Weekly Report: A Ten Pound Walleye

[Fishing Report]

Weekly Report: A Ten Pound Walleye

Here are some best bets for this weekend:
http://www.weather.com/weather/weekend/USGA0267

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* Great Southern Fishing Show

http://www.northatlantatradecenter.c...fish_sched.pdf

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* TU Days at Bass Pro Shops
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...d=10151&catalo
gId=10001&langId=-1&appID=94&template=listallevents.cfm&storeID=3#54534

Make new friends and learn new trouting hotspots. If you're a newbie, you'll catch more and bigger fish quicker by making the right friends!
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*Walleye

See Anthony's detailed report, on the bottom of this email. Note the ten-pounder.

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* Trout

1) Try the Delayed Harvest streams
http://www.gofishgeorgia.com/sites/d...ife/fishing/pd
fs/trout/DH_infosheet.pdf


2) Other good weekend spots will be
the Hooch at Jones Bridge, Buford Dam, and in Helen, Blue Ridge Tailwater, Holly Creek, Tallulah River.

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* Lanier

Stripers and bass are slow. Try crappie until the water warms a bit more.
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=604569

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* Attaboy

A DNR attaboy to NGC&SU's Landon W for passing it on!

"thought I'd give ya a quick report of some of my intermural efforts to get more people involved in fishing within my college setting. I drug my buddy Matthew over to amicalola after classes today for a little R&R. Catching was good with the water at 44 when we left. Fish are still hunkered down in the holes down deep. Matthew was having a little trouble with the long line dredging in the really deep holes. I put him on a mohair leech http://www.missouritrout.com/mikesmohairleech.htm
and taught him the "dangle" and he caught on quickly and his catch numbers drastically showed it! I think the water temp recently had the fish aggressive as they were really grabbing the line out of our hands on the "dangle"

Landon"
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He's done it. Now it's your turn to "pass it on."
www.gofishgeorgia.com


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North GA Walleye - Week 2

Water temperatures rose across north Georgia during this week's warm weather and walleyes are now on the move. As a result, a few walleye have been brought to the boat this week. The details are described below for several north Georgia lakes:

Lake Hartwell - The water temperature at the Walker Creek boat ramp located at the headwaters of Lake Hartwell was 43 degrees on Wednesday afternoon (2/16). My crew collected 23 walleye in 45 minutes of electrofishing and found fish scattered around the Walker Creek boat ramp (N
34 40.102 and W 83 18.977) and points downstream. The greatest concentration of fish occurred at GPS coordinates N 34 40.223 and W 83 18.501. The largest two fish caught were a 28-inch, 10 lb female and a 24-inch, 6 lb female. Walleyes were primarily hugging the bottom close to the centerline of the river channel. I suspect that walleye are scattered from the Walker Creek boat ramp all the way down to the Stephens County Park boat ramp near Highway 123, if not further downstream. If the warm weather holds on for a while, more walleye will migrate into this area. One experienced walleye angler suggested drifting downstream from the Walker Creek boat ramp and bouncing a white jig tipped with a curly tailed grub off the bottom. I might add that trolling a No. 7 Shad Rap in herring or crayfish patterns or dragging nightcrawlers along the bottom are other successful tactics. Bank angling opportunities are available at Walker Creek, the Hwy 184 Bridge (Prather Bridge), the Hwy 123 Bridge and along Stephens County Park. As the water warms, walleye will move all the way up to Yonah Dam where there is additional bank fishing access.

Lake Lanier - On Thursday (2/17), my crew surveyed the headwaters of Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River from Lula Bridge to about a mile upstream of Mud Creek. The water temperature was 47 degrees and clear. Three walleye were collected ranging from two to four pounds just upstream of Mud Creek (N34 26.968 and W83 40.726). No fish were observed on sonar all the
way downstream to Clarks Bridge. Although it was encouraging to see these
early arrivals up the Chattahoochee River, it is still a bit too early to catch walleye up high on Lanier. Anxious walleye anglers may want to target wind-blown rocky banks and points downstream of the Clarks Bridge area.

Lake Rabun - Walleye fishing guide, Wes Carlton, reported that one of his buddies caught three walleye this week during an outing to Lake Rabun. The largest fish was 5 lb. On Tuesday (2/15) the water temperature was 44 degrees. We marked fish near the beach area a short distance upstream from the boat ramp located on the upper end of the lake, but walleye have not moved into shallow water yet.

Lake Yonah & Lake Seed - On Wednesday (2/16), the water temperature was 45 degrees on the upper end of Lake Yonah and 44 degrees on Lake Seed. We did not mark any walleye in deeper water on the upper ends or collect any fish by electrofishing in the shallow headwaters in either lake. It appears that walleye have not moved up on these small lakes. But, when they do, they will stack up in the headwaters below the upstream dam where they are accessible to bank anglers from Georgia Power's day use areas.

Carters Lake - Clark Allen was fishing the upper end of Carters Lake this week and measured water temperatures around 46 degrees. He marked bait suspended at 20 to 30-ft deep over a 40 to 50 ft bottom with fish underneath. These could definitely be walleye and Clark hopes to confirm that next week. I hope he'll let us know what they are biting and how good they tasted! Good luck, Clark.


I hope you can put these tips to good use while this warm weather holds for surely we've not seen the last of winter. Remember, walleye do not bunch up in giant schools like stripers, but they are more scattered in small groups.
Success, therefore, will come to the patient and persistent angler. Even though the March winds will certainly blow in more cold weather, walleye will still be in the upper reaches of these lakes despite the changing weather conditions. Just look for them a little further downstream on rocky points, rip rap banks, mudlines and at the mouth of creeks. I would appreciate feedback from anglers.

Anthony


Anthony Rabern
Senior Fisheries Biologist
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Lake Burton Hatchery
3695 Highway 197 North
Clarkesville, GA 30523
706/947-1507 (office)

[SportFishStaff]

Where's the Walleye pic?