I often get asked about the inability for anglers to catch trophy largemouth bass of 10-pounds plus in Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair. Right off let me inform you that you may not be aware that two largemouth bass over ten pounds have been caught recently in Lake Oconee.

On My 14, 2012, Bill Brantley caught the current lake record 12-pound 14-ounce largemouth and Billy Duvall caught a largemouth bass weighing 11.90-pounds on April 18 of this year. So the potential for catching a trophy largemouth does exist in Lake Oconee.

Even though the Lake Sinclair lake record for largemouth was established in 1990 when Jimmy Edge landed a 13-pound 2-ounce largemouth bass, recently trophy largemouth bass weighing over 10-pounds have been elusive for anglers. In fact looking over my unofficial records, it has been several years since a 10-pound largemouth bass has been weighed in at a fishing tournament.

The new upper limit for Lake Sinclair seems to be around eight and one-half pounds. Some larger fish may have been caught but not officially weighed or reported from Lake Sinclair. To address the subject of catching potential trophy largemouth bass from these lakes I discussed the issue with fisheries biologists from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division (GWRD).

“Rate of growth determines a largemouth bass size at any point in time,” said Steve Schleiger, GWRD Fisheries Biologist for Lake Sinclair. “Thus, the length of time a bass survives within the population determines its size at death, when it is removed from the fishery by either an angler or natural causes. The number of fish that remain within the fishery at a point in time is determined by the rate of mortality.”

Schleiger went on to say, “Mortality is always acting on the population. Theoretically, the longer the fish remains in the population the larger size it can grow to be, up to its maximum potential as determined by its genetics.” One plan for the new Go Fish Education Center in Perry is genetic research on largemouth bass since genetics plays such a key role in determining just how large a fish will ultimately grow.

“Lake Sinclair has a high natural mortality rate and removals by anglers, or exploitation is low. This means that that even though the chance of largemouth bass being harvested is low; the chance of dying of natural causes is relatively high. So, few Largemouth bass are able to reach their maximum potential, whatever that may be,” Schleiger said.

I also talked to Chris Nelson, the GWRD Fisheries Biologist for Lake Oconee. “Based on the two recent catches of 10-pound plus largemouth bass in Lake Oconee, opportunities do exist (current lake conditions are favorable enough) to produce some trophy size largemouth bass,” said Nelson.

“However, there are some specific factors at Lake Oconee that could potentially reduce the opportunity for producing trophy size largemouth bass. Those factors include: (1) an older, aging reservoir, (2) loss of habitat for largemouth bass and their forage (mostly the loss of shoreline habitat due to development — native or undisturbed shorelines are now replaced with seawalls), (3) lack of bass harvest from anglers and (4) introductions of invasive species such as blue catfish, flathead catfish and spotted bass, which are also predator species that consume similar diets as largemouth bass.”

While on the subject of trophy fish, both Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair do offer the potential to catch trophy fish of other species. Lake Oconee and, to a lesser degree, Lake Sinclair are now considered trophy lakes for catfish including blue catfish and flathead catfish. It seems like the lake record for both species is being broken every few weeks on Lake Oconee.

Currently the lake record on Lake Oconee for flathead catfish stands at 45-pounds and 12-ounces caught by Claude Spires on April 16 of this year. The lake record Lake Oconee blue catfish, weighing 47-pounds and 5.1-ounces, was caught by Ben Hilliard back on Aug. 24, 2011.

Buck Eubanks caught a 36-pound 11.2-ounce flathead catfish to establish a new record for that species in Lake Sinclair on Nov. 12, 2011. Even though blue catfish are now prevalent in Lake Sinclair no one has submitted a fish for consideration to the Georgia Outdoor News (GON), the organization that maintains lake records for Georgia.

So the bottom line is if your goal is to catch 10-pound plus largemouth bass, you’re probably better off fishing a farm pond or some other lake that consistently produces trophy largemouth bass. Good fishing and see you next week.

 

Bobby Peoples can be reached by e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.