Lake Seminole Fishing Report July 2015

Seminole: Level: 0.9 feet below full pool. Temp. 86-88 degrees. Clarity: Chattahoochee and Flint are slightly stained and Spring Creek is clear.

Bass: Tournament pro Matt Baty reports, “The weather is on fire, and so is the bass fishing on Seminole right now. A local tournament was won with more than 30 pounds, and second place was also 30 pounds. The bass now have high metabolisms with the summer heat and are feeding heavily on bream and shad. The hydrilla is topping out all over the lake, and the bass are using it to ambush bream and shad at or near the surface, so topwater is a good technique to use. A buzzing frog reeled across the surface is a good way to draw explosive strikes from bass on Seminole right now. Having the right setup is important. Use a Big Bite Baits Buzzing Warmouth in green bluegill to imitate bream, and use pearl to imitate shad. Rig these baits on a 5/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG Hook, a 1/16-oz. Fish Catchin Fool tungsten weight, and a Fish Catchin Fool Bobber Stopper. Use 50-lb. Sunline FX2 Braid in the new blue/green color, a Lews 8:3:1 LFS Series Speed Spool, and a 7’4” Duckett Terex heavy-action rod. This setup is just about perfect for fishing this technique and hauling the big bass out of the thick grass. This technique can work all day long under any conditions. Another presentation that works well is to fish a hollow-body frog such as a Spro Bronzeye Popper. Use albino to imitate shad, and use natural green to imitate bluegill. You can use the same rod/reel/line setup as the swimming frog. These two techniques catch quality bass and get really explosive strikes. If you’re using this technique and having no success, you can always Texas rig the edges of grasslines that are close to the river channel and catch quantity. Expect this technique to work all the way through the dog days of summer.” Guide Aaron Crews reports, “Fishing is a little slow, but if you work at it, good things will come. The bass are beginning to school a little bit, so Spook type lures in shad, bone and baby bass will work. On Spring Creek, I tend to use clear Spooks with rattles. As for popping-type lures, I use bass patterns, shad patterns and clear on the creek. Early and late, try topwater plugs with spinners. I use a Baby Torpedo in the bass pattern, and a Devils Horse in silver shiner and Tennessee shad. At night, I like black Jitterbugs and black plugs with front and rear spinners. As for worms, use Trick Worms in lavender shad, Texas-rigged 10 1/2-inch Zoom Ol Monsters in red shad or green pumpkin with a rattler. I also fish Mann’s 9-inch and 12-inch worms with a heavy weight in deep water. As for crankbaits, I prefer lavender shad and sparkle ghost on the rivers. On the creek, I use Shad Raps in blueback herring—silver with a black back, gold with a black back—to fish the tress on the edge of the creek channel. Look for trees that are not straight up and down with limbs on them. The frog bite continues. Also keep an eye out for mayfly hatches and bass feeding on shad schools. For those who don’t like to fish grass, hydrilla is still emerging due the water being stained longer than usual.”

Catfish: “The catfish are biting on noodle rigs,” Aaron Crews said. “A word of caution: Florida rules on trot lines and noodle rigs are different than Georgia rules. Yes, your Georgia fishing license is good to the bridges, but Florida rules start at the river, which is the state line.”