Lake Oliver Day 2...

I had originally intended to do the small lake reports as one post. The reason this post will be seperated into two different posts is because the fishing was completly different from one to the other. We fished here on Friday, the second day of fishing here is the following Monday. The conditions have changed completly.

This is the second installment of the Lake Oliver, Columbus GA report.
The water was still in the 70 degree area
Crystal Clear

Today was the roughest water I have encountered while in a kayak. The Weather Channel had issued a wind advisory for the entire day, NW winds at 26Mph and gusts at 40-45 Mph, it was serious  business.

 

This time instead of putting in and going to the left which takes you to the main lake, we went to the right and stayed inside the long cove trying to find some protection from the wind. The attempt to get on the water at daylight didn't work out as planned, the day got underway about an hour after daybreak. The cove was still choppy, but definatly workable, we began with some topwater but couldn't get any action that way. I made my way around a sharp bend to the right and saw that the back of the pocket contained a bridge and let to some really skinny water. This was a perfect location to stay out of the wind and catch some shallow water fish. Once back there is was really a sweet looking spot. The bridge was low and made it non-accessable to powerboats. I threw a shakey head here with a 4.5 in robo. This seemed to do the trick, third cast bam there is a small but extremly eager fish to the boat. After about twenty min we decided to try the mainlake again. I did manage one more on the shakey head on the way out.

Back on the main lake we just drifted and threw lipless cranks, squirt managed one solid fish. We continued to try this and jerkbaits but didn't have anymore takers.  A little discouraged we decided to fight the mainlake and make it back to the cove that we had so much luck in the Friday before. This is where the fun began, the water was ROUGH... I mean whitecaps everywhere. We managed to fight the water and make it back to the cove, but still didn't manage anyfish. Still discouraged we fought the water back and fished the shoreline with the shakey head. I got the rig hooked up in some brush, went to unhook the mess and somehow managed to break my spinning rod, A GREAT QUANTUM ROD. Snapped in two, I wasn't doing anything excessivly rough, but now I am holding a busted rod.

 

 

From here I decided it was time for me to call it a day.

Overall Lake Oliver is a solid place to kayak. The lake offers some great fishing, it has a place to fish mostly any technique that you like, deeper water, great coves, and skinny water that you will certianly be the only one there. Get out and try the lake for yourself, catch some quality fish.

Lake Oliver, Columbus GA

10/26/12

Water- 71 and Crystal Clear

Inatially today was going to be a "Pre-Fish" day to search for spots that would hold fish, and this report would not be done until we fished the lake on Monday. The problem with that is we caught some really nice fish.

A smaller lake on the Chattahoochee River system in Columbus Georgia, this lake is an awesome place to fish. When you drive up to the lake, the entrance gets you excited and ready to hit the water. You put in at the Lake Oliver Marina, inside they have a small but nice selection of fishing lures, line, and combos. They also have a kitchen that serves breakfast and lunch. I was really impressed with the set-up here.

The view from the open roof top of the marina.

Back to the fishing, once you launch, you have two choices, there is a long cove to the right, and the main lake to the left. The cove to the right goes back a long way, its lined with houses and has a few blow downs.


The main lake opens up to the left, when you paddle out about 100 yards, you will begin to see the dam on the left. The main lake goes around a point to the right, there are dock houses and brush covering the shoreline. Keep going down the right side of the lake and there will be a few coves. Half way back into the coves is where the fishing was HOT. Lipless cranks were getting the job done...

Squirt hauling in the first fish of the day.

I quickly answered, the back and forth went on all day.

 

 

 

Bartletts Ferry (Lake Harding)

Lake Harding is a really awesome place that I hold pretty high in my coolest places to fish... My Grandfather had a house on the lake, and my father fished here as a child. I have recently been fishing this lake more than the closer alternative of West Point because of the difference in water levels. Lake Harding is managed by Georgia Power and is a "recreational" lake, so when they release water to extreme lows on West Point, Lake Harding will reamain full.

 

I put in at Idle Hour ramp, well I began to put in, first I pull my truck to the ramp and start getting my gear ready. I hop out of the truck and grab my rods and paddle, and decide to change lures from a buzzbait to a spook. I get the spook tied on and make a cast to set the reel, the bait hits the water, a very eager spotted bass decided to slam it. Before I have the kayak off the truck I have a fish in hand.

 

The rest of the day went about the same, no giant fish in the boat but had a great time catching the over-active small guys. There were six in about an hour and a half, then I decided to do some wandering and see what some other areas of the lake were looking like. I think I have found some new spots that will hold some nice bass.

 

Clay Hewett

 

Some other fish that have come from Lake Harding

Dont hate the blue warrior, had to start somewhere.



Installing a Hatch

Squirt has a Heritage Angler 10' sit on top kayak, the yak comes pretty well stocked with features that are very useful, but we did find a need for access to the area behind the seat so we decided to install a hatch. Went online and found a hatch that would fit in the area that was avaible, upgraded shipping and badaboom, time to install.

This is our own How-To.

Tools Needed-

Hatch (Whatever size fits your needs, the rest of the tools with fit mostly all applications).
Stainless Steel Hardware- We used 3/8 phillips head bolts and nylock nuts.
3/8 Inch Wrench
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Lexel- Sealant
Sharpie
Dremel Tool with Cutting Bit
Drill
5/64 Drill Bit

We first placed the acutual hatch on the kayak and outline the inside diameter with the sharpie. Then comes the fun part, cutting a big hole in a perfectly good kayak. We drilled a starter hole in the center to have a place to insert the cutting bit on the Dremel. The dremel tool we used has variable speed so we went with lots of power and a slow percise cut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the hole is cut you then place the hatch into the hole and mark the holes for the bolts with the sharpie.

With the holes marked you use the 5/64 bit and drill the holes.


Remove the hatch plate and use the Lexel and outline the hole, cover the holes for the bolts with the Lexel to create a watertight seal.

Line up the hatch plate with the holes you have drilled and run the bolts through, using the 3/8 in. wrench and the screwdriver tighten the bolts in an everyother pattern, we used a screwdriver instead of a drill here because it would be easy to overtighten the bolts and pull them through the hatch plate.

With all the bolts tight, you can then put the lid on the hatch and you now have access to the area behind the seat for gear storage.

Finished Product.

Special Thanks to MR TOD GRAHM for the use of the shop.

Fishing After Dark

There is an abundance of information on the internet about catching bass after the sun goes down, we decided to see what the hype was about. Working the night shift has presented the opprotunity for us to try catching these fish, well that is exactly what we set out to do... We have spent this entire summer and coming into fall fishing after work about three nights a week. Well we either have done everything wrong or the fish have dissappeard.

I would give a lot of this to being pure stubborn.... We wanted to catch fish with a certian lure in the places we wanted to catch them, and that is just not the case. So after about twenty trips of carrying the skunk around it finally sunk-in. We have to go where the fish are and throw what works, not what we want to work. I know that sounds to simple, but it worked. We can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results, thats insanity. Nonetheless we produced decent bass out of West Point. We will continue to try for the night time bass.