EATONTON — Over the next two weeks I will discuss two of the best ways to catch numbers of wintertime fish in Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair. One technique, which just happens to be my favorite way to catch fish during the winter months, is by feeding the fish a spoon.

I am referring to a jigging spoon, which comes in several styles and sizes. In fact, the fish will literally eat the spoon. The jigging spoon is a slab of metal that can be a deadly weapon during the coldest part of winter on both Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair.

To get the fish ready for spoon-feeding, you need some cold weather to drop the water temperatures into the 40s and that has finally happened as the water temperature has now dropped to around 48-50 degrees in both lakes. The water temperature is now just about right for spoon-feeding the fish.

Heavy rain can muddy and severely stain the water, and that impedes the effectiveness of the jigging spoon. Both lakes still contain lightly stained to clear water near the lower third of the lakes so good opportunities exist for good spoon feeding.  

Also to have real good jigging spoon success, the shad or baitfish need to be over deep water (17-50 feet) around underwater humps, river/creek channels/ledges or deep points. When the water temperature is between 40 and 55 degrees, those temperatures will send the fish to those depths and the colder the better.

When the water temperature is just right and the water clarity is lightly stained to clear, here are a few tips for using the jigging spoon. The single most important ingredient for catching fish on a jigging spoon is the presence of shad.

Find shad near deep drop-offs, old creek/river channels/ledges and underwater humps/islands and largemouth bass, hybrid bass, striped bass, white bass and crappie will not be far away. The fish will be located under big schools of shad and they will be feeding on those shad. In cold water, some shad will die and other shad will become lethargic and that makes an easy meal for the fish.

That situation is where the jigging spoon will consistently produce fish. There are different sizes and shapes of jigging spoons. My first experience with jigging spoons in deep water occurred many years ago in Virginia. I was using a Little George, a lure that I would not quite equate to a jigging spoon. It was a metal lure shaped somewhat like a small shad baitfish with a spinner attached.

The Little George was fished horizontally whereas the jigging spoon is presented vertically. Good vertical jigging spoons for lakes Oconee and Sinclair are the Hopkins spoon, the Flex-It spoon and the Bomber Slab. Place any of these spoons in the fish's face with a slight twitch or a tantalizing drop with a wobble and a likely strike will occur.

When you find a likely spot and shad are present, just drop the spoon all the way through the school of shad to the bottom, and then bring the spoon up depending on depth of the shad. Quite often strikes will occur before the lure reaches bottom or as the spoon passes through the shad. With all the spoons, you must watch your line for light strikes. I prefer to locate fish that are close to the bottom since suspended fish are harder to catch.

The jigging spoon does not require much action and usually a slight flick of the wrist is all that is required to entice a strike. You are simply trying to imitate a dying and fluttering shad, so usually very little action is required. However, on some days, you have to find what the fish want and you may have to give the spoon more or less action depending on the fish's interest.

With the colder water temperatures hopefully hanging around until at least early March, I recommend you buy a few jigging spoons, locate some of the deeper water areas I have mentioned, locate baitfish on your depth finder and try for some deepwater largemouth bass, striped bass, hybrid bass, white bass and even crappie. Feeding the fish a spoon can be a lot of fun. Good fishing and see you next week.