Spring arrived on March 20 and the arrival of spring each year coincides with many fish species spawning or getting ready to spawn in area lakes. The warm weather for the last three weeks has influenced the spawn by speeding up spawning activity. Good and bad weather makes forecasting the exact time of the spring spawn for all lake species very difficult.

The white bass, hybrid bass, and striped bass have completed their annual movement up the lake’s creeks and rivers in an attempt to spawn. The hybrid and striped bass cannot actually spawn in Lakes Oconee and Sinclair but they make the spawning movement up the creeks and rivers anyway.

Warmer weather over the last three weeks has resulted in an earlier and quicker pace to the crappie spawn.

The water temperatures have quickly moved to the middle 60s and with the warmer than normal weather forecasted to continue, all spawning activity for the majority of the lake species may be over soon.

Crappie began their spawn 1-2 weeks early due to the warm water and their spawn has been spread out over 2-3 weeks with no big spawn occurring during this past weekend’s full moon. My dogwoods have just begun to bloom. The redbuds are blooming now and when the dogwoods and redbuds bloom, that usually indicates the peak of the crappie spawn. This year’s early warm weather changed the spawn’s timing somewhat.

Excellent shallow water fishing for crappie should last another week or two. Fishing around docks with minnows both day and night will catch crappie and shooting docks with jigs during the daytime hours is producing good crappie catches now.

The largemouth bass have also been confused by the early warm weather. Some largemouth bass moved up early to spawn and with the warm weather expected to continue, many will spawn over the next 2-3 weeks. Considerable largemouth spawning occurs when the water temperatures reach the upper 60s.

There have been excellent largemouth bass spawns over the last few years so there should be some quality fish showing up in angler’s creels this year.

Some catches of spotted bass have been reported in both Lakes Oconee and Sinclair but most anglers may not notice the difference between the spotted bass and the largemouth bass.

Spotted bass showed up first in Lake Oconee where biologists believe they were illegally introduced and it could be that the spotted bass escaped through the Wallace Dam into Lake Sinclair.

However, anglers could have also illegally introduced the spotted bass into Lake Sinclair. The longterm impact that spotted bass might have on both lakes is unknown at this time.

The largemouth bass spawn will follow right on the heels of the crappie spawn which is in its final stages and if stable predicted weather continues and water temperatures continue to rise, the largemouth will be spawning in earnest over the next three weeks.

Some largemouth bass have already spawned and many others are staging on secondary points inside the coves, as they get ready to spawn. Several lures will catch largemouth bass during the pre-spawn and spawning period. Some of the best lures include spinnerbaits, plastic worms/lizards, soft jerk baits, small crankbaits, jigs, and topwater plugs.

The end of March through the middle of April offers excellent fishing on Lakes Oconee and Sinclair as the lake’s fish move to shallow water and spawn.

If you like catching some big fish and numbers of fish you need to be on the lake now. Good fishing and see you next week.

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

windstream.net.