Lake Oconee Fishing Report – November 2021

Oconee: Level: Full pool. Temp: Low to mid 70s. Clarity: The lake is still stained from below Great Waters all the way up the rivers, but the lake is starting to clear.

Bass: Tournament angler Karl Pingry reports, “The fishing got really tough after the huge rains. My house received almost 11 inches! There is a sporadic seawall bite. It really helps to have the latest electronics. You can see the fish on the wall and save yourself a lot of casting to dead water. A Trick Worm or wacky-rigged Senko has been the most consistent bait to generate strikes. No one has gotten on a moving bait bite yet, but it’s coming! The other bite has been a shaky-head worm on the front and sides of the docks. I’ve needed 4 to 6 1/2 feet of water at the front to be productive. Docks halfway back in pockets and docks on secondary points seem to be the best. Please keep in mind that my fishing buddy and I are fishing seven to eight hours for 10 to 12 bites, and most of those aren’t keepers. Now that the lake has recovered from our monsoon, I expect the moving baits to finally make a return. Topwater—especially a buzzbait—would be a great choice along seawalls and grass. Cover water quickly and pay attention to what structure and depth your bites are occurring. If there’s stained water or wind, have a spinnerbait ready, as well as a Rat-L-Trap. Jigs and plastics on the docks, blowdowns and big rocks coming off the bank will be a bite that will work all month long. Based on my current pattern, I’d start one third of the way in a pocket or on the secondary point in the pocket. From there I’d work my way back. Pay attention to where you are getting bit, and try to duplicate the same areas in other pockets.”

Stripers: Capt. Doug Nelms, of BigFishHeads Guide Service, reports, “By the end of the month, the gulls should have returned and the fishing should be awesome. We will spend a lot of time searching for birds starting around the middle of the lake, all the way to the end. Some of the biggest stripers my customers have ever boated have been under a flock of screaming gulls in November and December. I have seen them all the way up to Sugar Creek, but they will mainly hang out on the southern end of the lake. For me, this is the artificial lure month. Sassy Shads, A-rigs, crankbaits, flukes will all be tied up ready to go, but my favorite is a 7/8-oz. War Eagle jigging spoon. A dump truck couldn’t hold all the stripers that customers have caught on these spoons over the years. The old standby spoon for years was a Hopkins Shorty in gold or silver, but after your $7 purchase of one, you needed to change the hook and put a split ring on it. War Eagles are ready right out of the package. For less than $6, you get two, and included is your swivel and a very sharp Gamakatsu hook. Also they come in many colors, but I guess my favorite is coleslaw or white. You can purchase the entire line at Sugar Creek Marina, which is where we get ours. There are so many ways to fish them, too. If you come up on a group of gulls diving for bait, you can stay a long ways out and cast them a mile. I like to yo-yo them in the water column when that happens, and the strikes can be vicious. I think a long-action spinning rod is the perfect setup for this. I like 20-lb. braid and about a 2-foot shock leader (12-lb. fluoro) will give you everything you need to make those long casts and feel the strike. Also remember the nastier the days produce the better bites. Some of the best striper days I have had would make a duck hunter stay home. Cold, rainy, cloudy, spitting sleet make the stripers feed like crazy. Start looking around River Bend and Great Waters and just keep going until you find the birds or the fish. If you come across a lot of gulls just sitting on the water, examine it good, because there is a great chance they’re sitting on top of a gaggle of shad, and they’re just waiting for the stripers to get jiggly. If they’re not active, its okay to look somewhere else, but be sure to come back to that spot and check them out.”