Green fish MIA on Lanier yesterday

[Crustydemon]

Did anyone else have trouble on Lanier yesterday? After attending a "seminar" on Lanier, I hit the lake with some short lived confidence. I tried the ditches, the points, the secondary points, clay banks, rip rap and backs of creeks. Didn't even mark any fish on the Lowrance. Decided to punt and go north under both of the bridges. Found some stained water, seen lots of bass boats but didn't catch anything or see anyone catching anything. Threw deep cranks, fishhead spin, jig, jerk, and shakeyhead. Nothing. Finally at 4:00 pm I accepted defeat and put it on the trailer. I've had better days on the Toona, aka DeadSea. Any advice? What do you guy's do when you have days like this? I'm really starting to despise Lanier and think maybe, if filled with concrete, it would make a great skateboard park.

 

[Big7]

Oconee and West Point.

 

[CatchinBEES]

Had a similar day out there myself.
-Ended with one keeper. No one I spoke with did any good.
-Just one of those days......

 

[Scout'nStripers]

Did anyone else have trouble on Lanier yesterday? After attending a "seminar" on Lanier, I hit the lake with some short lived confidence. I tried the ditches, the points, the secondary points, clay banks, rip rap and backs of creeks. Didn't even mark any fish on the Lowrance. Decided to punt and go north under both of the bridges. Found some stained water, seen lots of bass boats but didn't catch anything or see anyone catching anything. Threw deep cranks, fishhead spin, jig, jerk, and shakeyhead. Nothing. Finally at 4:00 pm I accepted defeat and put it on the trailer. I've had better days on the Toona, aka DeadSea. Any advice? What do you guy's do when you have days like this? I'm really starting to despise Lanier and think maybe, if filled with concrete, it would make a great skateboard park.

No need to fill in the lake Crusty, you'll get em. They're there. The fish don't always bite. We beat the tar out of the shore yesterday and Sat. with nothing to show for it. I noticed that you didn't mention docks. I'd start looking at them hard from now through spring. On my last 2 trips out we've seen some good numbers around docks eating 2-3" bb's and threads. If you're down towards the south end the water is very clear so you're probably not going to boat good numbers but you can catch a few pitching, jigging and dropshotting the docks right now. We had to match the hatch with the spoon perfectly yesterday. If you have side imaging on your ff, start cruising in front of docks in the sun, peaking underneath them as you go and looking for brush and bait in front of them. If I have a bad day, it stinks but I know there's better days ahead. There ain't no quitters in fishing.

 

[lifterpuller]

don't beat yourself up man. I know a lot of really good fishermen who left the lake without a bite this weekend! Lanier in February is brutal. My partner caught two fish yesterday. the only bite I got in two days was a catfish in 40ft of water.

 

[GLAND1611]

Hey man went out Saturday and had the exact same kinda day, I'm not a professional by no means but I fished from 9-4 and usually can get one in the boat, I fished a 1/2 football head jig with a craw trailer figuring if I did get a bite it would be a good one also med and deep crankbait and fish head spin, I think I got 1 maybe 2 bites on the fish head spin but landed nothing also fished a jerk bait some to no avail, this summer and this fall i did pretty good even landing my biggest fish in October but this winter I've been getting my butt kicked pretty hard, went to lake burton bout a month ago and got skunked too, what am I gonna do about it? I'm gonna hook my boat back up again and keep tryin!

 

[mtr3333]

Look for the bait. There are always a few fish around bait schools. You may have to fish in a way you don't want to in order to catch fish.

 

[EZ Spin]

Don't beat your self up too much. I have gotten skunked a couple of times recently. I feel that the bass on Lanier during late winter get caught in the 'tweens. That is what I call it when the fish are in between deep and shallow. A lot suspend around docks, standing timber and over deep water and they can be very tough to catch. I have personally seen Keven Van Dam, Jimbo and several other very good anglers get skunked. I consider my self a decent angler and it happens to me all to often. God humbles us all but that just makes those great days so much more enjoyable. I am sure I will be donating money to many more tournaments but I hope also to be blessed to be on the other end of that equation if it's His will. Last part of my rant-Make sure to write down and keep a fishing log because your learned something extremely important-You learned where and what the fish were not eating. Don't worry you will be back on them soon!
Blessings, Eric

 

[scwoody]

I had the same thing up north yesterday. The wife and I just ended up riding around enjoying the great weather.

 

[fishingguy61]

Everyone seemed to be getting skunked in Flat Creek on Saturday; at least striper fishermen. I gave up after an hour but talked to a couple guys who were there all day trolling without a bite. Think most of us tried trolling through a huge bait ball near the back of the creek with no luck.

 

[Buzz]

Give it about a month and you'll be in heaven catching piles of big spots. I agree with another poster who said they were tweeners right now. Between deep and shallow. I caught two really nice ones yesterday and a couple of dinks. It was still a very nice day to enjoy on the lake, big numbers or not.

 

[Klag]

Nobody at Wahoo Creek was catching anything either, except a few solo's here and there. 90% of the boats I talked to struck out.

Plenty of bait, no fish.

 

[tjwarbin]

The fish were looking at our baits laughing. Haha they said. We ate last night during the full moon!

 

[Scout'nStripers]

Yep, I think a lot has to do with the moon. We basically caught fish yesterday till the moon set around mid to late morning and then it was over. I think a lot of fish are feeding at night too.

 

[Scout'nStripers]

Nobody at Wahoo Creek was catching anything either, except a few solo's here and there. 90% of the boats I talked to struck out.

Plenty of bait, no fish.

Tons of bait in the back of Bald Ridge right now but very few to no bigger fish around the bait back there right now, just bucks.

 

[Troutman3000]

I think I saw 5 or more stripers over 30lbs caught this weekend. A lot of times flat creek may hold fish but they arent going to bite with 10 boats doing circles everywhere in it.

 

[Padderatz]

Same here two days and one spot ! But keep at it any day now. Wow 5 fish over 30 nice.

 

[Crustydemon]

Don't beat your self up too much. I have gotten skunked a couple of times recently. I feel that the bass on Lanier during late winter get caught in the 'tweens. That is what I call it when the fish are in between deep and shallow. A lot suspend around docks, standing timber and over deep water and they can be very tough to catch. I have personally seen Keven Van Dam, Jimbo and several other very good anglers get skunked. I consider my self a decent angler and it happens to me all to often. God humbles us all but that just makes those great days so much more enjoyable. I am sure I will be donating money to many more tournaments but I hope also to be blessed to be on the other end of that equation if it's His will. Last part of my rant-Make sure to write down and keep a fishing log because your learned something extremely important-You learned where and what the fish were not eating. Don't worry you will be back on them soon!
Blessings, Eric

Eric, I'd actually really like to fish with you sometime. I know your son, Mike, very well. He worked with me for about a year. Good Kid, very smart.

 

[Crustydemon]

Thanks for the replies guys. Day's like Saturday are brutal.

 

[PopPop]

Thanks for the replies guys. Day's like Saturday are brutal.

Yea, well I was painting the Dinning Room, so there.