LAKE TOBESOFKEE
Owned and operated by Bibb County, this 1,750-acre impoundment on Tobesofkee Creek southwest of downtown Macon lies between U.S. Highway 80 and State Route 74 just west of where they cross Interstate 475.

Opened in 1969, Tobesofkee is an urban lake with a lot of shoreline homes and public parks, so boat traffic clogs the water during the warmer months, making fishing tough. But in cooler weather, before the personal watercraft and pleasure boaters begin to churn up the water, sufficient tranquility reigns to allow for some wonderful fishing.

And the angler here can choose among an assortment of game fishes. Apart from largemouth bass, Tobesofkee also offers crappie, hybrid bass, bream and catfish. But late February and early March is the prime time for largemouth bass.

Les Ager, for years the head of the Wildlife Resources Division's fisheries office in Fort Valley, from which west-central Georgia's resource is managed, reported that the relatively small and shallow Tobesofkee is full of promise for late-winter/early-spring bass fishing, as warming trends turn on almost all of its bass at the same time -- a situation very different from that in lakes characterized by a wide array of depths and water temperatures.

"Bass populations tend to move more as a unit on small lakes, anyway," Ager explained. "At Tobesofkee, you have a lake where the environment varies very little from one end to the other. Also, the average depth at Tobesofkee is only 22 to 24 feet deep. There is very little water more than 25 feet deep, so the conditions are basically the same all over the lake."

So how do you catch Tobesofkee's bass during February and early March? Veteran midstate anglers have a few notions about that.

In early February, before many warm days have come along, concentrate on dropoffs and deep banks and structure. Deep-running crankbaits, jig-and-pigs or small plastic worms of less than 6 inches are the baits of choice. Fish slowly, because the cold water will still be keeping the bass sluggish.

As the water warms, the bass begin to move in a little more shallow. After a couple of warmer days in a row, try spinnerbaits in white or chartreuse-and-white colors in the coves, or around brush and stumps near the shoreline. Adding a plastic grub trailer to a spinnerbait makes it more buoyant, and allows you to fish it slower -- a sensible move when the fish are still a bit lethargic.

If by the last week or two in February the weather has continued to warm, the bass begin feeling the urge to spawn, so move in shallow on hard rocky or red clay points. Depending on water temps, they could be anywhere from 2 to 7 feet deep.

Medium-depth crankbaits such as Model A Bombers and Shad Raps in crawdad colors work serviceably, as do blue chrome or black chrome Rat-L-Traps. If you like plastic worms, switch now to slightly bigger ones, 6 to 8 inches long; jig-and-pigs too continue effective. If it's especially warm, spinnerbaits in the grassbeds in the backs of the coves on the upper end of the lake can tease out some considerable bass.