Lake level is 1071.36 (.36 feet above full pool) and water temps are 71-74 degrees. The water clarity varies from slightly stained up in the river systems and clearing from GA 138 on the Chestatee and Clarks Bridge on the Hooch, to mostly clear from Nix Bridge and Hwy 60 Bridge respectively south to GA 369. The main lake south from Hwy 369 is clear. Both the Striped Bass spawn and the Spotted Bass spawn will wrap up early this month. This means stripers and spots will be hungry and will be concentrating on the Blue Back Herring spawn that has already gotten underway and later in the month on the Thread Fin Shad spawn. The Herring spawn takes place in a lot of areas, but one of the best areas to look at will be blow thru areas between the main land and islands that are close. These saddle areas will range in depth from 2-3 feet to 10-12 feet. This will happen all over the lake so there are many of these spots to look at. Flat lines and Capt Mack’s Perfect Planer Boards will be the best live bait option to cover these areas as you pull across these high spots with herring as the best bait choice. Herring will spawn almost anywhere making vertical structures like marina break water walls another great place to fish. These areas can be fished with a couple of flat lines close the wall as you troll 5-10 feet off the wall at about 1 mph. Off the front of the boat you can pitch a herring to corners of the walls or toss a jerk bait, fluke style bait, or the Cast Prodigy swimbait paired with the new Cast swimbait head offered by Capt Mack. This head has a short shank hook that will not interfere with your soft swimbaits body movement, but the hook is also stout enough to handle a big Striper and not straighten out like most of the light wire jig head options that are out there. As the water warms throughout the month, the Threadfin Shad spawn will get going and the Stripers will be right there to gobble them up. These shad tend to spawn on vertical structure like rock walls, rip rap, fallen trees and sea walls. Areas like these that are close to well defined points will be best fished by simply pitching herring up to these areas and letting the bait just swim around. If the wind is blowing to the point then set your boat in around 35-40 feet of water, spot lock your boat there with your Minn Kota trolling motor, and pitch your bait with the wind up to the point off the back of the boat. If the wind is blowing over the top of the point then put your motor up on the bank, deploy your Minn Kota Talons or Raptors, and then pitch off the front of the boat. Either way you set the boat up you are looking to use the wind to help pitch that extremely light herring out to the 10-20 foot depth that most of the predatory fish will be hanging out in to ambush bait coming across the point. This technique will catch every fish in the lake and be prepared to catch a striper on one toss, a spot the next, and a channel cat on the next. This will be a fast and furious bite and you will go through lots of bait so be prepared with 8-10 dozen and going home early most days. The top water bite on these points and over humps will also heat up this month for anyone wanting to toss artificials. Your best bet will be a Zero Minnow, Redfin, Chug Bug, or Magic Swimmer in bone on clear days and chrome on cloudy days.
In this time after Easter remember that Christ died on a cross as the last sacrifice needed to pay for all our sins and came back so that we all might have life in him for eternity. “,for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24