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Seminole's winds of
change
BASS Destination
By Rob
Newell
Bassmaster, June
2003
New technology to battle invasive
hydrilla has changed the face of bass fishing on one of America's most
famed fisheries …
|
Lake Seminole guide Troy Arthur
flips matted hydrilla for summertime bass. While the vegetation has
been killed in some areas, it remains thick in others.
| Lake Seminole in rural southwest Georgia is similar to a time
capsule. A trip to Jack Wingate's Lunker Lodge and an outing on Seminole's
remote waters is a trip back in time.
Seminole lies at the confluence of the mighty Flint and
Chattahoochee rivers. The area's unique ecological features and rich
history lend to the lake's timelessness. From the majestic flooded oaks in
the bottom of Spring Creek to the submerged Indian mounds, Lake Seminole
is an aqueous timeline. Recently, however, the winds of change have been
swirling around Lake Seminole: rooflines and grasslines are altering its
face.
The new rooflines can be found at Jack Wingate's Lunker Lodge, the
bass fishing birthmark of the 37,500-acre impoundment. Built in 1958 —
before the impounded water reached Wingate's doorstep — Wingate's Lunker
Lodge is a place of permanence on the shores of Seminole.
Wingate's has had a facelift over the last couple of years, thanks
in large part to Troy Barfield, the new owner. Barfield bought the Lunker
Lodge in March 2000, and has made some significant improvements to the
only marina and fish camp on the southeast side of the lake.
|
One of the changes taking place
at Seminole is a facelift for the legendary Jack Wingate's Lunker
Lodge.
| "I bought it from Jack, but I am leaving the name in his
honor," says Barfield. "Jack is a bass fishing legend known worldwide, so
there is no need to change the name."
The name is the same, but changes abound. Barfield has renovated
and enlarged the restaurant and tackle store. He has remodeled all of the
cabins and added 12 additional cabins to the property. The RV campground
has been improved, and a new water system has been installed on the
property.
Changing grasslines
The changing grasslines can be found in Spring Creek, where the
Army Corps of Engineers is attempting to control hydrilla with a new
chemical technology.
Hydrilla has been both a boon and a bust for bass anglers and lake
managers over the last 20 years.
Bass have an undisputed love affair with hydrilla. The long plant
strands grow in thick beds that often top out on the surface. These lush
beds provide habitat and position bass on predictable edges and points.
|
Hydrilla may be under control in
Spring Creek, but there are plenty of thick weedbeds remaining in
the Flint and Chattahoochee River flats.
| But hydrilla, labeled as an "invasive" or "noxious" exotic, is
prolific and aggressive. The plants thrive in warm, nutrient-rich waters
and can grow in depths of 1 to 20 feet of water, muscling out all other
types of vegetation.
Hence, Seminole, with its shallow, warm waters and nutrient-loaded
currents, has been at the epicenter of the hydrilla wars. In the late
'80s, hydrilla on Lake Seminole exploded, and so did the bass fishing.
Tremendous topwater strikes and flipping bites that felt like a Great Dane
reaching the end of a leash kept hordes of bass anglers coming to
Seminole. While bass anglers praised Seminole, recreational boaters and
property owners cussed it. The Spring Creek arm, consisting of about 7,000
acres, was nearly 90 percent covered with vegetation. Viewed from the air,
Spring Creek might as well have been called "Seminole Greens," because it
looked like a golf course.
In the late '90s, the Army Corps of Engineers implemented the
"Hydrilla Action Plan," a management plan designed to reduce the lake's
hydrilla coverage to between 20 percent and 40 percent.
A key component of the "Hydrilla Action Plan" is a chemical
herbicide drip system in Spring Creek. The concept of the drip system is
to continually "drip" a liquid herbicide into the creek's current. A
gauging station monitors water velocity and meters the correct amount of
herbicide (flouridone), based on the amount of water flow.
|
Troy Arthur likes to pitch Texas
rigged worms around trees in the Spring Creek Channel.
| The correct amount of herbicide is described as a "low dose,"
which kills hydrilla but does not inhibit the growth of native aquatic
plants. The herbicide is carried downstream, killing hydrilla along the
way.
Lake Seminole has the honor of being the first reservoir in the
country where such chemical technology has been implemented on a large
scale. The drip system was installed in the upper end of Spring Creek in
May 2000. Since then, chemical treatment has netted the results the Army
Corps had anticipated.
Joe Staigl, with the Army Corps of Engineers office in
Chattahoochee, Fla., says the plant coverage has been reduced by nearly 65
percent in Spring Creek with the drip system.
"At one point, Spring Creek was nearly 90 percent covered with
hydrilla," he reports. "Now we have about 25 percent plant coverage, much
of which is native."
"The drip system definitely worked," says Lake Seminole guide Troy
Arthur. "From the 253 bridge down past Rattlesnake Point, the hydrilla is
gone. Now peppergrass, eelgrass and lily pads are coming back."
David Partridge, a biologist for the Georgia DNR, has been part of
an ongoing telemetry study that tracked the habits of bass in the upper
portions of Spring Creek while the chemotherapy was administered.
|
BASS member Todd Phillips of
Dothan, Ala., spotted this 5-pound largemouth in clear, shallow
water, then pitched a tube lizard to the fish, which promptly took
the bait.
| "Anglers were concerned that the flouridone and plant removal
would harm bass or make them leave the area," says Partridge. "So, we have
been studying bass behavior in the area of the Creek where there has been
the heaviest plant removal."
What Partridge discovered is that bass have not left the area since
the hydrilla died. "Instead of using vegetation, they are using stumps in
the same flats," he reports.
Partridge also says the fish seem to be living deeper now that the
vegetative canopy has been removed. The forage base has shifted
significantly toward shad and away from bluegill or shiners. Also,
immature bass appear to be having an easier time finding food because
their prey can no longer escape in the dense hydrilla.
Adapting to the change
|
| How have the
winds of change affected the way anglers fish on Seminole?
"I have had to change the way I fish in Spring Creek, especially in
the winter," says Arthur, who guides out of Wingate's.
Arthur fishes within Spring Creek from December to April. "Instead
of flipping deep grass with bulky baits, I have learned to look for shad
in the main creek channel and to fish jigging spoons and small worms,"
says Arthur. "Keeping up with shad in the creek in the colder months is
much easier than keeping up with shad in the two river arms."
When the water temperature is 47 to 55 degrees, Arthur scours main
creek channel breaks, swings and corners with his electronics looking for
balls of shad. When he finds the shad, he jigs a ½-ounce spoon on
17-pound-test monofilament.
|
Arthur swears by crankbaits when
fishing Spring Creek in late winter and early spring. Favorite
colors include parrot, hot mustard and shad.
| Another innovative approach to Spring Creek's hydrillaless
bass in the winter months is drop shotting. The CITGO Bassmaster Tour
stopped at Seminole in early February last year, and a couple of pros
introduced Spring Creek bass to a drop shot rig.
Brett Hite and Kotaro Kiriyama finished second and fourth,
respectively, at the Seminole event by drop shotting in the grassless
portions of Spring Creek. Hite used a spinning rod, 6-pound line, and a
¼-ounce weight for his rig. Kiriyama beefed up his drop shot by using a
baitcaster, 14-pound line, and a 3/8-ounce sinker. Both anglers used the
drop shot rig to target sharp bends and big trees on the main Spring Creek
channel ledge.
Arthur's favorite springtime pattern is throwing Rapala Risto Raps
in the Spring Creek timber. "With the grass gone, a crankbait is much
easier to fish, and is a great tool for covering water in the deep timber
flats," he says. Arthur ties the crankbaits on 10-pound line and cranks
the No. 7 and No. 9 Rapala Ristos in timber 10 to 20 feet deep.
Seminole's spawn
Even though hydrilla has been removed from the majority of Spring
Creek, the main river arms still have plenty of the prolific vegetation on
the flats and in the backwaters.
Beginning as early as late January, bass will begin spawning on
Lake Seminole. The first places fish will spawn are in Seminole's many
backwater ponds and sandbars.
Shaw Grigsby won two Bassmaster events in late February on Lake
Seminole by sight fishing for spawning bass. He says Seminole has all the
right ingredients for a premier sight fishing lake.
"Seminole has a unique combination of quality fish, excellent water
clarity, perfect spawning habitat and an extended spawning season — all of
which make it a fantastic sight fishing lake," says Grigsby.
Grigsby says he can expect to sight fish on Seminole from January
through May. He looks for sandbars in 2 to 5 feet of water with a mixture
of grass and stumps.
"A perfect spawning sandbar on Seminole is one that rises up on the
lip of deeper water," adds Grigsby. "The bar is usually surrounded by
hydrilla, keeping the water clear. The bar should also have some good
stumps on it. That is a picture-perfect spawning sandbar, and Seminole has
a bunch of them."
Sight fishing alternatives
Even though sight fishing is a popular technique on Seminole in the
spring, it is not the only way to catch quality bass. Guide Troy Arthur
does not sight fish. Instead, he fishes for prespawn bass throughout the
spring in Spring Creek and on the main rivers.
"There is still plenty of grass out on the main river flats," says
Arthur. "When I am ready to fish grass, I tie on a ½-ounce Rat-L-Trap and
fish for staging fish on the flats."
Arthur keys on places where bays, sloughs and ditches meet the main
rivers and where hydrilla is abundant. He covers a lot of water winding
the lipless crankbait over 3 to 6 feet of water and ripping the bait out
of the grass. "Sometimes you can crank for hours without a bite, but when
you find a wad of prespawn bass, you can load the livewell quickly. One
bite usually means more are around," he adds.
If Arthur ventures into the backwaters in the spring, he will use
Lake Seminole's best-kept secret: a paddle-tail worm. He rigs the worm on
17-pound line, a 3/0 offset hook and 3/16-ounce weight. He steadily swims
the paddle-tail over grass and sandbars, making sure the paddle-tail is
thumping at all times.
Postspawn
For the postspawn period, usually in May, Arthur uses a combination
of topwaters in the morning and Carolina rigs in the afternoon. For
topwaters, Arthur casts buzzbaits and prop baits in areas where fish have
spawned heaviest during the spring.
Once the sun gets up, he goes to deeper sandbars with a Carolina
rig. He likes to target sandbars that are 5 to 10 feet deep on the main
rivers and in Spring Creek.
Arthur theorizes that some of the last bass to spawn use these main
lake sandbars late in the season. "It is like fishing the last wave of
spawning bass in May without sight fishing," he says.
Summer months
|
| After May, Arthur
leaves Spring Creek for the summer. "In the colder months, shad and bass
are easier to locate in Spring Creek than on the rivers; however, in the
summer, it is the opposite. Without the grass, the fish really scatter in
the Creek, but the river grass is good and thick, positioning the bass
better."
Arthur advises that June is a good topwater month, but that July
and August are two of the toughest months on Seminole. He fishes topwaters
at daybreak and then resorts to flipping or worming after 10 a.m.
The best summer grass on Seminole can be found in the extreme lower
end of Spring Creek and on the main lake flats. For topwater fishing,
Arthur concentrates on main lake grass points that have received an
overnight breeze.
|
| When he switches
to flipping or worming, he looks for the deepest, steepest grass he can
find. "I look for the vertical walls of grass in 8 to 12 feet of water to
flip and worm," he says.
When flipping, Arthur resorts to a 1-ounce jig with a paddle-tail
worm trailer, or just a paddle-tail worm pegged to a ¾-ounce weight.
Fall
The first several fronts in October renew Seminole's topwater bite.
"May and June are decent topwater months, but Seminole's topwater bite is
at a premium in October," says Arthur. "When that top layer cools off, the
fish get frisky again, and the topwater bite lasts until almost
Thanksgiving."
When the severe fronts begin to rip across the southeast and water
temperatures plummet into the 50s, Arthur again returns to Spring Creek to
find schools of shad migrating to the channel and up the creek.
The winds of change are blowing on Lake Seminole. Renovations and
chemical manipulation of grass are bringing a new face to a timeless
fishery.
Trip check report
How to get there — Lake Seminole lies in the
extreme southwest corner of Georgia. Bainbridge, Ga., located on the Flint
River, is about 15 miles, by road or water, from Seminole's main body.
Jack Wingate's Lunker Lodge, Seminole's best-known marina, is southwest of
Bainbridge off Hwy. 97. Anglers coming from the west can follow signs from
I-10 to Chattahoochee or Sneads, Fla., where several ramps access the
lake.
When to go — Seminole has a lengthy spawning period.
Spawning activities are usually underway by the second week of February,
and the postspawn can go until June. In the fall, October is the peak
topwater month.
Best lures & techniques — December through February,
when water temperatures are below 55 degrees, use jigging spoons,
3/16-ounce Texas rigged straight-tail worms, or a drop shot along the
Spring Creek channel ledges, bends, corners and trees. When water
temperatures are above 55 degrees, fish the deep timber in Spring Creek
with a Rapala Risto Rap or Shad Rap. Prespawn bass on the main lake flats
can be caught on ½-ounce Rat-L-Traps in the grass. If searching for
spawning bass, probe Seminole's numerous backwater ponds and sandbars by
sight fishing with tube lures. In the summer, fish topwaters around
hydrilla points early and then flip to the steeper grasslines.
Best patterns — Guide Troy Arthur's favorite bait on
Seminole, especially in the spring, is a paddle-tail worm steadily reeled
over scattered grass and sandbars. Arthur also uses the paddle-tail worm
to flip in the summertime.
Information — Georgia DNR, Albany, Ga., 229-430-4144. Army
Corps of Engineers, Chattahoochee, Fla., office, 229-662-2001.
Lodging — Jack Wingate's Lunker Lodge, 229-246-0658.
Bainbridge-Decatur County Chamber of Commerce, 800-243-4774 or
229-246-4774.
Guides — Troy Arthur, 229-243-9158, or http://www.seminolebassguide.com/.
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