The South's Best Shellcracker Holes
Georgia – Lake Seminole and World-Record Shellcrackers
Caught
Editor’s Note: I like to catch plenty of fish
that fight hard, test my tackle and my angling skills
and taste delicious when I eat them. These characteristics
describe the shellcracker (redear sunfish) with its
nicknames of stumpknocker and yellow bream. The South
homes some of the biggest shellcrackers, so named due
to the grinding teeth in their throats that crush snails,
shells and mollusks, in the nation.
Without question, one of the best southern shellcracker
lakes is Lake Seminole near Bainbridge, Georgia. Anglers
there catch shellcrackers, bluegills, crappie and big
bass. According to Matt Thomas of the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources, “ Historically,
anglers have flocked to this fairly-shallow and relatively-clear
32,500-acre lake on the Florida and Georgia line to
catch shellcrackers because the water levels don’t
fluctuate all that much, and it has a long growing season.”
John Kilpatrick, a fisheries biologist who samples
from Lake Seminole each year, explains that, “There
are so many shellcrackers in the lake because this shallow-fertile
implantment has high vegetation and provides ideal habitat
for shellcrackers. Due to all the aquatic vegetation,
there are a lot of snails, which the redear sunfish
(shellcrackers) really like to eat.”
New research at Lake Seminole indicates that the redear
sunfish lives longer than originally believed. “From
our sampling, we found a  redear
sunfish that lived to be 8- or 9-years old, which is
much older than we ever thought they survived,”
Kilpatrick says. Originally, scientists believed that
redears lived to be only 5- or 6-years old. According
to Kilpatrick, good numbers of 3 and 4 pounders live
in Lake Seminole. Even though Kilpatrick hasn’t
seen any this size yet, anglers have reported catching
them.
“Generally, southern fish grow faster and die
younger than northern fish,” Kilpatrick explains.
“But we are surprised to learn that the shellcrackers
in Lake Seminole have thrown us a curve because they
grow faster and live longer than we assumed.”
Although Lake Seminole is primarily a cricket lake,
anglers have also been highly-successful using small
worms.
For more information on Lake Seminole, go to http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/08_Seminole.htm.
Also, call Jack Wingat e’s
Lodge in Bainbridge at (229) 246-0658, and visit the
lodge website http://www.wingateslodge.com/.
World Record Shellcrackers Caught:
South Carolina – 5 pounds, 7 ounces, Diversion
Canal, 1998, Angler: Amos Gay
Florida – 4.86 pounds, Merritts Mill Pond, 03-13-86,
Angler: Joseph Floyd
Georgia – 4 pounds, 2 ounces, Richmond County
pond, 06-06-95, Angler: Pat Lawrence
Alabama – 4 pounds, 4 ounces, Chattahoochee State
Park, 05-05-62, Angler: Jeff Lashley
Louisiana – 2.87 pounds, Caney Lake, August 1998,
Angler: Jerry Smelley
Mississippi – 3.33 pounds, Tippah County Lake,
11-05-91, Angler: James Martin
Mississippi – Tippah County Lake
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