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Fishing
Lineside fishing guide Greg Beck snatched the rod from the rod holder and reared back to set the hook, but the fish was already gone. Before he could replace the rod, another planer board shuddered on the surface, then surged backwards, signaling a hit on the trailing blueback herring. Greg hurriedly set down the first…
Like many Georgians, I have been fishing as long as I can remember. Heck, my grandfather was king of the pay-lake catfishermen as far as I knew. I have been blessed with good friends and an experimental streak of my own, allowing me to discover the joys of catching everything from redbreasts to redfish with…
The green flag has dropped, and the race is on. The hybrids in Lake West Point have just completed their voyage north up the Chattahoochee River to the Franklin Shoals area. West Point hybrids make a yearly run up the river to search out swift current – it’s their attempt to spawn. Although a…
They fight better than they eat… and they eat good! The hybrid bass has become one of the favorite freshwater game fish in Georgia waters. This fish, which is a cross between white and striped bass, is an excellent fighter, pound for pound, and can also provide some good table fare. The Georgia WRD Fisheries…
By my watch, we started fishing at 8:49 p.m. Darkness was settling in over Lake Hartwell, but some fast-paced fish-catching under the lights was about to begin. Hartwell fishing guide Wayne White had pulled up on a “pull through” as he calls it, a narrow area, or funnel area that concentrates both bait and hybrids…
Chris turned the boat away from the long point at Amity Park on Lake West Point. I had a rod with an umbrella rig on it under my arm, and so did he. “Put yours out about 60 feet,” he said. I eased the array of jigs on a wire harness into the lake as we…
The sun was still below the eastern treeline as we chunked topwater lures in Newton County’s Lake Varner. We were hoping one of the lake’s notorious big largemouths, or an aggressive hybrid, would strike. The reservoir was slicked out — bad conditions for topwater strikes — but it sure made for a peaceful beginning to…
“Get the net!” said Sarah Willard, who was hanging onto her rod as a hybrid bass flashed and pulled next to the boat. Sarah’s dad, Clarks Hill linesides guide Dave Willard, stepped to the gunnel with the net, scooped, and netted a silvery, 3-lb. hybrid. Dave unhooked the fish, and was holding the fish in…
Stan Payne of Athens used to pitch baseballs. These days, he would rather pitch lures around Lake Oconee as a fishing guide. Stan was on the mound when the Georgia Bulldogs won the 1990 College World Series, and he spent several years with the Oakland A’s organization before retiring from the game and returning to…
The small hand-held scale registered 24 pounds. The battle was over, and I had won… sort of. The fish, a typical hard-charging lineside, never gave up, fighting all the way to the net and winning my admiration. It’s hard to not like the striper, the biggest, fastest and strongest of Georgia’s reservoir fish. Stripers, which…
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