The Great Outsmores

Since adopting me at birth, my father has done inumerable great things for me - and I’m eternally greatful. Trouble is, my birthday happens every year right around, and sometimes on, Father’s day. So I’m in a delimma. My pops has invited me up to the lake cabin for a Dad’s Day weekend that I know will unfortunately be anything but relaxing with whole family there and the inevitable role of playing the good uncle and watching the grandkids (not mine), taking them tubing, and cooking dinner every night for about ten. In fairness, life could be much worse.

However, I’m really itching to get a canoe camping trip in on either the Toccoa or Upper Chattahoochee and hit the trout hard before the water temp. climbs towards the boiling point as it does here in the summer. And isn’t a birthday the one day a year you’re allowed to be a little selfish and do what you want?

I guess the politcal thing to do would be to comprimise and hit Section II of the Chattooga for a day trip which is only a few minutes from the cabin, but it’s free-flowing, which means low water levels and warmer water this time of year. Not to mention its something I’ve done many times, and I always like to hit up new areas when I get the chance.

Oh well, either way - it’s better than yard work.

1 Comment »

Lake Burton has been rumored to hold some giant spotted bass . I’ve seen them cruising the shallows around dusk and dawn, but until this spring I’ve had a terrible time hooking up with any of them. Lake Burton is a different sort of Georgia bass fishing with its clean, cold waters, and substantially different forage including blueback herring and stocked brown trout. I’m very accustomed to North and Middle Georgia’s ponds and reseviors, which are relatively shallow and certainly stained water conditions - so adjustments were cerntainly in order.

The Catch

I spent only three or four hours just after sunrise on Saturday and Monday, fishing wind blown points along Billy Goat Island’s South and Eastern shore, as well as weedlines with sandy bottoms near the mouth of Murray Cove (near the boat ramp!). I was able to land several decent spotted bass in the 1 pound range, and finally hooked up with my personal best (so far) weighing about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds before the fish went queit at about 9:00 AM.

The Lures & Rigs

A couple small spotted bass and a small largemouth took 3/16 oz. BlueFox Vibrax spinners near downed trees in 3-5 feet of water. However most of the action was with carolina rigged worms. Depending on shore angle and depth, I ran a split shot (3/16 - 1/4 oz) about 16 inches up the line with a size 2/0 straight shanked worm hook to allow some suspension inches off the bottom. Best worm type this weekend was a watermelon, tailess zoom worm with a 1/” cut off the front, however I got a couple bites and a fish off a light green, curly tailed zoom as well. Both a painfully slow retrieve, and a slow two foot by two foot jigging motion with 4-5 second pauses work well to pull these finicky fish off the bottom.

A Line Note

Lastly, I’m getting the distinct feeling that heavy line will not produce in Lake Burton’s clear waters, especially during heavy fishing pressure. Flourescent blue, six pound mono has done fine, but with green hued line suitable for Georgia’s stained waters has been less than stellar.

 My best spotted bass, so far…..

Thanks to everyone for stopping by my blog, and I always appreciate tips and suggestions from my cold water bass fishermen further North as I learn to master the art of fishing cold, deep, and clear waters - it’s certainly a challenge, and more certianly good fun.

2 Comments »

I should have known it was going to be one of those days.  Tough conditions on Lake Burton, combined with poor preparation on my part lended the expected result, but not in the way I should have imagined.  It’s mother’s day, 2008, and strong cold front has dumped over 1.5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  The wind was stiff, about 15 miles an hour out of the Northwest with heavy cloud cover and air temperatures dipping to an unseasonably chilly 50 degrees.

Knowing that the majority of my lake time would be dedicated to mom, and not fishing, I only brought one rod and a couple of bait options.  We slipped out at 8:30, and started drift fishing along the North shore of Murray Cove near the South end of the lake.  I tied on a six inch Zoom trick worm (watermelon seed color) with a 1/0 worm hook and 3/8 oz. split shot running about 16″ up the six pound flourescent blue line.  A slow jigging presentation paid off almost immediately, with this guy on board in just a couple minutes.

After releasing this fat little fish, we were drifting within range of the first of three points before entering the main body of the lake.  Heavily covered with downed trees, I put the worm on the leeward side of the point and immediately felt something pounce.  Hook set, fish turned me, and as I lifted to rod up high to pull him out of the cover - BAM! - rod pieces were flying all over the place.  Not only that, but the preceediong explosion made short work of my line and a lucky day for this particular bass.

To say I was bummed, is a pretty fair understatement.  With no other rod up there, and the fish biting, I had nothing to do but head home and reflect on my fortune and disfortune on an ugly May morning.  My question, now, is this:

Do I:

• A.) Trash the rod maker publically on this blog (it was only two months old, and under it’s recomended line class)
• B.) Write an open letter regarding the rod, and see what kind of remediation may be available.
• or C.) Skip it, go buy another rod, and spend that time on the water instead of making a big stink?

9 Comments »

Here’s a one of my personal favorites from Lake Burton in Northeast Georgia. For more photos, you can visit the Lake Burton Civic Association’s Gallery.

No Comments »

Georgia Power has elected not to drop water levels on Lake Burton, Seed, and Rabun for the first time since their construction in the 20’s. GA Power thinks it prudent due to the recent inflows into Lake Burton in the midths of a record drought. The fear is, if they release water for hydro electric power during the winter as normal, they may not get the rain needed to replenish it by spring. It’s that bad. So what’s unfortunate for paddlers, may prove interesting for fishermen that normally have difficulty getting boats in the water once it’s below most of the boat ramps. As a conservationist, and paddler, I hate to see the drought effect on our community, and the hell that it must be playing on our local enviorment. But, as a fisherman……………………….

No Comments »

First sunrise picture in the sunrise, sunset series:

No Comments »

The pups woke me early, just before sunrise, on Saturday morning.  This time I couldn’t be any happier.  The predawn glow outside the cabin was amplified by a blanket of fog over the water.  Within minutes I had the boat down off the lift, and Aspen, Layla, and myself were headed for dam to do a little trout fishing.

Visibility was about thirty yards or so on the main body of the lake, and when I got down to dam, there were actually four more boats that would drift in and out of sight in the dense fog. I dropped four lines, one at each corner, with live worms and a peice of corn for color to varying depths of 20 to 40 feet in hopes of finding a big brown cruising the thermocline. I’ve done this a dozen times or so, and its usually hit (in a big way) or miss. An hour and a half went by, and nobody else on the neighboring boats was connecting either. Then the dreaded cell phone, the family was up, and breakfast was needing my attention. Mental note: blogging about fishing beforehand may be the ultimate jinx.

So with the fog burnig off, I cruised back zeroed so far on the day.

I’m not going to lie, I was bummed, so when I got back I tried throwing 3/8 oz. spoon off the swim dock and did a little better.  A pretty good sized yellow perch, kept me from being zeroed on the day:

Over the weekend, we did see one school of yellow herring a hundred yards off stern. They were jumping and flipping, indicating that some bass had them schooled and were feeding. With a pretied blue & white rapala, and a matching soft bait, Jenn & I tossed into the school to no avail. And then it was gone, was it too early in the fall, or was it just not my day?

No Comments »