I would just like to take the time to wish you all a happy, safe and healthy New Year! 

In the not so recent past, deer season used to end on Jan. 1 here in Georgia. Now to me and to many that was the start of the real hunting season! Rabbit dogs, squirrel dogs, coon hounds, bird dogs and small game hunters were turned loose on the landscape to chase, tree, and point until our hearts delight. 

If you have read me in the past, you have heard the stories about rabbit hunts, cookouts, and small game hunting. However, years ago I wrote this for the start of the rabbit hunting season:

“May the Lord bless your harvest

and provide good hunts every one.

May your dogs’ nose be keen,

Their feet be swift.

May your cover be thick

and your briars be low.

May the Lord provide good companions,

Good food and fine weather.

May the skies be fair

and the days be cool.

The rabbits may they be plentiful

and hard running.

And most of all may God bless everyone in this New Year.”

As I sit this morning and prepare for a striper trip on Lake Oconee, my thoughts go back to those fine days afield. Decades of dogs, rabbits, squirrels, and friends that are just no longer here. My heart is heavy with the memories but happy with the remembering. Men like Bill Prince, Virgil Brown, Lynn Vining, and many more have shared life and its lessons with me. They shaped and created the man I became and still am working toward becoming. My life was made all the richer by their presence, their time, and their stories. 

As we enter 2023, I would like to encourage each of you to take some time and make sure a younger man or woman, your grandkids, or your neighbors kids get to get outside. Take them fishing if they’ve never done anything else. Introduce them to the outdoors. Our pursuits, our lifestyle, and our insights only survive if we pass them on. 

On another note: 

Striper and hybrid fishing on lakes Oconee and Sinclair have been incredible as of late. The two main techniques we are using are trolling mini-Macks and spoons. In both cases the fish in the same spots. River channel edges and 35-50 feet of water. We’ve been trolling the minis with the big motors and running around 2.3-2.5mph and somewhere around 130’ behind the boat. Spoons are producing in the same locations but spot lock your location and it’s important to get a good vertical presentation. I truly do use Capt. Mack super spoons and War Eagle spoons more than anything else. The colder the water the less movement I use on the spoon. When it gets to 45 or below I may simply lift the spoon up and let it flop over. They will pick it up right off the bottom!

—Outdoors columnist James Pressley can be reached at pressleyoutdoors@gmail.com .