Catching Oconee Stripers With The Rod Father

A good friend of mine says it like this: “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Capt. Kevin Wahl with Wild Side Fishing Guide Service has an approach for fall stripers on Lake Oconee that falls into this category. Known locally as “The Rod Father” for his impressive trolling spread, Kevin is familiar with catching linesides on Oconee, and he says late October is when the fun really kicks off for him.

“The end of October, the beginning of November is when the fishing starts to pick up,” said Kevin. “It’s about the water temperature. Striped bass like that water temp between 70 and 50 degrees. They will be active, feeding—they could be anywhere on the lake when the water temp is in that range.”

When the fish can be anywhere, Kevin says he’s thankful to be involved with a great network of other anglers.

“You need help because the fish could be all over the lake. It’s nice to have a community of people fishing to tell you where they are,” said Kevin. “I was on Lanier 20 years, and never once did a guide call me and say the fish are biting over here. I got to Oconee and Mark Smith is telling me where the fish are, and Kevin Harris is telling me they are biting on these now. I’m like, ‘This is a different place,’ and it really is a different community.”

I fished with Kevin, Darcy Flynn and Nick Friedrich on the windy, cool morning of Oct. 16. Not only were they phenomenal hosts and educational to fish with, each serves as a board member for the Lake Oconee Striper Club. More on that club on pages 17-18.

In 26 years of working with GON, I’ve done my share of trolling articles, but Kevin’s trolling approach puts more baits in the water at one time than I’ve ever seen.

“The most I’ve had go off at once was 13 rods,” he said.

Capt. Kevin Wahl on Lake Oconee has rightfully earned the nickname The Rod Father for his impressive trolling display.

For Kevin, it all starts with having his boat set up like he needs it. We were actually taking Kevin’s “new” boat for a test run on Oct. 16. He bought the hull and built the rest of it himself.

“This boat was the St. Augustine fire boat,” said Kevin. “It’s a 1/4-inch aluminum plate hand-welded boat that is rigged up to fish 11 rods across the back. I have two sets of downriggers and outriggers. On the “big boards,” I can fish up to five rods on each side. The boat is a trolling machine.”

The “big boards” that Kevin referred to were like nothing I’d ever seen. The 2-foot-long planers allowed Kevin to troll four lines way out beside the boat. With two planers on each side, that accounted for eight lines.

Kevin’s 2-foot-long planers allow him to troll four lines way out beside the boat. With two planers on each side, that accounts for eight lines.

“This is called Great Lake Planer Board fishing, and you are basically running these big boards kind of like an outrigger, and all your rigs will run off of them on quick releases,” said Kevin. “So it allows you to have a big presentation and drag over fish that would be potentially scared off by the boat. It just makes for fun fishing when you go over a school of fish like this.”

Kevin and Nick staggered the depths the lines were set back. The first lines (the ones closest to the boards) were 75 feet back (being trolled 15 feet deep), followed by 50 feet back (running 12 feet deep), then back to 75 feet and then 50 feet.

“I stagger them in depths so when you make a turn, they go over the top of each other,” said Kevin.

When all lines were deployed, we had 17 rods trolling, all of them with A-rigs and an assortment of different-colored grubs. While Kevin puts together his own A-rigs, he uses a lot of his parts from Captain Mack’s.

“It’s a kind of a hobby just to make something new the fish haven’t seen,” said Kevin. “I guess that’s what all fishermen do, try to outsmart the fish. We’ll dial in what they are hitting and make our adjustments.”

Kevin said he likes using artificials over live bait.

“I like the fact that you don’t have to check your bait, you just put them out and relax,” said Kevin. “Sometimes the live-bait guys will catch them better than me, and sometimes I’ll outfish the live-bait guys, at least numbers wise.”

Darcy, who enjoys downlining live bait, was quick to react to Kevin’s comment: “Yeah, but you’re fishing 20-to-one hooks, too.”

Kevin trolled mostly single A-rigs, but he did have a few double A-rigs out, which meant our 17-rod spread had 93 hooks in the water.

It was a great day that came with fellowship, education and a warm breakfast. We caught a few small stripers, but we fished before the real trolling bite was set to begin, which is likely starting to pop as you read this.

“In November, it’s very common to have multiple fish on at Oconee,” said Kevin. “You go through a school and these fish are like wolves of the water. They feed together, they push bait together. When you go through feeding fish, it could be instant action. It gets a little chaotic, but it just makes for an exciting day of fishing, especially when you have multiples.”

Guided Fishing Trip w/ Capt. Kevin Wahl  (Includes Hot Breakfast)

If you’d like to take a guided fishing trip with Capt. Kevin Wahl, you can check out his impressive trolling display. The trip also comes with a sizzling hot breakfast. He is ready to hear from you at 404.824.3220. His website is www.wildsidefishing.net.