Fishing Lake Seminole

Question
QUESTION: I will be staying at three rivers camp ground the first week of March.  Any advise on fishing would be greatly appreciated.  I will be using one of the parks canoes so i assume my distance will be limited due to paddling the canoe.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Dave

ANSWER: David; Man you probably chose one of the worst places to start out from using only a canoe.  That camp ground is located on the South West corner of the lake just a ways above the dam and there isn't really much in the immediate area that you can get at easily with a canoe.  Are you locked into staying at that particular place?  If not then there are several other places that you can camp that are far better for a person with a canoe.  Have you ever been on this lake before?  If not you need to know that it is a big lake and when the winds come up and they can come up in a hurry in the spring, it can get very rough.  I would not advise going out from that place if there was any kind of threat of storm.  To get to any area that would be considered very good fishing you would have to paddle at least a mile.  That would be a long way to try to get back home in a storm.  In fact If you are not really close to home and a storm comes up I would suggest heading for the nearest land or island and wait it out.

On a nice day you could paddle across the lake to the islands on the East shore.  In behind those islands there are some good places to fish that would be out of the main lake and you would be near sheltered areas if a sudden storm came up.  If you can stay some other place I would suggest you go to one of the following.  Wingates Lunker Lodge on the South side of the lake has camping areas and has some good fishing areas close by.  There is a large flats area just to the East of the outlet from Wingates Marina and actually some places in the islands area right at the marina has some good bass fishing.  I don't know where you will be coming from to get to the lake.  Wingates is several miles East of the dam.  Make sure you have a good map of the lake to find these places.  Another place that would be good for a canoe would be on Spring Creek at Big Jims' Marina at the foot of Reynolds' Landing road.  They have camping areas as well as cabins.  The  Spring Creek arm of the lake is one of the best areas for fishing on the lake.  I used to fish it in a little 12 foot narrow canoe while my boat was in the shop.  I had a trolling motor mounted on the bow though.  Even then one evening I started around a point headed for home and the wind was right out of the West where I had to go.  I backed down and put in to shore, pulled my canoe up on shore and walked a half mile home.  The next morning I walked back and brought my canoe on home.  Still another place where you could reach some good fishing with a canoe would be at Trail's End Marina.  This is about a mile or maybe two upstream from the Three Rivers Campground but on the East side of the lake.  It is not far from some good areas for fishing but with several islands to hide behind  if the wind gets up.  I am not certain if there is a camping area on Cyprus Lake but it has a very good landing and while it is connected to Lake Seminole and is considered part of the lake it is connected with narrow channels to the big lake.  I have not tried fishing there for several years but I am sure it has some good places to fish. Much of the area is drowned standing timber.  Most of the standing timber in the main  lake has broken off near the water line but this place is sheltered from the wind so that most of the trees are still standing.

I do not know of any other places that have camping but there may be. There used to be several but over the years most have closed down.  I hope that I have not scared you off.  There are places that you can fish from a canoe and catch some really nice fish but I simply would not want to see you get caught on the big lake in a storm.  I have been caught in one or two in a 16 foot boat and didn't like that much.  I certainly would not have liked to have been in my canoe #which incidentally is sunk just out from my dock right now#.

I hope this has been of some help.  This is a great lake for fishing and I hope you can find some place safe with your canoe.  Thanks for calling on me to answer your question.  I really did not answer your question as it was asked because there really are not many places within easy paddling distance from Three Rivers Park.

Jack L. Gaither          #JackfromSeminole#
Lake Seminole, Georgia.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the advise We are staying in the cabin at Three Rivers and was going to use one of there canoes.  I guess I should have ask you were would be the best place to rent a small boat within the area of Three rivers I just assumed we could go out in one of there canoes.

Thanks for the help.

Answer
David; There are only two places that I know of on the lake that have boats for rent. One is Wingates Marina on the South side of the lake probably 20 -25 miles by land from Three Rivers.
The other is the one across and up lake from Three Rivers, I mentioned it in my first message, it is called Trail's End.  It is possible that the marina just below Three Rivers toward the dam might have boats for rent but I am not certain.  I can give you the phone numbers of each of those places so you could call ahead and reserve a boat.  Wingates'phone number is  229-246-0658 Trails' end number is 229-861-2000.  I would call right away if you want to rent a boat as they do not have many and they are often all taken if you don't' have a reservation early.

I hope this helps.  It is difficult to find places to rent boats because so many people have their own boats now days.

Jack