Lake Seminole Bass Early To Bed

Ryan Higgins grew up rubbing elbows with pro anglers at his dad’s Bainbridge Sporting Goods store. Ryan now guides on Seminole and at Southwind Plantation. He says the January prespawn bite can be great at Seminole.

The typical Georgia bass angler isn’t thinking about prespawn patterns for January fishing. But Lake Seminole bass are well ahead of other Georgia lakes, and as the New Year begins, they are already in a hungry, prespawn mood. You can take advantage of this early prespawn mode to catch numbers and quality bass on Georgia’s most southern reservoir.

Seminole is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir formed by the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. Spring Creek runs in between the two rivers and is the lake’s biggest creek. Much of the reservoir is in Georgia, and a Georgia fishing license is good everywhere on the lake except for a small area inside the Florida line near the dam.

Everywhere you look on its 37,500 acres, it looks like a bass should be holding there. Seminole’s average depth is only 10 feet so there are thousands of acres of stumps, grass and lily pads. Even the deeper water is filled with standing timber on much of the lake.

Ryan Higgins grew up near Bainbridge, and his father owned Bainbridge Sporting Goods, the best tackle store in the area back then. Ryan grew up around fishermen and met many of the pros when they came to tournaments on the lake. He naturally became a fanatic bass fisherman.

For a time, Ryan fished with the Bainbridge Bass Club and met fishermen like Brian Key and Jim Merritt, two of the all-time best fishermen on the lake. Brian was a mentor to Ryan and taught him a lot about Seminole bass.

Ryan now lives in Vada about 30 minutes from the lake and guides for bass and quail on Southwind Plantation. He also guides on Lake Seminole with www.lakeseminolefishingguides.com. Fishing local tournaments when he can and guiding means Ryan is on the lake often, so he keeps up with the bass as they go through their annual movements.

“Winter is my favorite time to fish Seminole,” Ryan said. 

He said bass start moving to prespawn holes in late December, and by January, the fish are often stacked up. And they feed heavily getting ready to spawn. Depending on the weather, some bass may even start spawning by the end of January on Lake Seminole.

There are untold acres of spawning grounds on Seminole, from tiny backwater “ponds” way off the channels to flats on the main lake. Knowing which spawning areas have the highest numbers of bass and when they are likely to be there is critical. It used to take years of study to find them.

“Any small depression, even a 6-inch change, is important in January,” Ryan said. 

Because Lake Seminole is so shallow, a ditch or old pond may be a few feet deeper or even only a few inches deeper than surrounding flats, but the bass know and use them. If you find these slight depressions, you will catch fish.

Modern GPS mapping has made a tremendous difference in finding these places. Contour-map chips from several companies show the smallest changes in depth and highlight old ponds, ditches and channels the bass use.

For January fishing, Ryan will rig a jerkbait, bladed jig, swim jig and rattle bait as his go-to baits. But he also has an A-rig, Carolina rig, drop shot and punch bait ready to cast in specific situations.

We fished a couple of weeks ago as a cold front came through, and Ryan caught several keepers of the following holes. All day the wind picked up and temperatures dropped from the low 70s to the high 30s the next day.

As is typical, as soon as I had to get off the water, Ryan went back out for another hour and found a school feeding, catching a dozen in 15 minutes, as many as we had caught the previous six hours. That is typical of prespawn Seminole bass—find a school feeding and quickly catch lot of fish.

Bass were beginning to move into these spots in mid-December, and they should be loaded by the first of January.

No. 1: N 30º 47.831 – W 84º 47.782 — Follow the Spring Creek channel markers to the intersection with the Spring Creek Park cutoff. Idle south toward the islands of the Duck Refuge and the Flint River, watching for a small drop in depth. An old pond forms a depression that holds large numbers of bass during the prespawn period this month.

A good GPS map will show this slight depression, and the above coordinates will take you to it. 

The open water at Seminole makes definitive landmarks hard to locate, so GPS will be very helpful. And the lake is full of stumps and standing trees, so you have to be careful idling around.

Watch for a drop from water that is about 3 feet deep on the flat that has hydrilla on it down to about 15 feet deep. The deeper water will be clear of hydrilla, and the bass will be feeding either right on the edge of the grass or roaming the open water.

Ryan starts with either a 90 Series 6th Sense Provoke jerkbait or a Vision 110+1 jerkbait, both in pro blue or Tennessee shad. You can blind cast it but Forward Facing Sonar (FFS) will help you zero in on the fish and watch how they react to it. Fish the jerkbait all over the open water, from the edge of the grass to the middle. Ryan caught our biggest fish of the day here on a jerkbait. 

Ryan will also cast a rattle bait, bladed jig and swim jig into the grass and rip it out, especially if most of his bites are coming close to the grass. You can spend a lot of time here, but don’t stay more than about 15 minutes without a bite.

No. 2: N 30º 45.990 – W 84º 49.498 — Ryan knows the lake well enough that we twisted and turned though grass and lily pads to get to hole 2, but it is best to follow the marked boat lane out to the Flint River channel, and then idle in toward Spring Creek and toward two small islands near the end of the group of islands at the Duck Refuge.

If you head straight toward a lone cypress tree off the end of the upstream island, you will find a small hump that comes out of 10 to 12 feet of water to top out at 4 feet deep. Bass spawn on top of this hump in holes in the grass, and they hold here during the prespawn in the grass around those holes.

Circle the hump and cast a rattle bait and bladed jig on top of it and rip it through the grass. Be ready for a savage hit when the bait takes off out of the grass. Ryan likes a 1/2-oz. fire craw Thunder Cricket bladed jig. All of his fast-moving baits will have red in them, since bass are often feeding on newly molted crayfish in the grass.

No. 3 N 30º 45.509 – W 84º 50.681 — Go down the Flint River channel to the poles from the Sealy Point cut. Stop out from the last two poles and fish all around them. Boats coming out of the cut and turning will “blow” out the grass, making a hole where bass feed.

Although you have to time your cast to avoid boats on busy days, boats coming through seem to turn on the fish. Cast a bladed jig or a rattle bait all over the areas, hitting clumps of grass and jerking the bait free. Be sure to cast right beside the poles, too.

Ryan likes a Raybon Red or fire craw colored 1/2-oz. Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, and he fishes it on braid.  Since you are ripping out of grass, the braid helps you pull it free and also helps land any bass that hits it.

No. 4: N 30º 45.699 – W 84º 50.695 — Go 200 yards toward Sealy Point and a little downstream of the pole markers. There is an old pond there that is 2 to 3 feet on top around it but drops to 15 feet in the middle. You can zero in on it with the GPS coordinates and it shows on good mapping software.

This is in the middle of Sealy Flats, the biggest spawning area on the lake, according to Ryan. It can hold large numbers of bass all month and bass move in and restock it often during the month.

Fish the middle of the pond with a jerkbait and the grass edges with your rattle bait and bladed jig. Ryan will also keep an A-rig ready to cast if he sees bass chasing shad in the open water on his FFS. You can fish it from top to bottom at different speeds.

No. 5: N 30º 46.133 – W 84º 50.307 ­— Follow the Sealy Point cut pole markers until you see the bottom drop to 17 feet deep, making the edge of the old Spring Creek valley. Stop and idle upstream in 2 to 3 feet of water. Watch for a drop into 15 feet of water in an old depression that holds fish.

Fish this deeper spot like the others, working jerkbait and an A-rig in open water, and also by ripping a bladed jig and rattle bait from the grass. Ryan quickly fishes places like this, not spending more than 15 minutes waiting for a bite. He knows so many places that hold prespawn bass that he is constantly moving and trying to find an active school.

No. 6: N 30º 47.075 – W 84º 48.683 ­— Rattlesnake Point is a well-known landmark where the Spring Creek channel makes a turn to the left going upstream. The point has some boulders on it and runs out to the old channel in deep water. There is standing timber all over and around the point.

Ryan stops out from the point and works around it, watching his electronics for bass holding in the channel. Even with all the timber, he works an A-rig near the bottom and catches fish on it. Heavy braid helps allow him to pull it free when—not if—it hangs up. And lighter hooks help, too. Ryan caught a keeper here on his A-rig.

You can also catch fish here on a drop shot or Carolina rig. Ryan rigs a 1 1/2-oz. sinker with a 4-foot leader on his C-rig. He will use even longer leaders if he can cast them. A green-pumpkin Brush Hog or Trick Worm works well.

Drag the Carolina rig all along the channel, bumping the bottom of the timber where the bass are holding. Work the area thoroughly, fishing well off the bank following the deeper water where the channel makes a swing.

No. 7: N 30º 50.657 – W 84º 46.096 — For a change of pace, run way up Spring Creek past Reynoldsville Park Access. Check the numbers on the pole markers, and stop at number 180. It will be close to the right bank.

Ryan rigs a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog on a 4/0 hook and a 1 1/4-oz. Tungsten sinker. He punches the hyacinth beds along this bank with it. The bank is lined with reeds, and the water drops to a couple feet deep at the edge of the reeds, but hyacinth beds blow in after windy days and extend the cover out to about 6 feet deep.

Keep your boat in about 8 feet of water and punch through the mats. Ryan says the brighter the sun the better, but if there are no hyacinth beds blown in, the bite is not very good. We fished here but the lack of hyacinth beds that day made it hard to get bit.

No. 8: N 30º 50.781 – W 84º 46.100 ­— Jump across the channel and fish the opposite bank, working downstream, opposite of where you fished on the other bank. There is more grass here, and a good bit of water primrose grows on this bank and will hold bass, but hyacinth again makes it much better.

This side is shallower, so your boat will be in about 4 feet of water. The thicker the mats the better. Fish very slowly—bass will not move far in the cold water. Let your bait hit bottom, shake it a little, and then pick it up and punch the next spot.

No. 9: N 30º 52.184 – W 84º 45.629 — Go upstream until you see the Spring Creek Road Bridge. Stop at the last pole marker downstream of the bridge and idle slowly to it. Ryan says the stumps up here have no give—they are shorter than the ones in deeper water and can hurt your boat.

Go to the bridge and fish the pilings with your A-rig and jerkbait. Also, work the rip-rap with jerkbait and rattle bait. Work the pilings from all angles. Fish feed around both and move in and out, so you may hit them any time.

No. 10: N 30º 52.362 – W 84º 45.682 — Above the bridge, Decatur Lake is a wide area of the creek that is full of stumps and grass. You can spend hours here punching mats and flipping stumps. And you can have a great catch, but it is hit or miss.

Work all the cover until you find some kind of pattern. Following the edge of the old channel can be productive, but any stump or grass clump can hold a fish. Try to pick up some kind of pattern for the day.

These spots give you a variety of places and patterns to try. Head south this month for warmer weather and warmer water—and more active bass!

In certain situations, Ryan will throw an Alabama rig in January for prespawn Lake Seminole bass.