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Lake Oconee
Lake Oconee is an excellent fishing lake located in central Georgia on the Oconee River near Greensboro, the real Buckhead and Eatonton. Oconee is known for very good bass fishing, great crappie fishing for huge slabs, and very good fishing for linesides and catfish. The lake was created in 1979 when Georgia Power completed the construction of the Wallace Dam on the Oconee River. Lake Oconee runs through Georgia's Morgan, Greene, and Putnam counties and is separated from its sister lake, Sinclair, by Wallace Dam. Lake Oconee is home to a number of golf communities, including Reynolds Plantation, Cuscawilla, and Harbor Club.
Lake Oconee Resources
Oconee: Level: Full at 435. Temp: High 70s to low 80s. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Guide Nick Knapp, with Elite Guide Service, reports, “During the month of June, it is transition month. I look for the fish to move from the banks on the periodic shad spawn that has been going on. Docks this month are going to be great. I like to flip docks with a D Bomb with a 1/2-oz. weight pegged. As the month continues on, I like to get off the points with a Carolina-rigged green-pumpkin Trick Worm and work it slow on tapering points in Richland Creek. As the water warms, it’s time to slow down a little bit.” Stripers: Capt. Doug Nelms, with BigFishHeads Guide Service, reports, “June will put us in the middle of the summertime striper and crappie bites, and us guides are pretty excited about it. Yep, I said striper! Stripers used to…
Read MoreLake Oconee Articles
Bass fishing at Lake Oconee can be fantastic in May. The weather has stabilized, most of the bass are done spawning and are on predictable patterns, and they are feeding heavily. Throw in the end of the shad spawn, and you can have some of the best action of the year. As anyone who has…
Lineside fishermen on several middle Georgia lakes will see a change in future years. A plan to begin phasing in the stocking of stripers and phasing out the stocking of hybrids was introduced by WRD Fisheries biologists at a public meeting in Milledgeville last month. Lakes feeding the Altamaha River basin that over the past…
Robbie Sowash wanted to be on the water right at 7 o’clock. “Daylight,” I thought. “Is there an early bite on Oconee? It’s mid January.” I must confess. It had been quite a while since my feet were planted on the deck of a boat while I chunked bass lures into my home waters of…
Even when the water is January cold, you can catch a mess of crappie. According to our three experts, who catch crappie with three different techniques in January, you just have to fish a little deeper, and a little slower. When the surface temperatures of Georgia reservoirs drop during the winter, the fish move into…
This month you can bury those jigging spoons back down into your tackle box and start throwing something a little more horizontal. In mid February, Lake Oconee’s water temperature was still in the upper 40s, but it was slowly warming. Some fish had already begun to move shallow around wood cover and rock. As we…
Lake Oconee Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 12-lbs., 14-ozs. | Bill Brantley | 05/14/12 |
| Hybrid Bass | 14-lbs., 4-ozs. | Jan Allen Ward | 04/03/91 |
| Striped Bass | 29-lbs., 14.9-ozs. | Fred Worthy | 05/10/96 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 12-ozs. | Edward Rhodes | 02/10/97 |
| Channel Catfish | 34-lbs., 8-ozs. | Jonathan Clifton | 05/31/98 |
| Blue Catfish | 70-lbs., 2-ozs. | Koob Moua | 03/22/23 |
| Flathead Catfish | 62-lbs., 10.4-ozs. | Rob Allgood | 03/11/23 |
| White Bass | 3-lbs., 6-ozs. | Tony Couch | 04/02/93 |
| Longnose Gar | 20-lbs., 13-ozs. | Dustin Turk | 10/05/19 |
| Chain Pickerel | 1-lb., 2-ozs. | Terry Brice | 03/05/17 |
| Spotted Bass | 5-lbs., 3.2-ozs. | Austin Skinner | 03/19/22 |
| Shellcracker | 1-lb., 14.56-ozs. | Randy Smith | 04/23/22 |
| Yellow Perch | 11-ozs. | John Moore | 02/16/23 |