks has produced well. Flipping a Texas-rigged Missile Baits Baby D Bomb creature bait has been working well for several good fish each day. Good colors have been green and black/blue. Look for docks with deeper water near the main channels for the bigger fish.”

Crappie: Guide Doug Nelms reports, “This is the season when the crappie start doing their thing, and the big ones began showing up. Lick Creek will be a hot spot throughout the month of November as the fish come out of the timber and get into the lake channels. I will start pushing long poles with Jiffy Jigs. We will be fishing 10 to 15 feet down over river channels 25 to 30 feet deep.” To read more on how Doug Nelms catches Oconee crappie this month, turn to page 26. Guide Al Bassett reports, “More fish will start to show up in the mouths of Sugar Creek, Lick Creek, Sandy Creek and Rocky Creek. Slow trolling using Jiffy Jigs tipped with a minnow will be your best bet. Keep an eye on your depthfinder to see what depth they are holding at. Good colors to start with are red/green/yellow or black/bubblegum/chartreuse. You will still be able to catch some good fish holding in the brush and on drops during the first part of the month until they start moving into creeks. Find these fish using your HDS and LSS-2 to see these fish before you start fishing. When fishing drop-offs or brush, live bait is your best choice.”

Linesides: Doug reports, “The stripers should start their normal feeding patterns, and this year should be great. We have a huge shad population on Lake Oconee, and the first place these fish should show up will be in the River Bend area.” Guide Mark Smith reports, “Striper fishing is good. Find large schools of bait, and the striper/hybrids will be close by. Live bait, umbrella rigs and spoons are all working very well. You can use bass shiners or shad. One day it will be on flatlines, and the next day it will be on downlines. I like to use the umbrella rig to locate the large schools of stripers. I will troll it from the River Bend area of the lake to the dam. Spoons can be used once you locate the schools of stripers. November is a great time to fish for stripers. The weather is good, and the fish are hungry. They are trying to put on pounds for the winter.”