Late Summer Lanier Report with pics & video

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Last Sunday my wife and I got out for a little morning run. My motor was acting up so we just focused on fishing the shallow stuff in the back of the creek around the house. We started out with squarebills and shakeyhead but wound up catching our fish on the weightless fluke and a little custom whopper plopper I made. We caught some nice fish in less that 10 feet of water in the backs of pockets and around deep rock. I included a picture of a double we caught to end the day.

Yesterday I had to Trailer the boat to do some maintenance so I made a little circle around the creek about noon before trailering. I wanted to throw the whopper plopper on some points and take a good look at the new natural blueback swimbait. Both baits did well and I noticed a lot more larger aggressive fish and schooling fish for being midday. I was only on the water for a couple hours but still found a few. It was blistering hot but the fish were still coming up here and there. They were chasing smaller baits mostly but a couple of the bass I caught yakked up bigger herring about the size of the swimbait I was throwing. Here's my biggest 2 from the run. The bass in the third pic was caught on a little custom blueback whopper plopper ko and the largemouth in the 4th pic ate the natural blueback swimbait. I put a little video of both fish and the baits I was using in the comments section. Basically the water is slowly cooling but the fish including some nice bass are over deeper water and staying down in the thermocline for the time being. The last picture I included was taken a little over a week ago as I crossed the creek channel in Bald Ridge creek. You can clearly see the top of the thermocline by where the bait pods are suspended. This time of year the bait usually positions at the top of the thermocline. As the days get shorter and the water gets cooler that bait you see in the picture will slowly rise to the surface. Usually around mid Oct.

Also, we still have a few openings for the upcoming "Masterminds" bass seminar with your choice of tomorrow evening and Saturday morning. This is a three hour sit down with myself, Jimbo on Lanier and Lanier Jim for a small limited seating round table discussion on how the three of us approach early fall through winter. We each have our own tactics and we'll be sharing these tactics to help with your fall fishing on Lanier. You can message me for more info on the seminar. There will be a lot of good info being covered to prep you for winter on Lanier. Here's a few pics and a little video I made yesterday.
double.jpgplopper1.jpg20190905115006 (1) (2).jpg20190905115006 (1) (3).jpggraph.jpg
 
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ethosb

Member
Having never fished Lanier I plan on taking my 15 yo son there this weekend. We live near Allatoona, but want to fish something different. Any recommendations of what area to bass fish and where we should put in? It is a very large area to dial in 1st time out. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Having never fished Lanier I plan on taking my 15 yo son there this weekend. We live near Allatoona, but want to fish something different. Any recommendations of what area to bass fish and where we should put in? It is a very large area to dial in 1st time out. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian
Twenty years ago I lived over near Allatoona and would drive over to Six Mile Creek and launch at Charleston park here on Lanier. I live on Bald Ridge creek on the south end of Lanier now. Lanier is big and daunting but if you just break it down to a creek and learn that one creek, later on when you start ranging out you'll find that most creeks on Lanier fish the same and there are plenty of fish in every creek. You more than likely don't have any structure or brushpile waypoints marked on the lake so I would just suggest hitting the points in Six Mile creek early with the topwater baits like a whopper plopper, walking bait or buzzbait. Maybe even a surface popper. Maybe have one of ya'll throwing topwater and the other throwing some kind of small swimbait type of lure. something that swims subsurface. Another good choice is just like my wife and I did and beat the banks back in the pockets around rocks with a nose hooked weightless fluke or a buzzbait or whopper plopper. Since it's going to be hot the lake will probably start getting crowded around noon or before but if you get out early you can probably find a few. Just break it down to one creek and learn it. One other thing that will help is watching for surface activity. Bass are starting to school on bait and chase it to the surface. If you see surface activity definitely fish that area. There are some carp that are breaching and that can fool you but when you see bass chasing bait on the surface you can tell the difference because usually there's a bait skipping across the surface in front of the bass. Fun stuff to watch.

If you take hwy 20 east, jump on 369 and that will take you right to Hammonds crossing and Hammonds Fishing Center. They'll have tackle and info if you stop in there and Charleston Park is just down the road if you stay on hwy 369.
 
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RamblinWreck

Senior Member
Great info, as usual!
 

ethosb

Member
Twenty years ago I lived over near Allatoona and would drive over to Six Mile Creek and launch at Charleston park here on Lanier. I live on Bald Ridge creek on the south end of Lanier now. Lanier is big and daunting but if you just break it down to a creek and learn that one creek, later on when you start ranging out you'll find that most creeks on Lanier fish the same and there are plenty of fish in every creek. You more than likely don't have any structure or brushpile waypoints marked on the lake so I would just suggest hitting the points in Six Mile creek early with the topwater baits like a whopper plopper, walking bait or buzzbait. Maybe even a surface popper. Maybe have one of ya'll throwing topwater and the other throwing some kind of small swimbait type of lure. something that swims subsurface. Another good choice is just like my wife and I did and beat the banks back in the pockets around rocks with a nose hooked weightless fluke or a buzzbait or whopper plopper. Since it's going to be hot the lake will probably start getting crowded around noon or before but if you get out early you can probably find a few. Just break it down to one creek and learn it. One other thing that will help is watching for surface activity. Bass are starting to school on bait and chase it to the surface. If you see surface activity definitely fish that area. There are some carp that are breaching and that can fool you but when you see bass chasing bait on the surface you can tell the difference because usually there's a bait skipping across the surface in front of the bass. Fun stuff to watch.

If you take hwy 20 east, jump on 369 and that will take you right to Hammonds crossing and Hammonds Fishing Center. They'll have tackle and info if you stop in there and Charleston Park is just down the road if you stay on hwy 369.

Great info to have. I was just looking at Charleston Park as our launch site. We will be there early and it would seem to fish just as we do on Allatoona this time of year. We will likely fish until my son is done or it gets too hot. We usually go until 1 or so, then we let the skiers have it. Will venture out a bit to get some familiarity, but will stick to creeks, banks, docks, and points near deep water and see how it goes. If you are out and about, we will be in a red/white Ranger with a Merc. I will be the fat guy on the bow with a 15 y/o on the back. Would love to say hello and thanks.

Thank,
Brian
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Great info to have. I was just looking at Charleston Park as our launch site. We will be there early and it would seem to fish just as we do on Allatoona this time of year. We will likely fish until my son is done or it gets too hot. We usually go until 1 or so, then we let the skiers have it. Will venture out a bit to get some familiarity, but will stick to creeks, banks, docks, and points near deep water and see how it goes. If you are out and about, we will be in a red/white Ranger with a Merc. I will be the fat guy on the bow with a 15 y/o on the back. Would love to say hello and thanks.

Thank,
Brian
I have a black and white Ranger with a merc on it but unfortunately instead of fishing I'll be speaking at a bass seminar for Lake Lanier all morning. Not quite as much fun as fishing but sharing knowledge is always a good thing. Good luck and let us know how ya'll did.
 

ethosb

Member
Update: We launched at Charelston Park and fish both in Six Mile Creek and out in the main channel until the ski boats came out. We caught 6. Biggest was about 3 pounds (Largemouth). White fluke and shad square bill crankbait were the baits of choice. Missed a few as well. All off ledges or rip wrap in shadows. Thanks for the info, will definitely hit it again, probably on the North end next time.
 
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