Black creek lodge

Question
Hi Jack, I am fishing Saturday on the choctawahachee river out from black creek lodge. Have you ever fished these rivers? Where are the big bass at? Will the bass be in the spawning mode yet? Thanks for your help. John

Answer
John; Sorry the Chotawahachee river is not one of the places that I have fished.  I have been on the little Brother's river once but don't remember much about it as it was over 30 years ago.

We have had a cold front over the past week end and I doubt the bass are spawning right now.  There were a few on the beds here on Lake Seminole before the cold front but it got down to about freezing last night.  

I would guess the bass would have moved off the shallows but only to the first break while they wait for the weather to warm things up again.  If you find where they are you are in for a great day of fishing possibly the best you have ever had.  I came across such an area of staging bass a few years ago and for a week I caught a limit of bass every evening and the smallest of them was about 3 1/2 lbs with the largest over eight pounds.  I must have caught two dozen over 5 pounds that week,  Never before nor since although I ran into some good ones the next two years in late Feb.  Then they disappeared and I haven't found them like that since.  

I suspect that the Chotawahachee is not terribly different from the Apalachicola river system. I fished that for many years before I moved up here to Lake Seminole.  I found bass often bunched up back in the creeks especially in areas where there were lots of Tupelo or Cyprus trees.  A crank bait cast within inches of the bank near a Cyprus knee or root or a tupelo tree roots.  I don't believe there is  as much black water in the Apalachicola system as in the Chotaw.

I never found the black water as productive as the brown water from the river.  Often the mouth of a creek or small river that flows into the main river held fish while the streams flowing out from the main river were not as productive.   Sometimes when fishing a tournament I would run from one creek to another until I found one with fish.  Sometimes I hit them sometimes I didn't   One thing for sure was that someone fishing in our club would find fish someplace and bring back a limit.  Which means the fish aren't in every creek or slough but when you find on that has fish in it you can usually catch a limit.  

As I said I am not certain about the Chotawahachee though.  Most of  my experience has been on the Apalachicola and Lake Seminole.

Sorry I could not be more specific.  

If I can be of further and perhaps more help in the future I will do my best to give as good an answer as I can.

I am
Jack L. Gaither
Lake Seminole, Georgia