Lake Seminole Fishing Report – October 2008

Seminole: Level: 0.8 feet below full pool. Temp: 81 degrees and dropping. Clarity: Slight stain.

Bass: Slow, but getting better. Guide Mike Sloan said, with falling water temps, the fish have started to back off a little deeper, but they are not yet in their fall patterns. With another 2- or 3-degree drop in surface temperature, the bass will move out onto the main-lake points in 6-10 feet of water and begin feeding aggressively on shad. Mike said to try a lipless crankbait, like a Rat-L-Trap in a shad pattern or red, a fluke or hard jerkbait. The morning and evening topwater bite will also get better. Mike said to find the heaviest grass mats you can, be it hyacinth or hydrilla, and fish the edges with a frog, a buzzbait or a prop-bait like a Devil’s Horse. “Let the fish dictate whether they want fast or slow,” he said. The flipping bite should turn on in those same thick grass mats. Texas rig a 4-inch craw on a 1-oz. tungsten weight, and punch it through the mats.

Hybrids: Fair. If you can find bait ganged up in 25 to 30 foot deep holes, you can catch feeding hybrids with live bait or on spoons. Mike said to find the bait or the fish on your graph, drop a 3/4-oz. silver Hopkins spoon on them and start jigging vertically. If you can keep them alive, downlined live shad are also a good choice.

Crappie: Good. The deep speckled perch bite on minnows is hot right now, and it should only get better with falling temperatures, Mike said. However, the jig bite is slow. Find crappie in 20-foot standing timber on the channel ledges. Drop a minnow to them, and load the boat.

Bream: Slow. “They’re pretty much played out for the year,” Mike said.