LAKE OCONEE — This year’s hot summer has really challenged even the most diehard angler to successfully catch fish on a regular basis. Great spring weather and even good early summer weather quickly turned into awful mid 90s with high humidity.

Some will simply say that this is just typical for middle Georgia summers. I like to think that last summer was typical when we had a milder summer and the fish bite was good for most of the summer. This year the water temperatures shot from the upper 70s/low 80s to low 90s in a matter of days and the fishing has been tough ever since.

Lakes Oconee and Sinclair are not your typical reservoirs when it comes to water temperatures. The pumpback operation at the Wallace Dam on Lake Oconee and the coal fired power plant on Lake Sinclair do not allow either lake to stratify like other reservoirs. The water is continually mixed from top to bottom.

In other reservoirs, the water column stratifies and breaks into different temperatures at different depths and so does the oxygen content in the water. A layer of water called thermocline developes between a layer called epilimnion and a layer called hypolimnion. The thermocline layer contains cooler and highly oxygenagated water where fish can thrive during the heat of summer.

The upper layer above the thermocline or the epilimnion also contains good oxygen levels but is the hottest water in the lake. The lower layer or the hypolimnion below the thermocline is cooler but has little to no oxygen. Unfortunately, Lakes Oconee and Sinclair see little to no stratification during the heat of summer and no thermocline develops. The water temperature and oxygen levels are basically the same from top to bottom but there is slightly more oxygen at or near the lake’s surface.

In normal lakes, the thermocline is easy to find, and that is where most of the fish in the lake will reside for the majority of the daytime during summer. Without a thermocline, as is the case with Lakes Oconee and Sinclair, the fish can be just about anywhere in the water column, and that makes fishing tough.

In fact, the water with the most oxygen during the summer months on both Lakes Oconee and Sinclair is at or near the surface. Does that mean anglers should fish shallow water? Not necessarily because the sunlight becomes a problem.

Where is the best place to fish on a clear day with a bright sun? Somewhere that provides shade, oxygen and food like around boathouses and docks, and that would be a good choice for anglers. Fish will avoid the direct sunlight during the day and seek out shade. But the fish could also be in deeper water where the sunlight is less intense and where there is food to eat and where there is adequate oxygen in the water.

So can we develop a game plan for summer fishing on Lakes Oconee and Sinclair now that we know the particulars about water temperatures and oxygen levels in the lakes? The answer is yes. The game plan might have to be modified daily due to weather conditions like clouds (fish will move shallow due to less sunlight) and wind (creates higher oxygen levels in shallow water) which change the location of the fish on any given day.

Why can angling be better at night during the hot summer? Several factors come into play as daylight turns into darkness. The two primary factors are that the bright sunlight is no longer a limiting factor for the fish and the cooler nighttime temperatures might cool the shallow water by several degrees. Those factors result in the fish being more likely to move into shallow areas to feed at night.

So the game plan might have various options with one option being just fish at night or another option could be to fish shallow shady areas early before the intensity of the sun is out or another option is to fish deep water where fish are likely to be for most of the daylight hours.

These options can also be combined, and I know anglers who start their day two hours before daylight fishing docklights, then fish shallow shady areas until the sun is out brightly and then they move to deeper water for the remainder of the day.

Of course the options for the various fish species in the lake will also come into play, and depending on the species you are trying to target, the plan might be different for each different type fish in the lake. I am out of space and I know I have not adequately covered all the aspects of successful summer fishing, but hopefully I have supplied you with some information that might encourage you to give summer fishing a try and to better understand where the fish might be located.

Next week we will look at some of the summertime lures and baits that can be used to catch summertime fish and where different fish species will likely reside during the summer months.  Good fishing and see you next week.



Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.