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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
The cost to spend a day at federal recreation areas on the Oconee and Chattahoochee national forests could be going up soon. The U.S. Forest Service is proposing increases to user fees at some Forest Service recreation areas in Georgia, including access to some boat ramps, campgrounds and day-use areas. The proposed price hikes include…
If you like catching shallow summertime bass, Lake Oconee is the place to fish in August. The lake is lined with docks in most areas, and there are many grassbeds and seawalls that hold shallow bass all summer. Lake Oconee is an almost 19,000-acre Georgia Power Co. lake northeast of Eatonton on the Oconee River.…
Pylodictis olivaris is the scientific name for a flathead catfish. In layman’s terms, it’s best described as a cold-blooded killer. These fish grow to enormous sizes, with the state record currently sitting at a tie with two behemoths on record weighing in at an impressive 83 pounds each. Throw in the fact that even larger…
As the big schools of Lake Oconee stripers and hybrids race to the dam this month in an effort to spawn, anglers will be waiting on them in boats with suspended bass minnows dangling below their fiberglass hulls. Oconee is a lake where water generation moves both ways, which means linesides don’t only go up…
A new blue catfish record on Lake Oconee was set on Sept. 16 by Wayne Tatum, of Tennille. The monster blue weighed 69-lbs., 7-ozs. and was caught around 10 a.m. Friday morning about a mile up the lake from the dam. The giant fish smashes the old Lake Oconee blue cat record by more than…
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 |