Lake Sinclair is fishing amazingly well right now! I mean if you guys aren’t fishing Sinclair for stripers, hybrids and whites, you are seriously missing out. Drop the bass stuff and pick up a spoon or a mini-Mack and get to it folks! 

Early last week, my buddy Jimmy Holmes and I were fishing Oconee and he mentioned that he and Mark Smith of Reeltime Guide Services (they grew up together) were going to Sinclair later in the week. I was immediately interested, but really the spoon bite has been so good for me lately on Oconee that I didn’t plan on doing anything with it. But I thought — well, maybe if they find some fish I’ll go down and check it out. They found fish … LOTS of them. One spot gave up more than 50 last Friday and all on Capt. Mack Super Spoons.

After that report from them, my buddy Kevin Wahl and I decided to head over Sunday afternoon after church and give it a go. Now, as close as Sinclair is for me I rarely fish there. For some reason I tend to go north and fish Lanier, Russell and Hartwell a lot more. Admittedly, I love chasing spotted bass and stripers, so the attraction is to deep, clear, lakes that hold herring eaters. However, I grew up fishing Sinclair and it holds a special place in my heart and memories. Well Kevin and I didn’t get into them on a spoon bite, but we did find a mini-Mack bite! And boy did we have some fun with that! 

So with all that being said let’s talk tactics for these fish and what types of water to look for in order to catch them. 

1    Never leave home without a spoon tied on. I mean never… Yeah, I realize it’s kind of my thing. But let me say this. That’s because it works! I always have my spoon box in the boat and most often there is a spoon tied on in my boat. It’s the best and easiest way in my own opinion to fire up a school of fish and catch numbers. Sometimes they can be big fish but it’s always fun!

2     The Mini Mack. Capt. Mack Farr is a long-time guide and tackle manufacturer in Georgia. For 40 years he’s guided Lake Lanier for spots and stripers. However, he became famous in our world over the development of the Umbrella Rig for stripers and fresh water. That lead later to the development of the Mini Mack which is best described as a tough cross between an umbrella rig and a Alabama Rig. Yes you can and Capt. Mack encourages you to cast the mini but the bait shines in areas like Oconee and Sinclair. Shallower lakes and in Oconee’s case heavily timbered. Most of us fish this as a trolled bait. You can use your big motor or trolling motor the difference is the depth you can achieve with them. 

3-     Stealth Trolling:  This is simply using your trolling motor to troll the mini Mack or another bait at around 1 mph. It’s not really about quiet, boat disturbance, or anything like that. It’s about the speed. Using a trolling motor let’s us go slower which in turn gets the bait down in the water column deeper. For instance 32-foot of line going 1 mph gets you into the range of 20 to 25 feet deep. In most cases. It varies though based on type of line, current, etc. 

Where to start on Sinclair? Well, I’m not giving away the few spots we managed to find the other day but try this. Oconee River channel spots between 25 to 40 feet deep against steep channel edges. Stealth troll a mini until you find good concentrations of fish AND bait. Then stop and jig a spoon. Trust me… 

You can pick up the gear needed from rods and reels to mini Macks and super spoons from Captmacks.com 

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