Photo by Ron Sinfelt

By Ronnie Garrison

If you live in central Georgia around the Macon area, you have two lakes almost in your back yard that offer great bass fishing. Both Lake Juliette and Lake Tobesofkee are small, easy to get to, and have good launching facilities for your boat. Bass tournaments are held on both Tobesofkee and Juliette, and the folks fishing them have learned how to cope with the special characteristics of each lake. Either one can pay off in big stringers of bass this month.

Boat docks line the lake, and many have brushpiles around them. Big houses on the bank signify that you are fishing a suburban reservoir rather than a pristine lake with a natural shoreline, but a bass pulling on your line will make you forget about the scenery.

Tobesofkee is very crowded on weekends during warm weather, with personal watercraft, cruisers, skiers and bass boats zooming everywhere. Not only is all the traffic annoying, but it can also make it tough to fish, especially on the lower lake.

At Tobesofkee there is a Saturday morning tournament during the winter, but at the beginning of May they start fishing at night to avoid the crowds. You also can fish night tournaments on Wednesday and Friday nights from May through September. Reggie Reeves and his wife, Cindy, run this tournament trail, as well as participate in it. They do well as a team and win their share of the tournaments.

"The weather is changing and the bass are moving toward deeper water," Reggie said with regard to the late spring and early summer.

The fish hold on the deeper structure but still run in to feed shallow as the sun goes down. Since the tournaments start at 7 p.m., there are a couple of hours of light left to fish.

Steep banks near deep water are good places to find bass feeding late in the afternoon. Reggie and Cindy start working these banks with crankbaits, topwater plugs and Texas-rigged plastic worms and keep fishing them until dark. Keep your boat out in 15 to 20 feet of water and cast right to the bank, especially if there is a seawall there.

Fish a crankbait like a No. 5 or No. 7 lipped crankbait in shad or perch colors in clearer water or firetiger in stained water. Also work the lure from the shallowest water all the way out to the boat. If two people are fishing, it is a good idea for one to throw a topwater plug or buzzbait and the other to fish a plug or worm to see what the fish want. Cast topwater plugs right to the edge of the water as well. Reggie likes a popping-style topwater lure and fishes it slowly along the banks, which he feels attracts bass from a good distance. Cindy often follows with either a crankbait or a worm to catch the ones that were drawn in by the topwater action but don't hit.

Both Reggie and Cindy like finesse-type worms rigged Texas style behind a 1/8-ounce lead. June bug and green pumpkin colors seem to be best, and Reggie and Cindy make the worm slide and hop along the bottom.

Bass still hit in these places after full dark, but lighted boat docks are also good then. The Reeves duo throws their worms around pilings and brush near the lighted docks. They also "shoot" the docks, getting the bait way back under the structure and floating boats to get to the hard-to-reach bass.

Let your bait sink on a tight line, watching it for any unusual movement. If it stops sinking before you think it should, set the hook. With the lights on the docks, it is relatively easy to see your line.

LAKE TOBESOFKEE Lake Tobesofkee is located just a few miles west of I-475 and is owned and operated by Bibb County. The closest boat ramps to the interstate highway are at Claystone Park, and there is a large parking area on site. Camping is also available in this facility. The park is accessible from I-475 via State Route 74 and then Mosely Dixon Road. Entry fees are charged for using the facilities.   State fishing regulations apply on the lake, with a 10-bass creel limit and a 12-inch minimum size. You must have a Georgia fishing license.

On dark banks you have to feel for resistance or the thump of a bite and be ready to set the hook instantly.

Many good deep points and banks are on the lower lake, within sight of the dam. You can start in that area and search out banks that rise sharply from the water, since the drop probably continues underwater. In the narrower section upriver, some of the coves in the area have old creek channel ledges across them. All such sites are good places in which to cast.

Above the Lower Thomaston Road Bridge, you also find some steep banks and docks to fish. Again, look at the bank and notice where it is steeply sloped. The northeast shore bank upstream of the bridge has several places like that.

Rusty Cohen lives on Tobesofkee and has one of the lighted docks mentioned earlier. He fishes some of the night tournaments this time of year, but in the daytime, too. He says you can find bass surprisingly shallow all this month, even when there is a lot of boat traffic.

"Concentrate on the grassbeds in pockets below the bridge on Lower Thomaston Road and fish the big grassbeds above that bridge," Rusty suggested. "Bass hold in them and hit spinnerbaits and Texas-rigged worms all day long, especially if it is overcast."

Even after boat traffic gets heavy, the bass still feed in the grass. If some wind is blowing into the beds, it is even better. Boat wakes washing through the grass also stir up the bait in there and get the bass feeding, so don't hesitate to fish them even when there are a lot of pleasure boaters around.

The color of the spinnerbait you throw really doesn't matter, according to Rusty, so pick the one you like best. You can also run a buzzbait through the grass, especially early and late in the day. With two people fishing, one should use a spinnerbait or buzzbait while the other follows with a Texas-rigged worm to cover all bases.

The bigger grassbeds upstream of the bridge don't get as churned up from boat traffic, so they are more fun to fish. You can find these beds on both sides of the lake above the bridge and in the extreme northeast corner where Tobesofkee Creek enters the impoundment.

To fish a night tournament this summer at Lake Tobesofkee, show up at the Claystone Park boat ramp by 6:30 and pay your entry fee. Wednesday night tournaments run from 7 to 11 p.m., and Friday night hours are 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

For more information, call Reggie or Cindy Reeves at (478) 935-3829.