Cranking staging bass on Lanier w/video & pics added

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
If you check out this months GON magazine I did an article about staging bass and cranking in Feb. I also included 10 of my favorite waypoints for staging bass in Feb. Yesterday I got a chance to do a little crankbaiting for stagers on Lanier with my good friend Jimbo Mathley. Here's a little video I put together. Enjoy!
 
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Cletus T.

Senior Member
Very nice Jim………….thanks for sharing!

Your crankbaits sure do fool them Lanier bass!!!
 

jocko755

Senior Member
Awesome as usual.

I have come to the conclusion that you have to be named "Jim" to really catch anything on Lanier. (Lanier Jim, Jimbo, Jim Farmer). I think I'll change my name, maybe that will help.

How long will this pattern hold?

Sure is quite a different lake during the week. Sure wish I was retired! That was a mess of fine looking spots! Nice job.
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Very nice Jim………….thanks for sharing!

Your crankbaits sure do fool them Lanier bass!!!
Thanks Cletus. A lot of trial and error went into figuring out those colors.

Awesome as usual.

I have come to the conclusion that you have to be named "Jim" to really catch anything on Lanier. (Lanier Jim, Jimbo, Jim Farmer). I think I'll change my name, maybe that will help.

How long will this pattern hold?

Sure is quite a different lake during the week. Sure wish I was retired! That was a mess of fine looking spots! Nice job.
Thanks Jocko! I believe the name "Jimko" may be available....LOL

This pattern should hold through the shad spawn and beyond in April. I caught them on the 1.5 shad crank even after the bass spawn and the big girls were moving out onto main lake humps last year. You can check my blog reports for last year and I think I made a YouTube video or two during the 1.5 bite.
 

borntorun

Member
How did u do in the Bfl Saturday. Are you fishing the Flw next week if so good luck. I hope to get down to Lanier soon. Looks like there biting
 

red neck richie

Senior Member
Awesome video. I cant believe how fat they are. I will be on Lanier this weekend for sure. Charging batteries right now. Thanks for sharing.
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
How did u do in the Bfl Saturday. Are you fishing the Flw next week if so good luck. I hope to get down to Lanier soon. Looks like there biting
I did not do well. For the two days leading up to the BFL I caught good limits on a 5 arm a-rig with 3 hooks and 2 short wire dummies on the shady side of docks. I stuck with that custom rig all day Saturday and bombed on docks. It only put 2 in the boat. They just wouldn't commit to the rig in clear water on Sat. I beat myself up pretty good and also got beat up by several of my friends. Why would I do an article on cranking staging bass in Feb. and then throw an a-rig all day in the BFL??? I never even threw a crank on Saturday. It's going to take a while to get over that mistake.

I'm headed down to Louisiana next week to meet my son for his birthday and chase redfish for 4 days in the marsh so I won't be here for the FLW.

Give me a shout if you head down this way soon and I'll help if I can.

I didn't take many pictures last week while a-rig fishing but here's a few I caught on the a-rig.
 

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Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
You post some great videos Jim! Those were some big bellied spots.
Thanks Papa Bear...These staging fish gorge themselves on anything that moves in these staging areas. If you look overhead you'll see that big ole moon out there. A big moon in Feb. means big girls moving up shallow. It's like I have said before...after all, they are eating for thousands of eggs.
 
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61BelAir

Senior Member
Great video.

Twice in the last couple months I've been blessed to get on a decent school and catching numbers of fish on a squarebill and thought: "This is finally the time I can catch some on the A-rig!!!"

Wrong!!! Both times I couldn't get a nibble at it. The first time it took a few minutes after putting it down and going back to the squarebill to start catching again. The second time it completely shut down the school. :banginghe
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Great video.

Twice in the last couple months I've been blessed to get on a decent school and catching numbers of fish on a squarebill and thought: "This is finally the time I can catch some on the A-rig!!!"

Wrong!!! Both times I couldn't get a nibble at it. The first time it took a few minutes after putting it down and going back to the squarebill to start catching again. The second time it completely shut down the school. :banginghe
I can say this about the a-rig. It works a lot better if the water is a little stained. I fished it in clear water Saturday and it got plenty of attention. I was using fluke jr trailers and the fish bit off at least 3 tails which tells me they were short striking it....which tells me they had it figured out. I ran back up north with an hour left before the weigh in and we hit a row of docks in semi-stained water and I put 2 in the boat right away. I just ran out of time. I spent to much time down south in the clear water.
 

Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
More cranking fish from today

Here's a few cranking fish from rock piles on the south end today. Water temps have cooled down to 54 and a lot of the fish that were shallow a week ago have pulled back out. Today there were 150+ boats from the FLW pro's that were practicing and there were 110+ boats in a high school tourney. Needless to say the lake was a little busy.
 

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Scout'nStripers

Senior Member
Hey saw you on the cover of my GON congratulations and keep sharing the knowledge brother!!!
I appreciate it. As long as these fish keep biting I'll keep sharing.:flag:
 

TroyBoy30

Senior Member
couldn't buy a bite on a crank sunday, but I did wack em on the jerkbait. caught a 5 pound largie in front of one of the flw guys. he said he be back in there this weekend lol
 

BassRaider

Senior Member
Normally, I fish the north end but decided to fish south. Put in at Shoal Creek around 9:30 and left at 1:30. 5 bites and 3 fish on 3 different lures. Smallest fish was 2.6 and largest was 3.4. Good quality just couldn't locate. When I left, my buddy in his boat didn't even have a bite. It's good to know someone (Scout) has 'em figured out.
Last Tuesday on the north end, we had 21 w/9 decent keepers in the dirty water.
 
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