King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah
Fishing ? Instructor!
Hey y'all, here's what I could put together from the last handful of trips on Lanier.
Water Temp: Mid 60's
Water Clarity: Clear to stained (3-4ft main lake, about 2-3ft up the creeks)
Water Color: Green
Depth: Up to 25ft-35ft
Spotted Bass: spots are somewhat scattered, but there are some real numbers of them setting up on points, humps and running bait up the backs of creeks. Seems like they're on shad, as I haven't come across any herring. Some downright MASSIVE schools of shad are up the creeks right now and you can bet if you find the bait, you've found the fish. There's a decent morning and evening topwater bite when fish start busting, namely on smaller size Spooks and poppers. Full size models will not get you bit quite as much. As always, finesse fishing is doing numbers too. A drop shot, shaky head or wacky rig is always a good bet year round on Lanier. Strangely, it seems these fish are biting fast moving reaction baits though more than slow moving finesse baits, so all you power fishermen should be kept real happy. Fish are both shallow around cover and deep offshore. So long as there's bait you can pretty much choose how you want to fish. Want bigger fish? Go offshore and drop jigging spoons, deep cranks or drop shot. Shallow fishing, throw medium diving crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwater and shaky heads. Burning a mini-me spinnerbait is effective too. It's a hidden weight spinnerbait that weights 1/2 to 3/4oz but it's the size of a 1/4 oz. Perfect for spotted bass. There's also a decent night time bite. No topwater action after dark really, but some good fish coming on jigs and worms.
Here's some of the better producing lures for me lately -
Crankbaits: Norman DD, 6th Sense Curve 55, lucky craft LV 500
Jerkbaits: Megabass Vision 110
Worms: Zoom Trick Worm, Lanier baits fruity worms
Swimbaits: keitech swing impact FAT 2.8 and 3.8 on a dirty jigs guppy head in 1/4oz and 3/8oz
As far as colors go, any shad or natural patterns will get you bit. The only exception is the worms and sometimes chartreuse over white on crankbaits. They're biting darker shades of purple and also green pumpkin with chartreuse dye tipped on the tails. I prefer chartreuse JJ's magic tipped on a green pumpkin magic zoom swamp crawler myself. Pro blue red pearl or threadfin shad for the swimbaits. Any shad pattern for the reaction baits, but on the jerkbait, the flashier the better! If you're using lucky craft, try American Shad color.
Largemouth Bass: If you're looking for largemouth, they're holding onto shallow cover like docks, trees, riprap and brush up in the backs of pockets and creeks off the main lake. Without a doubt the best lure has been a white double willow blade spinnerbait fished around shallow cover. The spinnerbait must have both a gold and silver blade on it. The secondary bait has been a missile baits D bomb in super bug on a flipping rig. As many of you know, I enjoy using big swimbaits for big largemouth and I brought the Swimbait rod with me a few times. I got some big followers and had about a 4 pound largemouth follow a big bait all the way to my feet right on the shoreline at the boat ramp, so they're definitely aggressive and interested in feeding. I will say however that the largemouth are relating better to wood than rock at this time.
Crappie: The crappie are holding on brush piles in 25ft or shallower on points and on shoreline brush up the backs of creeks. A Bobby garland or strike king Mr Crappie bait under a bobber got some strikes but I'm positive if you're on a boat you can sit right on top of them and catch a bunch. Try this rig- buy a pack of standout drop shot hooks in size 6. Black nickel because the red ones are normally painted over and dull, and will interfere with your hookup ratio. They look a little funny and have an "R" bend like a spinnerbait. You're going to tie to that bend and leave about 2-3ft of tag end and run that through the eye of the hook. Then, tie on either an 1/8oz marabou jig or jig head and plastic combo (stock up on yellow marabou jigs and monkey milk color plastics) and bait that drop shot hook at the top with a live minnow. Fish this vertically at or just above the level of the crappie and I can promise you'll get bites! If they quit, locate another school and repeat this process. After you've found a few schools you can establish a milk run of spots and bounce from place to place until you have a well full of slabs.
Linesides: Striper and white bass are also up the creeks and on points pushing bait. I stuck a few on a jerkbait while bass fishing and found some more with a spoon offshore. The difference here is that they aren't cover oriented and are strictly after the bait. IF YOU DON'T SEE BAITFISH, DON'T STOP TO FISH. If you have side scan, run along the edges of the channels or around steep points until you find bait. The baitfish are critical. When you find them, drop a downline, vertical jig, or troll. If they're busting on top you have a short window to get to them before they quit. A long casting topwater plug like a heddon one-knocker Spook gets bit. They'll also grab flukes, but you need to fish them on spinning gear to get the casting distance. Insert a nail weight in a fluke to get more distance and faster sink if you need to. If they're on top and you can reach them, cast it weightless, reel it quickly to the surface and jiggle the rod tip. This makes the fluke skip on the surface like a fleeing baitfish and will draw some CRUSHING strikes!
I may post some pictures here from the last 2 or 3 trips to show a few things as well. Happy fishing!
Water Temp: Mid 60's
Water Clarity: Clear to stained (3-4ft main lake, about 2-3ft up the creeks)
Water Color: Green
Depth: Up to 25ft-35ft
Spotted Bass: spots are somewhat scattered, but there are some real numbers of them setting up on points, humps and running bait up the backs of creeks. Seems like they're on shad, as I haven't come across any herring. Some downright MASSIVE schools of shad are up the creeks right now and you can bet if you find the bait, you've found the fish. There's a decent morning and evening topwater bite when fish start busting, namely on smaller size Spooks and poppers. Full size models will not get you bit quite as much. As always, finesse fishing is doing numbers too. A drop shot, shaky head or wacky rig is always a good bet year round on Lanier. Strangely, it seems these fish are biting fast moving reaction baits though more than slow moving finesse baits, so all you power fishermen should be kept real happy. Fish are both shallow around cover and deep offshore. So long as there's bait you can pretty much choose how you want to fish. Want bigger fish? Go offshore and drop jigging spoons, deep cranks or drop shot. Shallow fishing, throw medium diving crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwater and shaky heads. Burning a mini-me spinnerbait is effective too. It's a hidden weight spinnerbait that weights 1/2 to 3/4oz but it's the size of a 1/4 oz. Perfect for spotted bass. There's also a decent night time bite. No topwater action after dark really, but some good fish coming on jigs and worms.
Here's some of the better producing lures for me lately -
Crankbaits: Norman DD, 6th Sense Curve 55, lucky craft LV 500
Jerkbaits: Megabass Vision 110
Worms: Zoom Trick Worm, Lanier baits fruity worms
Swimbaits: keitech swing impact FAT 2.8 and 3.8 on a dirty jigs guppy head in 1/4oz and 3/8oz
As far as colors go, any shad or natural patterns will get you bit. The only exception is the worms and sometimes chartreuse over white on crankbaits. They're biting darker shades of purple and also green pumpkin with chartreuse dye tipped on the tails. I prefer chartreuse JJ's magic tipped on a green pumpkin magic zoom swamp crawler myself. Pro blue red pearl or threadfin shad for the swimbaits. Any shad pattern for the reaction baits, but on the jerkbait, the flashier the better! If you're using lucky craft, try American Shad color.
Largemouth Bass: If you're looking for largemouth, they're holding onto shallow cover like docks, trees, riprap and brush up in the backs of pockets and creeks off the main lake. Without a doubt the best lure has been a white double willow blade spinnerbait fished around shallow cover. The spinnerbait must have both a gold and silver blade on it. The secondary bait has been a missile baits D bomb in super bug on a flipping rig. As many of you know, I enjoy using big swimbaits for big largemouth and I brought the Swimbait rod with me a few times. I got some big followers and had about a 4 pound largemouth follow a big bait all the way to my feet right on the shoreline at the boat ramp, so they're definitely aggressive and interested in feeding. I will say however that the largemouth are relating better to wood than rock at this time.
Crappie: The crappie are holding on brush piles in 25ft or shallower on points and on shoreline brush up the backs of creeks. A Bobby garland or strike king Mr Crappie bait under a bobber got some strikes but I'm positive if you're on a boat you can sit right on top of them and catch a bunch. Try this rig- buy a pack of standout drop shot hooks in size 6. Black nickel because the red ones are normally painted over and dull, and will interfere with your hookup ratio. They look a little funny and have an "R" bend like a spinnerbait. You're going to tie to that bend and leave about 2-3ft of tag end and run that through the eye of the hook. Then, tie on either an 1/8oz marabou jig or jig head and plastic combo (stock up on yellow marabou jigs and monkey milk color plastics) and bait that drop shot hook at the top with a live minnow. Fish this vertically at or just above the level of the crappie and I can promise you'll get bites! If they quit, locate another school and repeat this process. After you've found a few schools you can establish a milk run of spots and bounce from place to place until you have a well full of slabs.
Linesides: Striper and white bass are also up the creeks and on points pushing bait. I stuck a few on a jerkbait while bass fishing and found some more with a spoon offshore. The difference here is that they aren't cover oriented and are strictly after the bait. IF YOU DON'T SEE BAITFISH, DON'T STOP TO FISH. If you have side scan, run along the edges of the channels or around steep points until you find bait. The baitfish are critical. When you find them, drop a downline, vertical jig, or troll. If they're busting on top you have a short window to get to them before they quit. A long casting topwater plug like a heddon one-knocker Spook gets bit. They'll also grab flukes, but you need to fish them on spinning gear to get the casting distance. Insert a nail weight in a fluke to get more distance and faster sink if you need to. If they're on top and you can reach them, cast it weightless, reel it quickly to the surface and jiggle the rod tip. This makes the fluke skip on the surface like a fleeing baitfish and will draw some CRUSHING strikes!
I may post some pictures here from the last 2 or 3 trips to show a few things as well. Happy fishing!
