Spring break had arrived, and finally a long awaited trip to a friend's, Jeremy, lakehouse in Georgia had made it out of the group chat. First off, I am especially thankful to Jeremy and his parents for hosting and cooking amazing food for the group of us; it was an amazing few days spent in a beautiful house on a spectacular lake, far away from everything involved with school. We spent a few days at the house relaxing and enjoying the lake and the many activities we could do on it; fishing especially. There is a dock by the house that I spent most of the time fishing if I wasn't out doing anything else. If nothing else, I was glad to be able to just sit on the water waiting for a bite, surrounded by the scenery. I was very excited to test the water and see if we could pull out any new species, considering I had not fished much in southern lakes (or anywhere in Georgia, for that matter). After settling down when we arrived on a rainy Friday night, we started fishing as soon as we were up on Saturday morning.
Day 1: March 9th, 2024
Although it was gloomy and a drizzle was coming down in the morning, I could not wait to get to fishing. It was sweater weather, and after setting up the fishing rods with Jeremy's dad Keith, I walked out to the dock to cast out the lines in pursuit of fish. We started off with worms as bait and ended up spending most of the trip using them. Soon after, more people came out to the dock despite the rain to test our luck. We all hung out there on the dock for a while, getting started on a fun trip, when after about 20 minutes of letting the rods sit, one of the three rods we had doubled over. I ran to it and picked it up to set the hook, then gave it to Harrison. It was his first time catching a fish, but he didn’t need much instruction to reel in the Channel Catfish. While I had caught bullheads before, I had yet to catch this common species of Catfish. Jeremy and I had talked about the fish in the lake before, so I went into the trip hoping to be able to catch new species like these. After catching the first Catfish and took pictures, we released it and rebated our hooks. It didn't take long for the next fish to take one of the baits, as while I came back from inside, I saw Ryan, who had also never caught a fish before, picking up and reeling in a rod that was bent over. He kept the hook set as he reeled in another Channel Catfish, his first one. After fishing a little more through some periods of drizzles and rain, Ryan and I went kayaking for a bit around the lake before coming back to fish some more later in the day. We also saw an otter swimming by the dock. We spent most of the time during the week outside in the backyard or on the water, and we had lines in for the most part even when we weren't directly on the dock. Later in the afternoon, while hanging out on the dock, we brought in another two catfish to round out the day before the sunset. Apparently some kind of sunfish was caught while I was out on the water, so I didn't get a picture of it. It was a great first day to start off the trip, and it made me excited for what was to come. It was also great to see two of my friends catch their first fish, which they definitely enjoyed.
Day 2: March 10th, 2024
The next day I woke up and again began working on setting up the rods first thing in morning. It was a much better day than yesterday with super clear blue skies and perfect weather in the 70s. I casted the lines out with Ryan and we sat, talked, and waiting for the fish to bite. Overall, it was a pretty chill day. In between waiting for bites we took the jet skis out and the pontoon boat for a cruise on the lake. It was a perfect day for all of it on the water. That being said, it was a relatively slow day for fishing, as one catfish was caught when I was on the dock with Ryan in the early afternoon shortly before we left on the boat, and one later on at around 5 with Adam. Both were Channel Cats. Most of the fishing we did on this trip was passive, as I just manned the rods to rebait, recast, and watched the rod tips for bites while waiting with friends. The two fish caught this way today were satisfactory and we had a fun, relaxed night.
Day 3: March 11th, 2024
Day 3 was similar to the day before in that it was filled with other activities on the water, in the lakehouse, or chilling on the dock, backyard, or porches. Also in the afternoon, a pretty hot day, I caught another small catfish while reading on the dock and watching the lines with Ryan, Liam, Aidan, and some others. It was thenext to last night at the lakehouse, and we topped it off with a campfire outside after sunset.
Day 4: March 12th, 2024
Today was shaping up to be like the others, fishing-wise, on the trip, as we were planning on taking the boat out on the lake and to a swimming spot, but it ended up being quite eventful. Like the other days, I got up, set up the rods, and went out to the docks to set up the rods. Baiting the hooks with worms, I casted them out and waited. Soon after, at around 11:30 AM, a rod went down and I reeled in to see if my bait was stuck on the rocks, only to find a small catfish on the line. That was the first on the day. After that I left to go on the boat and explore the lake a little more on the jet skis. The lake, while surrounded mostly by spaced out houses in a woody neighborhood, is nice, clean, and feels like the nice country getaway for people in Atlanta like Jeremy's family and from all over Georgia. I was very grateful to be able to spend time on the lake. After coming back, I once again set up the rods in pursuit of some fish. However, we'd run out of live nightcrawlers after the week of fishing. I'd been talking with Keith about using chicken as an effective bait for catfish, so once we ran out he marinated some pieces of chicken in garlic power and minced garlic in order to have it give off a strong smell for the catfish on the bottom. It was late afternoon when I put these bigger pieces of chicken on the hooks and casted them out. Soon after I got a bite that seemed pretty strong. I reeled one in with Harrison on the dock, and it was a Blue Catfish. A new species! I'd known that the lake had this popular species of catfish along with the Channel Cats, and while I'd hoped to catch one, chances seemed to be decreasing as time was running out. Apparently, however, it was the chicken that did the trick. Blue Catfish are also generally bigger than channel catfish, and this fish certainly showed it. Not long after taking pictures and releasing that Blue did another rod double over with a strong tug. Harrison picked it up and reeled it in: the biggest Channel Catfish of the trip. The garlic chicken was definitely working. We went in for dinner, but made sure to leave the baits out in case a fish would take one them before we could come out and check on them. Afterwards, Harrison and I went out when it was dark to look at the sky and see if a fish was on. We could see a ton of stars in the sky, which was pretty cool considering you need to drive a few hours away from even Gainesville to be able to do that. We really got the feel of being out in the woods as we walked to the dock at night to check on the rods. Sure enough, Harrison and I saw a rod bent over and we reeled in another massive Blue Catfish. It sort of tangled the lines, so we called it a night after unhooking it and releasing it. It was an amazing catch to top off an incredible trip.
The next day we packed up and drove to Atlanta to take flights home. It was an unforgettable experience on Lake Oconee, and we caught many special fish and new species while we were there. Thank you very much to Jeremy and his family for such a fun weekend.
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