QuestionWHAT TYPE LURES ARE THE MOST PRODUCTIVE IN LATE JAN. OR EARLY FEB. WHERE ARE SOME SPOTS THAT CAN BE FOUND ON A MAP TO TRY. WHAT KIND OF STRUCTURE AND TIPS ON WHICH WAY TO FISH THE STRUCTURE. THIS IS A TRIP FOR TWO MEN WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN TO SEMINOLE AND WOULD LIKE TO MAKE THE MOST OF OUR TRIP. ANY AREAS AND TIPS WOULD BE HELPFULL. THANK YOU FOR ANY INFO.
AnswerHi Matt; To begin with Lake Seminole is a pretty large lake and I am only familiar with a relatively small part of it even though I have fished it for the past 15 years. I live on the lake on the Georgia side. If you have a map look for Reynolds landing on Spring Creek. Look one mile East and my house is near the point there.
Probobably 90% of my fishing is done within a mile or mile and a half from that point. And I have caught a lot of really nice bass in that area. The biggest one was just over nine pounds. I am still trying for that magic ten pounder. The night I caught the nine pounder I followed a few casts later with one just under 9lbs. I have caught a lot of bass between 5 and 8lbs. Not records by any means but nice bass in anybody's book.
Once you have found the general location of my house just a few yards west of where the creek makes a sharp bend to the west from a southerly flow. Notice the creek is marked above that point in a darker color than the rest of the water. The creek channel runs between 17' and 20' while the lighter blue is from 7'to 17' mostly about 12-14ft. The creek channel almost touches the shoreline after it turns west. My place is very near there.
Now hoping we are oriented let me give you a few tips. First and very important you will see a series of dots with a line between them running nearly straight over considerable distance (sometimes a mile)
Then that channel may change direction but then continues in a fairly straight line until it turns again. This marks the safe channel. A stranger to this lake MUST follow these marked channels which are about 50-70feet wide. Each dot on the map usually means a pair of pilings marked red or green. When moving upstream you must keep the red to your right. To get out of this channel in many places means you are in a stump field where timber left standing whend the lake was built has now broken off at about the waterline but some are below the waterline especially if the lake is high. You can meander through these stump fields using a trolling motor but never try it with your big motor. Many a prop or lower unit still hangs on some of the stumps.
As the creek passes the point near my place it is marked with a dashed line as it wanders through the stump fields. Follow it on your map as it heads SW until it nearly touches Rattlesnake Point.
Nearly anywhere along this twisting channel are spots that I have caught some nice fish. I haven't found a real honey hole though along there.
Next notice that the marked channel comes very close to the point just east of my place. You will see that this is a junction of two marked channels. One continues northeast and the other crosses to the south side of the lake. This last one continues between the islands and comes out on the main lake almost opposite Wingates Lunker Lodge. I sometimes go through that cut and fish the flats just to the Northeast of Wingates. This is supposed to be a good place for Lunker Lure type baits and other topwaters but you couldn't prove it by me. It takes too long a run just to get there and I have found places in my part of the lake that pay off without the long run. If you follow the channel running across the lake that I was just talking about you will see where that channel intersects the creek channel. Either direction from that intersection has produced well for me.
My two biggest were from just to the right of the intersection both on Magnum coal black Jitterbugs at night. One thing about fishing at night on this lake is to make sure you have a flashlight handy. You may hook a gator since they like jitterbugs too. Also grinnel sometimes called dog fish or mud fish sometimes hit and they have a mouthfull of teeth. Shine your light to make sure it is a bass' mouth you are sticking your thumb into. I am serious about this.
To the left of the intersection of creek and marked channel I have caught fish all along. About 1/4 mile upstream (left) from the intersection there is a little rather difficult to spot slough off to the right. It is only about 100 yards long and peters out but it has produced some nice fish. It is about 26' deep where it joins the creek channel and averages 18-20 feet until it ends. This has been a good place for both bass and crappie.
Just a few yards on the channel makes a left turn and crosses the other marked channel. Around this intersection has been good for bass and crappie. Continuing on up the creek channel all along the right side has been good casting into the stumps. I use spinnerbaits, crank baits nd in the evening if the lake is calm I like a surface bait like a devils hourse. After it gets dark I switch to my trusty Muskie Jitterbug.
When it seems the channel is going to go right up on shore it makes a hard right.
Also at this poing there is an unoffecially unmarked channel that people living up that shoreline use for getting their boats in and out. It is marked by milk jugs jammed on stickups
The mouth of this unofficial boat channel and the creek has a hole abut 15' deep.
This area has been the hottest spot I have ever fished in my life up until 5 years ago. In January and Feb. and on into early March large female bass were staging before the spawn. Two years in a row they were there and for about three weeks I had some of the, NO! I had the best bass fishing I have ever had in my life. Night after night half an hour before sunset I would slip into position within casting distance of the hole. Just about sunset the bass would start hitting like crazy and they were all 5lbs or more up to 8lbs.
Allmost every night I would catch my limit but release all but a very few to keep my wife from killing me. She wanted me to keep every fish I caught.
For two years at the same time of the year they were there. Then the Corps of Engineers and the Georgia Game and Fish decided there was too much hydrilla in the lake so they put in a drip system about 4miles up the creek dripping a chemical into the water. Within weeks the hydrilla was about gone but so were the fish, Not just from that one place but from the whole creek nearly ten miles long. They turned the stuff off after three years and now the hydrilla is back. I wasn't able to fish last Jan and Feb because of my health but when I got better in the summer I began catching fish again. I believe they will be back this year. If they are I hope you will get good times to fish for them. I do hope you will keep a few to eat preferably the small ones and return the others for the future.
I could go on and tell you some more places but I think I should stop now.
Maybe you could send me an e-mail if there is more you would like to have me give you.
Another possibility would be that we could get together when you get here. I could show you easier than tell you. Where are you planning on staying while you are here? Also where are you from? One guy coming down to fish the lake for the first time is from Ohio. But he isn't coming til April. Late Jan and early Feb are good if the weather cooperates. It doesn't really warm up to stay until after Easter but we often have some good weather in late Jan and early Feb. or it could snow. That's the way it is when the cold fronts come screaming down from Canada. Hopefully you will hit it right.
Thanks for using me to answer your question. I am;
Jack L. Gaither
[email protected]
