Lake Lanier Fishing Reports

Striper Report April 26, 2012

doug — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:44:36 +0000

Fishing for stripers this month has been excellent although this week has been very tough due to extreme 35-40 mph winds we have been having. I had to cancel several trips due to windy conditions. Most of the stripers are being caught flatlining live herring. Gizzard shad are taking some big fish also on planner boards and flatlines. I have caught a few fish on shallow downlines putting the bait down about 20 feet deep. Topwater action should start soon. The temperatures are starting to warm up after the cold front that came in last week. The front dropped the water temps to around 66 which slowed down topwater action. They were starting to hit surfacebaits last week before the weather changed. I will be out Friday and Saturday and will report back soon. Check out the new photos of this months charters.

Striper/Crappie Report March 15, 2012

doug — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:55:02 +0000

Striper action is getting better everyday. I went out yesterday and saw lots of moving fish under the birds in the mid lake area. They were a little finicky, we ended up boating 2 good fish in the 15 pound range. We hooked up on the stripers with bluebacks on a long flatline. We caught some huge spots also mixed in with the stripers. Fish are really moving up with the warm temps. Keep a fluke on a light jig head ready to cast into the schools, you can hook up on em when you see em working on surface. A buddy of mine boated 4 yesterday casting flukes on 3/8 ounce lead heads. Water temps yesterday were in the upper 50′s which should get the redfin bite going soon.

Crappie action is still on fire. We fished yesterday for about 2 hours and boated around 60 fish. They are moving back in the creeks and should be spawning soon if the weather stays warm. Then you will look for them around blowdowns in the backs of the creeks.

Im heading out for Oconee this morning to see if we can catch some huge lake Oconee crappie. I hear it is good there also. I will report back soon.

Crappie/Striper Report February 28, 2012

doug — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:59:11 +0000

The crappie action is still on . We have been catching around 80-100 fish a day with a few up around the 1 pound range.Very light jigs are producing the best. You can get em on minnows if you like to get your hands wet. Crappie action should continue on into mid to late March.

Stripers are starting up a bit, there have been some monsters caught in the past week. Last week on a trip with customer Bill Thornton, Bill landed a striper in the upper teens caught on a small bucktail jig. Larry from Oakwood bait and tackle caught his largest striper from Lanier that weighed 38 pounds. Larry said that fish struck a 2 pound gizzard shad. Other good stripers in the mid to upper 20,s were reported caught last week. Most of the stripers are hitting live bait on flatlines and planner boards. All areas of the lake seem to be holding fish. Anglers are taking fish downlake as well as up on the north end. Stripers seem to be scattered throughout the entire lake right now. Some night action has been reported on long A bombers. I will be out later this week and will report back soon.

Winter Time Striper Trolling on Lake Lanier

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:31:07 +0000

Check out this video of a recent trip on Lanier. The trolling action has been excellent this winter!

Crappie/Striper Report February 20,2012

doug — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:40:13 +0000

Crappie fishing remains excellent. Fish still think its spring time with the warmer February we’ve experienced. We are having 80-100 fish catches on the crappie most days. All the crappie are holding at 6 ft. depths and shallower hitting light weighted tube jigs. Last Saturday we got into some stripers fishing trout on downrods at 40-50 ft. depths. This is kind of a unusual pattern for this time of year but we saw huge schools of fish deep holding at 50 ft. The best action was late Saturday afternoons from around 4:00 p.m. till we quit around 6:00 p.m. We saw some really large schools on the sonar but had to sit on the fish a while until they got fired up to bit. The stripers we caught were very good fish in the 14-18 pound range. I will be out this week and will report back soon.

Crappie Report February 2, 2012

doug — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:12:56 +0000

Just got in from fishing at Lake Hartwell the past 2 days. One of the best crappie fishing experiences Ive had in a while. We caught around 300 crappie in 2 days with some monsters. The warm weather has got em on fire. We had quite a few in the pound and a half range. Water temps were up to around 52 degrees back in the creeks which is 12 degrees warmer than this time last year. We caught all our fish on small tube jigs fishing at 1-6 foot depths. I am heading back up next week and will report back. Dont miss this action. Still have some dates available. Give us a shout. 770-945-0797 or email fishlanier@fishlanier.com

Crappie/Striper Report January30, 2012

doug — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:35:43 +0000

Went crappie fishing yesterday with customer Mark Hey. Fishing was excellent. We boated well over 100 fish with a few in the pount range. Most were just good hand size crappies, excellent eating . The water temperature was 50 degrees yesterday which is around 10 degrees warmer than it was last year at this same time. We are really into a march pattern on the crappie with the water temps as warm as they are. Heading back out today on another crappie fishing trip on Lanier. I am gonna try to get up to Hartwell Wednesday. My buddy Preston Hardin is still getting into the stripers and hybrids up there. Catching some good crappie on Hartwell also. Will report back soon.

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 Report January 16, 2012

doug — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:41:05 +0000

Went striper fishing today with customer Jeff Furlong. We had a good day boating 12 sripers in the 8-15 pound range. All our stripers hit umbrella rigs trolled at 15-18 ft. depths. We had good action from around 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. with a lull in the middle of the day. Later that afternoon around 4:00 – 5:30 we hit em again. The water temperatures are holding in the high 40′s to low 50′s which is perfect for umbrella action. In this water temperature range the umbrella will really trigger a lot of strikes. I saw a couple of guys catch a few stripers on bait but urigs seem to produce the best right now. Look for feeding seagulls to put you in the areas the stripers are holding. They are as reliable as a good sonar unit. If you can plan your fishing around these winter fronts coming in you can really smack em good. My best days the past few weeks have been the day before the winter system arrives. On a couple of trips in the last few weeks we boated over 20 stripers the day before the fronts hit. Crappie are still biting very good. January and February is a great time to fill your cooler with good tasting slabs. I will be out later this week and will report back soon.

Striper Report January 9, 2011

doug — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:13:41 +0000

Went out yesterday with Pastor Billy Woods and friends on a full day striper trip. Striper action was excellent . We caught lots of fish and quite a few good ones. The largest we boated yesterday was around 15 pounds. Most fish averaged in the 6-10 pound range but we fought one monster fish for several minutes but got slack in the line and he shook off. Got to keep steady pressure on stripers when hooked on u rigs. With all the weight of the rig they can shake the hook easily and also the urigs will tear the hook out of there mouth if you horse em to much. I think we ended up with around 19 stripers. Water temperatures yesterday ranged from 49-51 degrees. That is perfect for urig action. This pattern should continue on into late January if we don’t have any extreme weather. I will be out today and will report back later this week.