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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: 0.1 feet below 435. Temp: 65 degrees. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Guide Nick Knapp, with Elite Guide Service, reports, “During the month of December, I look for the fish to be toward the backs of pockets with bait in them. December is a good month to target fish shallow around rocks. With the cooler water, the fish will be a little slower, so slow down the presentation. I like to slow-roll a 1/2-oz. white spinnerbait this time of year. Check the areas around 44 bridge and south to Old Salem. Look for bait on the shallow secondary points with rock. The largemouth won’t be far away. I also like a green-pumpkin jig with a junebug trailer. It seems to get the bigger bites this time of year. It’s wintertime—slow down and use bigger-profile baits for bigger bites.” Stripers: Capt. Doug Nelms, with BigFishHeads Guide Service, reports, “It’s the most…
Read MoreLake Oconee Articles
Over the years, Lake Oconee has earned a reputation as a fantastic lake for striped bass and hybrid bass fishing, and its credentials as a productive bass and crappie lake are nothing to sneeze at. With a major new Georgia Power project at Wallace Dam about to go operational, anglers will have an additional…
If you weren’t fishing Lake Oconee on Saturday, April 23, you missed a really good day of fishing. Two lake records were broken that day! Yesterday, GON announced a new flathead catfish record. Today, GON recognizes the middle Georgia lake’s first-ever shellcracker record. The redear weighed 1-lb., 14.56-ozs. and was caught by Randy Smith, of Fayetteville,…
Shad love to spawn on the seawalls and rip-rap that line Lake Oconee, and this shad spawn gives anglers a fast, early morning bite in May. After the sun ends the shad spawn, bass back off to hold on drops and cover where they can be caught all day. Lake Oconee is lined by huge…
John Burnett’s name will appear on GON’s Lake & River Records signifying his recent catch as the largest flathead catfish ever caught on Lake Oconee, but the Conyers angler says it was really a family affair. The 52-lb., 8-oz. flathead caught on April 23 has been certified as the lake record after being seen by…
Austin Skinner didn’t finish in the money in the Berry’s Tournament Trail event on Lake Oconee, nor did he come that close for big fish. But he did get a pretty good consolation prize that caused quite a buzz with WRD biologists. Austin was fishing a Carolina rig with a Zoom green-pumpkin lizard when he…
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 |