Lake Oconee Fishing Report – September 2021

Oconee: Level: 0.5 feet low. Temp: Mid to upper 80s. Clarity: Mostly clear from Sugar Creek to the dam. There is some stain in the backs of some pockets, and there is a heavy stain up both rivers.

Bass: Tournament angler Karl Pingry reports, “Special thanks to Tony Couch for all his help this summer on the fishing reports at Oconee. Tony says the bass fishing is fair at best right now. There are some good fish being caught on frogs and prop baits early. Target seawalls and banks where there is a little depth close by. After the sun gets up, docks are your best bet, along with blowdowns that fall into deeper water. Tony says plastic worms and shaky-head worms will get more bites at this time of year. Look for September to be fair at best until the water temps start to consistently be in the high 70s to 80 degrees. Tony thinks the bite will pick up at that point along with a lessening of boat traffic. Still check the banks for mayfly hatches. Oconee has had hatches in October. I have the pictures to prove it! A prop bait followed up with a swim jig or a shaky-head worm in green pumpkin with a chartreuse tail would be your best bets.”

Crappie: Guide Al Bassett reports, “Crappie fishing is currently good as the fish are over brush in 10 to 15 feet of water. They are also being found over the sharp drop-offs around the lake. The fish should stay in these types of areas for the rest of the month before they start their move to shallow water. First, locate the fish on the drop-offs or brushpiles using your depthfinder like a Lowrance HDS unit before you start fishing. Look for the brushpiles in 10 to 15 feet of water or look for sharp drop-offs where the river channel is very near a flat. Use a live minnow and fish right over the brush or drop-off where you have located them. Also using Jiffy Jig Super Grubs in the acid rain or monkey-milk colors has worked well. I have been tying two 1/16-oz. jig heads to a line about 12 inches apart and casting to the same areas. Reel the baits as slow as you can. Don’t be surprised if you get a double hook up.”

Guide Doug Nelms reports, “This is treetop and brushpile month. The water should start cooling any day and make the fish more active. Hopefully we will get into longline trolling over these huge stands of trees really soon, but right now dipping minnows will be our main go-to tactic. If you’re out on the lake, you will see me fishing in deep water over the treetops instead of brushpiles. I feel this is where the bigger fish will be hiding. Not that fishing in brushpiles isn’t productive, but if you want pound-plus crappie, you have to look in deep water. You’ll also see me on the south end of the lake, where there is a huge amount of timber that Georgia Power left before the impoundment. Some days my boat is sitting in 60 feet of water, dropping minnows down to the top of 15- to 20-foot treetops that will be loaded with crappie. This kind of fishing requires good electronics. If you’re trying to figure out if your electronics are good enough, the following GPS coordinates you can use and see for yourself. The first coordinate is a brushpile in River Bend and the second is a standing tree in a group of trees in the mouth of Lick Creek. There are always fish on these trees, and it is a great way to see how your electronics look when you find one. Now, there are many other fisherman who know these sites, so be aware if you pull up to it and if someone is sitting on them. N33.22.323 W83.13.738 is the brushpile in River Bend, and N33.23.747 W83.14.454 is the standing timber in mouth of Lick Creek.”

Linesides: Capt. Doug Nelms reports, “The stripers are still feeding real early on the south end of the lake. If there is no pumpback going on, you will only get about an hour of good fishing, but it’s good. If there is a pumpback and it happens to be cloudy, the bite has stretched into a half-day trip for clients. This season the topwater bite has come on popping corks with a Betts Striper Bug/Fly attached about 18 inches behind the cork. Sugar Creek Marina carries them. White and yellow will work just fine. Put them on a medium-light spinning rod so you can cast them a mile. Run around the south end early until you see some surface activity, and when you do, turn your motor off and slide quietly into them with your trolling motor. Throw and pop, throw and pop, don’t stop popping, even when they are not busting up. They will hear it and come to your lure. Don’t set the hook until you feel them. These things will slash, roll and strike so many times it’ll make your blood pressure go up, and like with all topwater baits, don’t stop moving it when they strike. When they stop surfacing, just keep casting. We have been catching them in water over 60 feet deep long after the last surface strike goes away. If you can see fish on your electronics, keep casting. They might move to the other side of the lake ,and when you see them schooling away from you, move as quietly as you can to them. Cast long before your boat gets close. We have caught many double-digit fish in the past two weeks, and this bite will continue right into the opening of deer season.”