Late summer bass and striper report (Lanier)

Haven't posted in a while and I thought I'd drop in and provide a little Lanier bass and striper report. First the bass; I've been fishing quite a bit over the last week and capped off this last weekend with 2 bass tournaments. On the north end we fished shallow crankbaits and topwater on Friday and Saturday. There are a few fish to be had shallow but you have to weed through a lot of small fish to get a good one on the cranks. The smaller bass are feeding on shallow threadfin shad on points, especially the kind with gravel and smaller rock. Wind blown points have produced the best for us over the past few days. The deeper you go the bigger the fish get. Deeper crankbaits have been yielding bigger fish off points and around the deeper structure. Keep your topwater baits such as poppers and whopper ploppers handy for when the fish surface around brush anywhere from 15-50 feet of water, primarily off points. I've also caught a few bass walking the sexy dawg on shallow flats. Another tactic you can try is blueback colored jerkbaits over the same brush when the fish aren't on the surface but feeding on suspended bait. The topwater bite is getting better every day but being in the right place at the right time is key because it's just about impossible to call the fish back up after they've surfaced and went back down. For topwater, for me the whopper plopper has been the best bait over the last week. Just to recap; popping or plopping the top, walking the dog and cranking the bank has been my best strategy over the last week for bass.

For the stripers, there are several ways to catch stripers right now with u-rigs, leadcore and spoons being the best bet if you're not downlining live bluebacks. There seems to be some stripers congregating just inside or just outside the creek mouths and for the last week that's where I've found them. I've found them in water from 35-100 feet in depth and you have to do a little driving to find those arches. Personally, I've been doing nothing but jigging stripers with 2-3 ounce bucktails and a 4-6 inch soft paddletail swimbaits attached. It's a challenge but a lot of fun to watch the stripers chase the bucktail jigs up and down till one of them whacks it. Here's a few recent videos that include the striper jigging tactic and a little topwater bass.

Good report Jim and nice videos
Love that power reeling....

Nice report Capt. you make it look easy!!!

He sure dose wish I could find that good

Thanks guys. Here's a few tips for the fall topwater bite on Lanier and a short video I made this morning:
The topwater bite is getting better every day and here's a few of my personal tips to make your fall topwater bite go a little better this year:
1). If you're out in the early morning hours or the late evening and you're throwing topwater, try and keep the sun in front of you or at a 90 degree angle from the direction you're throwing. A lot of times if the sun is at your back the fish can see you or your shadow in this clear water with the sun at a low angle. I believe you'll get more strikes facing the sun than having it at your back.
2). If you're fishing points, brush or humps in the wind, fish up wind and make your casts down wind across the area you're fishing. There's a few reasons I do this. The first is that you'll get a much longer cast throwing with the wind and longer casts equal more time your bait is in the water and that equals more of a chance to catch fish. Secondly, you'll be bringing your topwater bait back against the wind which means more sound and surface disruption which means more attraction. With topwater, it's all about the sound and the surface disruption. Lastly, I like to drift the boat with the wind and stay off the trolling motor as much as possible. These fall fish can get spooky and drifting with the wind means less noise like waves slapping against your boat going against the grain or the constant noise of the trolling motor from trying to stay in position to make your casts or trying not to get blown away from your target area.
3). Keep your head on a swivel and your eyes peeled for surfacing activity. I like to just idle through the creek or sit still in the creek early in the morning and watch for surfacing fish. I make a mental note of all the surfacing activity and fish those areas one by one. This is the time of year the fish give their location away and you just have to have a keen eye to capitalize on that.
Right now I'm finding that the translucent type baits are working the best for these topwater fish. This morning it was the translucent walking baits but tomorrow it could be a surface popper or the Whopper Plopper in a translucent color pattern. It's been varying from day to day so it's a good idea to have all 3 ready this fall. Here's a little video I made this morning walking the little Sexy Dawg Jr. in a Sexy Ghost Minnow pattern.

Another great post Jim, Thanks

fotoguy said:

Another great post Jim, Thanks

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Thank you fotoguy!