Lake Seminole Fishing Report – April 2008

Seminole: Level: 0.5 feet below full pool. Temp: 64. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Great. “There was a really early spawn this year at Seminole,” said tournament angler Butch Tucker. “They were on the sandbars three or four weeks early. Right now there are fish in the spawn, the prespawn and postspawn.” Butch said a watermelon-gold lizard Carolina rigged on a 3/8-oz. lead and fished on an 18-inch leader around some of the deeper beds can catch fish bedding or hanging around the bedding areas. A Zoom Speed Worm can be productive in the same areas. Watermelon and watermelon-red are good colors. Try junebug on a cloudy day. There should also be some postpawn fish around the scraggly timber in Spring Creek, Butch said. Try a weightless Senko, and later in the month try a No. 9 Shad-Rap around the timber. The topwater bite should also be starting up in the next few weeks around the spawning areas, and the shad spawn should happen about the middle of April. When the shad start spawning in the grassbeds early in the morning, fish a spinnerbait or a buzzbait around the grass to catch bass feeding on the shad. Guide Mike Sloan also said the bass bite is on fire. With the full moon the bass are going on the bed, and the sandbar bite is fantastic. “This is the only time of year when just about anybody can catch fish,” he said.

Crappie: Good. “The perch are moving up and trying to spawn,” Mike said. “With the wind, there aren’t a lot of people trying to catch them right now, but there have been several limits brought in and several big fish in the 1 1/2-lb. range.” Speckled perch are on the grass lines in 7 to 8 feet of water. Minnows and jigs are catching them equally well, Mike said.

Shellcracker: “Shellcrackers are gathering up, but they’re not on the beds yet,” Mike said. “By the new moon, they should be getting with it.” See the feature story on page 92.