BAINBRIDGE, Ga. — Drew Cook has been pointing to this event since the 2023 Bassmaster Elite Series schedule was announced. He’s been fishing Lake Seminole since he was a kid. He fished his first B.A.S.S. event here in 2015, finishing 23rdin a Bassmaster Open in the fall. Cook qualified for the Elite Series in 2019. It isn’t officially springtime in southern Georgia, but it suddenly feels like it. And Seminole’s abundant bass population is moving shallow.
“They’re swimming as hard as they can to the bank,” Cook said Monday. “It was 30-something degrees three days ago here. It got to 76 today.”
It has warmed even more since, reaching the mid 80s Wednesday, the last practice day before the four-day Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Lake Seminole begins. The highs and lows during the tournament are predicted to be in the 80s and 60s, respectively. Drew Benton was still on the lake practicing at 3 p.m. Wednesday. He found 68-degree water.
“It’s warmed up a lot,” Benton said. “This is the longest string of warm days we’ve had.”
Benton noted one factor that hasn’t already locked more bass onto spawning beds – a falling lake level. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been pulling water rapidly through Woodruff Dam. The lake dropped over half a foot from Sunday through Tuesday, but it was back up to 77.19 feet above sea level Wednesday afternoon, only .31 below the normal pool level of 77.50.
“If it stabilizes, the fish are wanting to come to the bank,” Benton said.
Seminole isn’t a big lake – 37,500 acres, with an average depth of 9 feet. But it’s got an abundance of bass habitat, from ledges in the river channels to standing timber to a diversity of aquatic vegetation. It’s fed by three tributaries that offer a variety of water color too – the Flint River to the east, the Chattahoochee River to the west and Spring Creek in the middle.
“There’s fish from one end of this lake to the other,” Benton said. “I don’t think there will be a big problem with crowding.”
There has been only one previous Elite Series event at Lake Seminole, and it was nine years ago – March 13-16, 2014. Brett Hite ran away with it over the last two days posting a four-day total of 97 pounds, 10 ounces, even though the final day got cut short a bit when a violent thunderstorm rolled across the lake. Shaw Grigsby weighed a Day 1 bag of 30 pounds, 5 ounces. Bernie Schultz took big bass honors with a 10-10 on Day 1. Those numbers illustrate what’s possible here, if everything comes together.
“I don’t think we’re going to get to 100 pounds,” Cook said. “But I think the 50 cut (after Day 2) will be close to 16 pounds a day. That’s strong, but there are so many 3-pounders that it wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
The two-day, 50th place cut mark in 2014 was 27-4. Twenty-three anglers in the current Elite Series field competed in that tournament. Bernie Schultz is the highest finisher returning. In addition to taking big bass honors with that 10-10, he finished 7th overall.
“This lake is definitely capable of producing that again,” Schultz said Wednesday afternoon. “Definitely some people are going to catch some big bags.”
Schultz noted the winning pattern could include a deep structure bite on river channels or in the timber, a flipping bite in the shallow vegetation or sight-fishing for spawners.
“I love this lake,” he said. “It’s a great lake. We’re here a little early, but they could keep coming shallow.”
Daily takeoffs at 7:30 a.m. and weigh-ins at 3:30 p.m. will be held at the Earle May Boat Basin Park.
