Lake Lanier Fishing Reports » big stripers

Crappie/Striper Report January 27, 2012

doug — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:08:03 +0000

Fishing this week has been fantastic for crappie. I fished a half day yesterday with customer Earl and Trip Moore. We caught around 80 crappie. Our fish all hit tube jigs at 2-15 foot. depths. This action will continue on through to February. Water temps are still holding around 49-50 degrees which is perfect for winter crappie fishing. The Forecast for next week is still a mild forecast which should keep em biting. Lanier striper action has been a little slow. I caught a couple on urigs this week but the action is not what it was before the big rain. Some folks are still catching a few downlake fishing live trout on downrods. The areas on the North end of the lake that were holding fish have muddied up a bit and will take a few days to settle. I am heading up to Hartwell next week my guide buddy Preston Hardin has been tearing the stripers and hybrids up. We are going to Hartwell to check out that action. Hartwell is always about 3 degrees warmer than Lanier which is why they are still turned on up there. I will report back on our trips next week.

Striper/Crappie Report January 7, 2011

doug — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:05:53 +0000

The crappie action is on. I went out yesterday with buddie John Whimpy from J.W. trucks in Buford. We launched the boat around 10:00 a.m. and fished till around 3:30. We ended up with a little over 50 of the nicest crappie Ive seen come out of Lanier in a while. The size of the crappies have been much larger than average so far. Crappie sizes run in cycles from year to year and it seems like we ar gonna have lots of big ones this season. All of the fish caught hit tube jigs at 5-20 ft. depths. Striper fishing is still good also. With the mild winter this year water temps. are still hanging around 50 degrees which is good for winter striper action. Most the stripers are hitting u-rigs trolled through huge schools of bait in the main creek and river channels. Live trout and gizzard shad on planner boards and flatlines will produce striper now also. Fishing patterns should remain the same through January. Dont miss the action.

Striper Report November 28, 2011

doug — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:47:30 +0000

Striper actions is still good on south end of Lanier. Usually November and December the stripers start to migrate up the Lake and concentrate in the Gainesville areas of Lake Lanier. This year things seems a little different as we are seeing most of the fish now below Browns Bridge and as far south as Baldridge Creek.

Plannerboarding and freelining large live trout are taking the stripers quite well. If you can get gizzards they will produce good action also. To locate the stripers now look for loons working in the schools of bait and seagulls feeding on the surfacing schools of bait. This pattern should continue on into December but I look for the North end to turn on soon.

Crappie has still been good. We have been averaging around 50 fish on a trip. I will be out later this week and will report back soon.

Striper / Crappie Report November 17, 2011

doug — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:10:06 +0000

Striper action on Lanier is starting to improve. Its been a tough month for the stripers as the lake is still in the turnover stage. As the water temps drop into the mid 50′s the stripers should get more predictable and move into the main creeks on the upper end of Lanier.

This week I have seen lots of schooling action in the afternoons. This weeks overcast days triggered surface feeding stripers. Keep an eye out for the birds and loons to locate areas stripers are holding in. I saw some of the best schooling action Ive seen all fall yesterday afternoon before this front came in. The fish stayed up for hours schooling. We manage to catch 4 good fish out of the schooling fish that were in the 10 pound range. The fish were really keyed in on small threadfin shad and they were tough to hook up. We finally boated 2 stripers on zara spooks and a couple others on planner boards with live trout. It was good to see so many fish again. It was fun to watch them in a frenzy even though they were finicky.

Crappie have started to bite a little bit. I usually never fish for them until around January but heard some reports of some good catches. Went out last week one day for the crappies and boated around 50 or so which is not bad for November.

I will be back out the rest of the week and will report back soon.

Striper Report July 18, 2011

doug — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:24:50 +0000

Fishing for stripers is at its peak. We are catching big stripers and big numbers. We boated one fish last week that weighed right at 30 pounds and had several days that we boated over 30 fish. Live Bluebacks fished at 60-80 ft. depths are producing the best for the stripes. Today was a little tough because of dropping water temps. from last weekends freak cold front. We managed to boat around 10 good fish but we had to search a little harder today to locate active schools. The warmer weather expected this week will get the stripers right back to biting. I have been running morning and afternoon trips and will do so through September. We have been having a good morning bite starting around 9:00 a.m. to noon. Activity has been very good in the afternoons also when power generations starts at Buford Dam. The water release will always trigger a afternoon feed so make sure to check generation times with the Corps of Engineers office at 770-945-1466. Dont miss the great summer action.

Striper/Bass Report April 18, 2011

doug — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:11:47 +0000

Striper activity is picking up. The last 4 day’s we have seen the striper action really start to kick in. The best pattern has been flatlining live bluebacks on main lake points. I have also been catching big strings of spotted bass on the bluebacks . During April and May you will find the spots and stripers holding at the same depths , also in the same areas. We have been catching 5-8 spots for every striper we hook up on but thats still a lot of fun with all the action. This flatline pattern will continue on into late May. Next month we should see topwater action begin. Redfins and spooks on main lake points and humps will be the pattern. When main lake water temps get into the mid to upper 60′s it’s time to start chunking the big topwaters. I will be out the rest of the week and will report back soon. Don’t miss the spring action.

Striper/Crappie Report March 20, 2011

doug — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:50:41 +0000

Striper action is heating up on Lanier. Most of the action this past month has been late evening and night with long A bombers and Mcstick jerk baits. Although last week day time action picked up. For the stripers try flatlining live bluebacks back in the creeks. All the fish will be shallow this time of year. You need to drag your baits right up on the banks for best results. This pattern will continue to get better as we get away from the full moon. You might want to keep a small 1/4 ounce bucktail or a small pearle zoom fluke rigged on a 1/4 ounce lead head. Cast this bait right up on the bank and swim it back to the boat as your dragging your flatlines. Besides catching stripers you will catch some huge spots casting the jigs this time on year. You will find stripers and big spots mixed in the same depth range. Crappie fishing is still fantastic. I had 2 crappie trips last week and we boated around 100 fish each day with some really nice size slabs. All the crappie hit small hal flies and tube jigs in 2-3 ft. of water. The water temp. last week was pushing into the high 50′s which will get the crappie loaded up in the backs of the creeks to spawn. We saw water temps as high as 60 degrees late in the afternoons last week. I look for the crappie to spawn on the next new or full moon. the water temps are right. I will be on the lake tomorrow and will report back soon. Don’t miss out on this spring action. Give us a call and Let’s go Fishing!!! 770-945-0797

Crappie/Striper Report March 7, 2011

doug — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:54:54 +0000

Headed out to Lake Hartwell Tuesday after receiving a good report from my buddy Preston Hardin who guides on Hartwell. Monday Preston caught around 40 stripers and hybrids in mixed schoolslate Monday afternoon. We got up on Hartwell around 10.30 a.m. and tried to crappie fish first. Preston said all the striper action has been late in the afternoon so we decided to give the crappie a try with no luck at all. The creeks where we have been catching the crappies have all muddied up, you could track coons in the backs of the creeks they were so muddy. We tried to look for crappie in other areas of the lake but no action. All the crappies are in the backs of the creeks on Hartwell and that’s where all the mud has come in from last weeks rain. The crappie action should kick back in after the water settles which usually takes 3-5 day’s. Around 2:00 p.m. we went out on the main river and saw gulls starting to work small schools of stripers and hybrids. We ended up catching around 15 hybrids and stripers in the 3-5 pound range. We hooked a couple of good stripers that we never turned. we even caught one largemouth around 7 pounds and several others around 4-5 lbs.All the stripers hit 1/4 ounce bucktails and 1/4 ounnce lead heads with small zoom pearle flukes. I will be on Lanier tomorrow and will report back then. Will be interesting to see what all the rain did to Lanier. At least we have a full lake.

Crappie Striper Report February 28, 2010

doug — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:37:55 +0000

Crappie fishing is still excellent. Fished a half day charter last Saturday and boated around 65 fish with some really nice ones. The crappie are starting to move back into the creeks around blowdowns where they will so0n spawn when the water temps and moon phase lines up. Had a good trip to Hartwell last week also catching around 70 up there. The Hartwell crappie were a little smaller than we have been catching. We got into a few Hybrids also last Thursday afternoon. I met up with my guide buddy Preston Hardin for a few hours that afternoon and we boated around 13 hybrids casting bucktails up on windy clay banks. This is a pattern that will last through march up on Lake Hartwell. Lanier stripers are starting to come alive last weekend Greg Shoemake from Bass Pro Shop landed a striper while throwing a crankbait for bass that looked to weigh in the mid 40′s. Seems like a bass fisherman are always catching the lake record stripers. The last two prior records were caught by anglers while casting bass lures. Will be out on crappie trip tomorrow and will report back soon.

Crappie/Striper Report February 8, 2011

doug — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:40:11 +0000

Fished a full day charter today with ol buddy Ron Lindley from UPS. We chased the crappie all day with ok success. We ended up keeping 56 crappie and probably boated around 60 or so. I thought Lanier might be a little muddy after the weekend rain but lake conditions were not that bad. Further up the Chestatee and Chattahochee rivers, conditions were to muddy to fish but withing 3-5 days the stained watter will settle and conditions will be prime to catch large numbers of crappie. Lanier was actually getting a little to clear which makes crappie a little spooky and harder to catch. We boated all our crappie on 1/32 oz. tube jigs and caught most of the fish as deep as 30 ft. These fish wont stay at these depths much longer as the daylight hours increase the crappie will begin to pull up even in this years cold temperatures. Length of daylight has as much to do with turning on the fish as warmer water temps.

Striper action has been slow. Just a very few fish have been reported caught dragging live bait or trolling urigs. Won’t be long though spring is just around the corner. I think we can look forward to a fantastic spring as some of the best fishing I’ve experienced have been after a extremly cold winter like we had this year. I will be out later this week and will report back soon.