QuestionI will be spending this coming weekend (5/23/09)on the Georgia side of Lake Seminole, in a house on Seminole Island. I will put in at Sealy Point Park. Where would be the best place to start Bass fishing? Is spring creek a good place? If so, where in Spring creek should I go and what type of lures would you recommend this time of year? I will be fishing from sun up to sun down. I've read some of your other post and you seem to be passionate about the sport and have a wealth of knowledge. I do appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thanks,
Bruce
AnswerBruce; As you must know as a bass fisherman this time of year and especially with the crazy weather we have been having, just where and how to fish depends largely on the conditions. Hopefully this wind will settle down and it will warm back up a little.
If I was putting in at Sealy Point I would start right there and work my way up the creek to the East and North. I would start using topwater baits such as the Zara Spook or Devil's horse around the stumps and back in the cove around docks. If that did not pan out in half an hour I would go to a spinner bait or a big swim bait working on up toward Rattlesnake Point. Depending on the wind strength and direction I might head for the shallows opposite the line of cabins below Rattlesnake Point trying the surface lures again. There is a sunken island near that shore so be careful as it is only inches deep. Maybe a little more with the water as high as it is.
If none of the above paid off or the bite tapered off I would then go above Rattlesnake point and try the deep water on the left of the boat channel for a while. A deep crank, worm or spinnerbait or a swimbait might work there. Next just as you pass the point of the island on the right and the boat channel bends about 45 degrees right try around that bunch of stumps and between the stumps and shore if the weeds are not too heavy. I have done well here using a plastic worm or a senko.
Another good place is around the piling on the left just before the piling that opens out into the open water, and before you come to the piling leading up toward Reynolds Landing (Big Jim's# The stumps between that piling and the channel leading up to Reynolds landing has produced some nice bass over the years. Most of that big stump field to the left of the main boat channel and the one running into Reynolds is good. I have caught some 7-8 pound bass in there and lots of smaller ones along with some nice crappie if I had minnows and fished for them.
At the junction that leads either up the creek or toward Reynolds' landing you have a choice. About a hundred feet or so after passing the pair of pilings leading to Reynolds' the creek channel joins the boat channel for maybe a hundred yards. That channel can sometimes be good. You can follow the creek channel as it breaks to the right out of the boat channel by watching your depth sounder. The channel will run 18-20 feet while just outside the channel will be 12-14 ft. The channel edge is a pretty definite drop. I haven't fished that end of the creek channel much but have occasionally caught fish in there. I usually head on up to where the stumps on the left give way to open water with weeds in closer to shore. I have caught some really nice pass by keeping my boat near the left side of the channel and casting into the open water.# It has hydrilla down under and may have hydrilla on top in places.
Looking ahead of you and to the north is a cove with several homes with docks. This cove is one of my favorite places just at sunset.
I have caught a lot of good bass on topwaters here. I like the big Muskie Jitterbug and the Devil's Horse or a chug bug in here.
Back at the junction of the main boat road and the Reynolds' landing channel head North up the main channel. There will be stump fields about 200 or so feet to the left but for a time none on the right. Then you will come to a little group of stumps right next to the boat channel. #note: The boat channel does not follow the creek channel very often. In most places they are separate.# That little group of stumps is a good crappie hole and should have bass but I have not fished it much. I continue on watching my depth sounder. The depth may read from three feet to eight or ten feet then suddenly drop to 18 to twenty feet. This is where the two channels cross. If you go left #not with the gas motor# all this area has been good bass fishing all the way to the shoreline with all the docks.
MAYBE THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO SCREAM THIS CAUTION. If YOU DO NOT KNOW THIS LAKE USE THE GAS MOTOR ONLY WITHIN THE MARKED BOAT CHANNELS. NEVER NEVER TRY RUNNING OUTSIDE THE MARKED CHANNELS. YOU WILL SEE PEOPLE DOING IT BUT THEY EITHER KNOW THE LAKE WELL OR ARE NUTS! FOR EVERY STUMP YOU SEE THERE ARE A HUNDRED JUST UNDER THE SURFACE AND THEY EAT LOWER UNITS OR TEAR HOLES IN BOATS.
If you follow the creek channel it will soon turn sharply to thee right wondering across the stump fields and eventually crossing the boat channel running into the islands on the right shore #facing upstream# This is the cut that leads across to the Flint River opening almost opposite from Wingates Lunker Lodge Marina. The area where these two channels meet is a side of a horseshoe bend in the creek and I have caught fish all around this horseshoe. Near the red topped piling on the west side of this horseshoe is another small clump of stickups which has produced several good bass. From here the creek channel runs nearly northeast for almost half mile before making a sharp bend to the left. On the right side of the channel are lots of stumps then some open area then more stumps. All along here has produced good fish both in the channel and back in the stumps. I use spinnerbaits and crankbaits along here. About 2/3 of the way up that channel there is one stick up on the left that has a nearly horizontal arm. That arm points to an opening in the stumps that is the mouth of a slough running at an angle to the left. This opening is over 25' deep and the slough is around 20'. I have caught a bunch of bass back in here. The slough sort of peters out about 300 yards back. Back in the main creek channel moving upstream the creek bends sharply and again crosses the boat channel. There is a set of pilings right at that crossing. The boat channel continues to the northeast and the creek runs almost West with stumps on the right and only a stickup or two on the left.
This has been a good place over the years casting back into the stumps on the right. Just before reaching the big new boat dock on the point the creek bends sharply right nearly directly north. Just where the creek bends right #North# there is an island of stickups in 20 or so feet of water on both sides. To the left of that stickup island is a hole that I found two years in a row to be full of big staging bass. That was before the spawn and the spawn has already taken place but the area beyond in the stumps and along the line of docks has been a real bonanza at times. I like to hit that area just at sunset with a surface bait. One spring week a few years ago I went up there every night for a week and caught a limit of bass between 4 and eight pounds. I released all but a couple of them. I haven't done that well since but often I have caught several nice ones in an evening.
Almost all of the areas that I have talked about here are in Spring Creek basin. I live in the house next door to the two biggest houses along the west shore so I spend most of my fishing between Rattlesnake Point and the last cabin on the left before reaching what used to be Knights Landing. On some older maps called Wid-Kin-Place.
I do not know how familiar you are with this lake but I have assumed that you will have a map marked with the boat roads and some place names such as Reynolds' landing and Rattlesnake Point.
I could go into some other places but since you asked about Spring Creek that is what I concentrated on and also is the area that I know the best. I hope this has been of some help to you. Thanks for calling on me to answer your question. If you have further questions give me a follow up or give me a call.
I am
Jack L. Gaither
Lake Seminole, Georgia
[email protected]
229-861-2366
