Lake Seminole Fishing Report July 2016

Seminole: Level: 0.6 feet below full pool. Temp: Upper 80s to low 90s. Clarity: The water color on the Chattahoochee is stained. The Flint is slightly stained. Spring Creek and Fish Pond Drain are clear.

Bass: Tournament pro and guide Matt Baty reports, “The frog bite is really starting to heat up on Seminole around shallow pepper grass with bream present. Pepper grass means there is sand near and most likely bream beds or feeding bream. Use a Spro popper in outback color on 60-lb. Sunline braid, a 7-foot heavy Buddha Stick, and a Lews Pro G in 7:5:1 gear ratio. Work the frog fast with short pauses. This pattern works best during midday. Another good pattern is to fish for suspended fish in the timber in Spring Creek with a swimbait. Use your Lowrance down-scan to get an idea of the depth that has the most activity. Once you determine this, you can use whatever size weight you need to fish the depth. Most of the time the bass are suspended in about 10 feet. Big Bite Baits has a new swimbait called a Suicide Shad that comes out July 1 to the public. It is awesome. Use the 5.5-inch on a 3/8-oz. jig head or on a swimbait hook, and reel it slowly through the timber. The 20-lb Sunline fluorocarbon works good for this technique.” Guide Aaron Crews reports, “Fishing for bass is a little slow. Per Brad at West Side Bait and Tackle, a 8-lb., 4-oz. bass took the big bass in a tournament last weekend with a 7-lb., 13-oz. bass being the second biggest. Right now I am Carolina-rigging deep structure with green-pumpkin or blue-flash finesse worms and watermelon-moondust Trick Worms. I also fish in the predawn hours with a wooden Jitterbug in red and white or black. I also use a Okeechobee shiner colored milkrun topwater with dual spinners at night, like a Nipadeedee. I also use a black buzzbait and a black spinnerbait with twin willowleaf blades at night. If you are going to night fish, use caution and a good spotlight or a light bar. I also use a night light with soft white light and a black light. I worm fish at night with dark-colored worms. Fly fishermen are doing good with the mayfly hatches. I use a Bagley Bang-O-Lure with a tail spinner in gold and black for bass on the hatches, as well as a Smithwick Devil’s Horse in silver shiner or Tennessee shad. Shoal bass are on small crankbaits above Bainbridge. The panfish above Bainbridge are on Beetle Spin type baits. The best color varies with light intensity and water color.”