Lake Sinclair Fishing Report – August 2007

Level: 1 foot below full pool. Temp: 84 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Good. Tournament angler Jim Windham said to begin the morning throwing topwater. “I like to start out with white or black buzzbaits or Pop-Rs. As far as I’m concerned, they only make one color Pop-R and that’s blue-chrome,” said Jim. He said he likes to go up the Oconee River and throw to deeper banks with undercuts that provide shade until around 8 or 9 a.m. From then Jim said go to deep points and throw big crankbaits. He said he likes a DD22 and Luhr Jensen’s Hot Lips baits in blue/chartreuse and shad colors. Jim likes to throw to the points 15 to 18 feet deep close to the river channel. If cranking doesn’t work, Jim chooses a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin Zoom Finessse or Ol’ Monster worm. “I like to sit shallow and throw deep,” said Jim. “You keep a better contour with the bottom fishing it that way.” He said if the water is muddy the fish will go shallow and he’ll start flipping jigs in 5 feet or less of water. Jim said he likes to stick to the green-pumpkin color even when he’s flipping the jigs. When it gets close to dark, Jim said to go back to the same lures that produced at dawn.

Crappie: Good. Crappie angler Allan Brown said although the crappie fishing is slow, you can still catch a good mess around lighted docks at night if you’re willing to stay out there. Allan said the best bite is usually around midnight when they start pulling water, but he sometimes fishes until daylight. Allan pitches jigs on a 6-foot, medium-action rod spooled with 4-lb. test. He said he uses the medium-action rod because you can throw the jigs farther than with the ultralights a lot of people use. Allan likes a 1/32-oz. jig in yellow-yellow-white and red-green-yellow colors. He said those colors are working really well at night. “You can find them at different depths, but the deeper docks are definitely better. Anywhere that has 10 feet of water or better will hold more fish than the shallow docks,” said Allan. “We’ve been catching 25 or 30 pretty good ones, but we’re staying out there all night sometimes.” Allan said look for dock lights that stay on all the time instead of just those turned on for a short while. He said the dock lights on the Oconee River side are deeper and less fished, producing more fish.