Beautiful Day on Lake Oconee

Jim and I fished Lake Oconee yesterday. We launched at Armour Bridge and fished downstream. When we got to the ramp we had the pleasure of meeting Curtis (Litewirehooker), and his two fishing partners Chuck and Cindy. I had talked with Curtis many times but yesterday was the first time I met him face to face. The morning was frosty but warmed quickly. I started with six layers of clothes on top and by mid day was down to two layers. The water temperature was 50-51 degrees when we started and later warmed up to 53 degrees. Jim and I pushed jigs and I tipped mine with minnows. We marked lots of fish and caught fish in 20-30 FOW. We both fished very deep and at a speed of .6-.8. We caught hybrids, and a few nice stripers. At one point we got into a pod of those devils. Before we could get out of there they broke off six of the eight rods I had deployed. I made up some new words during that incident. Jim was able to land the fish in the picture without fouling any lines. There were several long liners on the water and everyone was catching fish. We ended the day with 31 fish of average size. The fish we kept ranged in size from 10-13.5 inches. We probably caught over 60 fish in all. Jim had good luck with curly tails in acid rain, popsicle and wildcat colors. I had good luck with orange, silver and white colors. I want to stress the fact that we were fishing deep. When pushing jigs we normally let out about 12-13 feet of line. Yesterday we were fishing 18-20 feet of line with a 3/4 oz sinker. That is the deepest I have pushed jigs. It was a great day on the water particularly for mid January.