Oconee Report 11/8/11

Went to Oconee yesterday and took dad. The weather was perfect and the water was smooth as glass. The morning bite was decent doing the same thing I always do and thats dropping a 1/16th ounce jig head tipped with a minnow down to the depth they are showing on fish finder which was 12 ft. Water temp was 61 deg in the morning and hit 64 by evening. Caught about 15 fish that were 13-14 inches. (not sure what weight that would be) And a bunch of dinks which I released for next year. After lunch we fished 3 hours without a bite and all of the sudden at 4:30 schools of shad started swarming all over the lake up in sugar creek. Then the crappie started blowing up in the stump fields. I broke 2 of my cheap walmart shakespeare crappie rods due to some HUGE crappie bowing my rod under the boat. Lost both fish but I am sure they were over 2lb.
Best day Ive had this fall.

Sounds like you did have a great day. Thanks for the report.

Great report. Makes me want to go to Oconee, but it has already started raining and I don't like fishing in the rain. Thanks again.

Way to go! Im sure you enjoyed the time with your Dad. Dont give up on the long rods as all brands long rods will break easily. Be sure your Drag on your Reel is set loosely and you have a long handled Dip Net. Wear bigger fish down before you try to surface him. Try to get net in other hand and ease under fish. Sounds like you have found some honey holes for sure. Good report. Bottombumper

Thanks for the report.

Good report. Last Friday evening (11/4) while driving over the bridge in Lick Creek I saw the same thing. A bunch of somethings were breakn the top of the water. I mean as far as I could see! Must have been shad?? Pretty wild

Good report and great catch. I know the two of you had a great time together.Thumbs Up Congrats.

I love fishing the last hour of the day when the shad come up and the predators do too. Long line fast with 1/16th and get ready! Congrats on a trip with your Dad too.

Thanks for the report Mtnman. You might want to check out ProAngler Rods in 8ft or 10ft at proanglertackle.com. I have two of the 8 footers with the cork handles and I am loving these things. I haven't been this impressed with a rod since the BnM Pro Staff for spider rigging. The other day I was longlining and all but 2 came off the Pro Angler 8 foot poles. Jerry Hancock has some crappie videos on youtube using these. Search under Hancock Outdoors. They are ideal for what type of fishing you are doing tightllining minnows. This is basically all they do most of the time with them. Hope to get on the lake soon. The big ones should begin to show anytime. We caught some nice ones mid November last year on Oconee, this cold front may be what the doctor ordered to get things going really good. 13 to 14 inch fish on Oconee are probably around 1.25 to 1.5 lbs in weight if I had to guess at it. Nice catch, I'll take them anytime. Here's what they can do! http://www.youtube.com/user/HancockO...14/6Lr5cj0oYpo

PS You have a constant case of thumpitis. You live for the thump. It is addictive for sure. You never know what the thump might bring. See the following http://www.youtube.com/user/HancockO.../2/G3Iy-UPJlZM

Bottombumper, I haven't seen you in a while. When you don't have anything to do stop by the store and shoot the fat with me.
LY34, yeah that was schools of shad swimming around. The whole body of water in sugar creek was just swarming with them as far as I could see. When this started the fish started biting like there was no tomorrow and the birds started swarming too. It was awesome. There were all kinds of seagull looking birds and some black duck looking ones too that I have never seen before.
I am going back sunday and hopefully after this cold front and then the warm sunny weather rolls back in they will really wake up good. We shall see.
I also think the rods broke partially due to the fact that when I was trying to spider rig one of them got hung and bent under the boat and I believe that weakened it.

nice report. i am new to georgia. i have been to oconee a few times in the last two weeks. i have seen the shad all over sugar creek but i am not having much luck with the crappie.a few dinks and two or threee keepers.i have my 185 tracker set up with side by side seating and a spidder rig set up. i use crappie max rods from bps ive used them for yrs and never had one break yet.knock on wood.can anyone give me a little insite on this lake and the normal paterns on this like. any help would be greatly appreciated.like i said im new to georgia and would like to meet some other crappie nuts like myself.

Gtojoe, check your Oconee post. Hopefully I gave some good advice. haha