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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
I was able to get back to Lake Oconee twice this week and was happy to discover the pollen is gone and crappie are moving back to brushpiles and trees for the summer. I love this time of year because initially the biggest crappie move back to the wood first. I was able to catch 26 crappie in a fog-shortened morning on Tuesday, April 23, and I caught 41 crappie yesterday morning, April 25. Every fish but one was over 10 inches, and I caught some up to 15 inches long. Livescoping is by far the most efficient way to catch these Lake Oconee crappie. Go to your favorite trees and brushpiles and look for fish from 6 to 12 feet deep. The fewer fish there, the bigger they seem to be. I am seeing some evidence that the crappie are reacting negatively to the Livescope transducer. I set my…
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Editor’s Note: For lots more Oconee crappie fishing information, download Scott’s interview at the GON Outdoors Podcast. About the time this issue of GON finds itself on coffee tables, my buddy Scott Williams and his dad Billy will be in Grenada, Miss. competing in the Crappie Masters National Championship. That tournament is slated for Sept.…
Scott Williams, of Cochran, knows how to catch Lake Oconee crappie. Him and his dad Billy compete not only in Crappie Masters tournaments but in Crappie USA events, tournaments that send them regularly as far away as Texas. They’ve both won Georgia Slab Masters and the Peach State Crappie classics, some Crappie USA tournaments on Clarks…
Go to Lake Oconee fishing this month and expect to catch bass early in the mornings on topwater on seawalls and on points leading into coves and creeks. Anglers can then fish topwater on shady banks as the sun gets up, and they can also catch bass around docks on plastics and crankbaits, which are…
GON was in the boat with Mark Smith with Reel Time Guide Service on the morning of June 11, 2019 and put together a timely fishing report. Mark hosts an annual summer fishing trip for the Putnam County Middle School girls basketball team through Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Mark called on some buddies to help…
It was an overnight fishing trip to remember in the upper stretches of Lake Oconee for Lynn Lucas, of Eatonton, and his friend Will Hawn. Lynn, who turned 78 years old at the end of May, said they fished the night of May 8 and into the morning of May 9. By daybreak, they had…
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 |