Trolling with Crazy Boat Traffic on Lanier

LittleDrummerBoy

Senior Member
Between the wind and the boat traffic, keeping the boat trolling over 40-55 feet of water was challenging yesterday afternoon. Fish are finally moving up in the water column, but deeper and shallower areas were a wasteland by comparison with where most of the fish were. We caught all our bass 20 ft down on Michigan Stinger Spoons. The other anglers were very well behaved and presented no problems. But the wake boats, ski boats, jet skis, and other pleasure vessels both bounced us around an awful lot and forced us to deviate from our preferred contours an awful lot. Surface temperature was 71 deg F. Topwater action was absent in the upper reaches of FC, but seemed to be getting started between FC3 and FC8.

On the whole, fishing yesterday morning would have been much more fun, but my wife and I wanted to see Tim Tebow speaking at Free Chapel, and I'm glad we did. The next couple weeks look to be excellent on Lanier, if you can avoid times of crazy boat traffic and heavy rain. Me? I'll be checking out the Frogg Toggs.

 

hopper

Senior Member
It can get pretty rowdy eith traffic and wind. Have you considered not trolling ? it does have its benefits when move ability is an issue.
 

LittleDrummerBoy

Senior Member
It can get pretty rowdy eith traffic and wind. Have you considered not trolling ? it does have its benefits when move ability is an issue.

I still fish with bait some times. Elbow and shoulder issues keep me from still fishing with lures, since I can't cast and retrieve for hours on end. Still fishing with bait was very productive in April and May deep enough in the coves to avoid most fast boat traffic. I tend to prefer trolling when there are more fish in open water, since it covers more water and is cheaper (no bait to buy).
 
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