QuestionHello Sir, My wife and will be celebrating our 25 year weddings anniversary in May and are very much considering a week fishing, relaxing, and boating on Lake Seminole. We are looking at a place about 20 miles from Bainbridge on the main lake. Any fishing advice, any area information, or anything that might help us decide on this location would be helpful. Also, I have a 16 foot aluminum Express with a Yamaha 60 motor. I know the main lake is quiet large and could get rough with very little wind so wanted your expert advice about staying on the main lake and using this size boat. Thank you for your time and advice. Blessings
AnswerGlenn; here's wishing you and your lady a happy wedding anniversary. If you are planning on staying on the main lake 20 miles from Bainbridge You must be staying at Wingate's Lodge and Marina. That is a good central place to stay as you are within reach of much of the lake from there. Any place West of there would be good also. As for the boat I would say it is fine. While the lake is large it is also spread over a lot of territory with lots of islands and nowhere are you more than a mile or so from shore. I fished a lot of places and rode out a couple of storms with my 15' boat and a 50horse motor. I now have a 16 1/2ft. Alumacraft with a 40 horse motor and go anyplace I want and feel safe.
The lake consists of two larger rivers, the Flint and the Chattahoochee. The Flint coming down from Bainbridge and the "Hooch" down from the corner of Alabama acting as the state line for about 1/3 of the length of the state. The two rivers joined about a mile above the present location of the dam. From the dam to Bainbridge is some 23-25 miles and the Flint arm is about the same. In between is the Spring Creek arm and the smaller Fish Pond Drain Creek arm. All of the arms are relatively shallow except in the river and creek channels which in places may be 30' deep which is relatively shallow compared to many large lakes. Much of the lake shore is swamp or timbered and owned by the Corps of Engineers who are not selling. There are a few areas that are lined with cabins or homes mostly with docks to fish around. I live about the middle of the Spring Creek arm and do most of my fishing right there. The basin that I fish is somewhere around 3000-3500 acres and is mostly different from the rest of the lake. Before the dam was put in the rivers and creeks wound through wooded areas with some farmland on the outside.
When the area was flooded the timber was left standing and is now broken off near the waterline.
The farmland is now flats mostly covered with weeds. Throughout the lake boat trails were cut through the standing timber and well marked with pilings having red and green reflectors on them.
Most of the maps accurately show these boat trails. The Flint and "Hooch" have markers for the tug boats that used to run regularly. We seldom see one now but the markers are well maintained.
Of course, this means run only at speed in the marked channels to be sure you do not take the foot off your motor or worse. Fishing is good all over the lake in summer time with lots of brim, shellcrackers,and bass and at sunset crappie bite pretty well.
I think you are a lucky man like I have been. You have a wife who likes to fish or at least doesn't mind you going fishing. I used to take my first wife (she died in 1984) to northern Minnesota every summer camping. She liked to fish or just relax and work crossword puzzles while I fished. We were married 25 years shortly before she died. Next year I will have my second 25th anniversary with my second wife who also used to love to fish. We own a place on the lake and have lived here since I retired in '93. She is now in a nursing home paralyzed from the waist down. I live with my son on the lake. I am now 77 years old and don't fish as much as I used to but I still love fishing and I love this lake.
I have probably told you several times as much as you wanted, that is me "old run off at the mouth or keyboard. Anyway I hope I have been of some help and I would love to meet you while you are down here. Thank you for calling on me to answer your question.
Jack L. Gaither (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia
[email protected] (229)861-2366
