Lake Seminole Fishing Report January 2014

Seminole: Level: 0.4 feet below full pool. Temp: 57 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Excellent. Tournament angler Matt Baty reports, “The bass are biting good on Seminole. They are fattening up for the winter and can already be caught in many of their prespawn places. Look for the mouths of spawning areas such as Fish Pond Drain, and use search baits such as lipless crankbaits and medium-diving crankbaits. Fish grass flats and grass edges with a Spro Aruku Shad 75 or a Stanford Patriot 1.5 in shad colors. The fish are schooled up, and these two baits can be fished fast to cover a lot of water. The grass is still pretty thick in places, so a good braided line such as Sunline FX2 in 30-lb. works best with these two techniques. Once you find an area that is holding a school of bass, you can catch as many as you can cranking, and then slow down with a Carolina rig. The best setup for the Carolina rig is to use a long rod and a long leader. Fluorocarbon line works good in the grass, as well as a 1 1/4-oz. tungsten weight from Fish Catchin Fool.”

Stripers: Excellent. “The stripers are feeding on shad on the main lake near the dam,” Matt said. “Use your electronics such as the new touch-screen units from Lowrance with Insight mapping and Structure Scan to find and locate the humps on the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. With the Lowrance Structure Scan, you can pretty easily find the schools of stripers and hybrids. Then fan cast an umbrella rig with 1/4-oz. jig heads and 5-inch Big Bite Bait Cane Thumpers in reel shad or SX shad colors. There have been some really big ones being caught lately. For these big fish, you need a stout reel that will hold a good bit of braided line. Lews has a new line up of baitcasters called Super Duty Speed Spools that are specifically made for throwing braid and heavy-duty applications such as this.”