Lake Sinclair Ga. summer Bass

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Catch Sinclair summer bass that stay shallow
By Ronnie GarrisonGeorgia Outdoor News – published Thursday, June 26, 2014
  • July is not a favorite month for most bass fishermen. Water and air temperatures are hot, and that makes most bass move deep. Fishing can be a sweaty frustration during the day, and many anglers just don’t like to cast at night. But you can catch bass in July, especially at Lake Sinclair.
Sinclair is a 15,330-acre Georgia Power Co. lake on the Oconee River immediately below Lake Oconee. Sinclair is lined with docks and has a lot of water-willow grassbeds in the shallows. Generation and pumpback at the Oconee dam upstream, as well as water being taken into the steam power plant from Little River and released into Beaverdam Creek, keeps current moving.
Known for its “Sinclair Keepers,” 12- to 14-inch largemouth, quality fish might be hard to find. They are there. In tournaments there are a lot of limits weighing less than 10 pounds, but there are also some weighing 15 to 20 pounds. And 6- to 7-lb. bass are often the big fish in a tournament.
Bo Larkins grew up in Watkinsville and started tournament fishing in middle school. He recently graduated from the University of Georgia where he is on the college fishing team until the end of this season. Bo loves to catch Sinclair bass. He plans on fishing some of the trails next year like the BFLs and Berry’s tournaments.
“I like fishing shallow water, and you can catch Sinclair bass very shallow even in July,” Bo said.
The key is to find bream beds or bream-holding cover, and the bass will be nearby feeding on them. Water-willow beds, wood cover in the coves and docks are all good.
Bo will have a variety of baits rigged and ready for fishing Sinclair this month, but his go-to baits are a War Eagle buzzbait, a Texas-rigged Wackem Goliath worm and a Hack Attack flipping jig with a Rage Tail trailer. But he will also have a prop topwater bait, a jig-head worm, a big crankbait and a football-head jig ready to fish if the conditions call for changing.
“If the bream are bedding, I key on the backs of coves where they are concentrated,” Bo said.
Bass will hit a buzzbait fished slowly around the bedding areas all day long. Bo likes the War Eagle 3/8- to 1/2-oz. buzzbait with a white skirt. He says the War Eagle is his favorite because the big blade allows him to fish it very slowly.
The big worm is good for docks and wood cover like blowdowns. Bo rigs it behind a 1/2-oz. sinker for flipping docks and blowdowns. The big worm is the key to catching bigger bass. He also flips or pitches a 1/2-oz. jig with a Rage Craw trailer in the same areas.
Bo took me to Sinclair on a very hot, sunny day in mid-June, and he proved his point about buzzbaits by catching a 7-lb.-plus largemouth from 3 feet of water in a cove. The sun was bright, and it was 11 a.m. The day before he caught several bass in the 3- to 5-lb. range doing the same thing.
The following 10 spots will give you a variety of options this month, from shallow bream-filled areas to docks and deeper water holes.
No. 1: N 33º 11.086 – W 83º 18.742 — If you put in at Dennis Station, you don’t need to go far. The two pockets and bank across from the ramps have shallow grassbeds and wood cover where the fish feed. And there are a lot of “recycled” fish here released from tournaments.
Bo usually starts on the downstream point of the second pocket going out, near the double tree right on the edge of the water. He works into the creek. This is a good method in all creeks—start near the mouth, and work back until you find where the fish are feeding.
He will fish a buzzbait on the banks and into and around both pockets. This bank gets shade most of the early morning making it even better. Fish the buzzbait as slowly as you can to keep it on top of the water. Bo says if it is leaving a bubble trail, conditions are even better for the buzzbait.
Also pitch or flip a big worm or jig ’n pig to all the wood cover in the area. Work the wood carefully, pulling the baits up and over limbs and letting them fall to the bottom. Try to hit every limb on a blowdown and all parts of a log or limb in the water.
No. 2: N 33º 10.988 - W 83º 19.038 — Start up Little River, and there is a point on the upstream side of the Dennis Station creek that has a pine blowdown near the upstream side. As you round the point, the water drops off fast. The river channel swings into the cove and comes back out right along the bank.
You will see two old dock posts off the bank, and there are grassbeds along the bank. There is some brush around the post. The grass does not grow very deep, but bass run shallow into it to feed. Start just downstream of the dock posts, and keep your boat in 20 to 25 feet of water while casting to the bank with a buzzbait.
Also drag a football-head jig or jig-head worm along the bottom from the grass out to 20 feet of water. Bass hold along the bottom as it drops. A 1/2-oz. PB&Y-colored worm with a Wackem Big Tater Bug trailer in green pumpkin is Bo’s choice. He drags it along rather than hopping it. For the shaky head, try a 1/8- to 1/4-oz. head with a Wackem Sissy Tail worm.
No. 3: N 33º 11.007 – W 83º 19.449 — As you leave the point at hole No. 2, the river makes a hard turn to the left, and there is a creek straight ahead. Go into the right arm of the creek, and stop back at the seawall on the right side. Fish all the way around the back of this pocket out about halfway on the other side.
This pocket is a good bream bedding area and has lots of grass and wood cover, as well as some docks to fish. If you are not getting bites in the sun, flip or pitch a big worm or jig ’n pig as far under the docks in the shade as you can. Bass will move to the shade to hold and will hit a bait put in front of them.
In mid-June, Bo and I caught bass on several of these places, and bass will feed at them all month long. Give these holes and similar places a try, and you will catch bass this month. For seven more locations with GPS coordinates and a map, pick up the July issue of GON at Athens-area Golden Pantry stores, or visit www.gon.com.
If you or someone you know attends UGA and likes to fish, check out the competition bass-fishing team on Twitter @UGABassAnglers.