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.
Posted in big stripers, crappie, late winter
Tags: afternoon, bucktails, buddy, crappies, first preston, fish, lake, lake hartwell, Report, striper action
Crappie fishing still excellent on Lanier. Crappie are moving into the backs of the creeks. Look for large blowdowns back in the stained creeks and fish hal flies or minnows around 2 feet under a cork.. You have to search a little bit to find the key holding areas but once located you can load the boat on the crappie. Keep moving till you hit em. Stripers are starting to pick up but you have to fish small bucktails and flukes right up on the banks to get the stripers to hit. This time of the year for some reason they are really tough to catch on live bait. One quarter ounce bucktails and the small pearl flukes have been working for the stripers. You will also catch some good spots on these baits also. Prime time on the stripers seems to be late evening when water temps are at the warmest. Headin out now on a trip today and will report back soon.
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.
Posted in big stripers, crappie, late winter, spring
Tags: afternoon, bass fisherman, bass lures, charter, clay banks, Fished, lake hartwell, moon, phase lines, water
Things are heating up on Lanier. We fished a half day charter today for crappie and ended up boating arounf 60 fish. Water temps are on the rise and fish are moving up with the water temps. Last weekend I saw water late saturday afternoon back in the pockets that was right at 53 degrees. All crappie are hanging at 1-5 foot depths. They should gradually make there way to the backs of the creeks if this warming trend continues. Bass fishing has been good the last few days with crankbaits in the off colored water on the North end of the lake. Jerkbaits should be good for the spots also. I have heard reports of stiper action late in the day in the back of the creeks. I will be out tomorrow and will report back soon. Also check out a show I filmed last summer on stripers with Mariko Uzumi. The show will air this week on Dish Network on the World Fishing Network. Not sure what times are.
Went on half day charter with John and Lisa McCalpin last Friday. We had a good day fishing for crappie having around 60 keepers at the end of the day. We caught all our fish on 1/32 oz. tube jigs at 3-8 ft. depths. We caught a few pushing the 1 pound range but most were just good eaters. This weeks warming trend should make the lake come alive on the stripers and bass also. The stripers and bass need a few more degree rise in water temps. to get them kicked in. Usually we are looking for water temps. to break into the 50′s. Flatlining live hearing in the back of the creeks will produce some action on the strpers. Ive seen giant schools of dying threadfins in the backs of the creeks and seen the stripers and spots mixed in with them on the sonar. Look for the seagulls to put you in the right areas for the shad and stripers. Just a short time before it all happens. I will be out this week and will report back soon.
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.
Posted in big stripers, crappie, late winter
Tags: buddy, charter, chattahochee, chestatee, cold temperatures, fish, Fished, Report, tube jigs, weekend rain
Went to Hartwell with buddy Eddie Hicks for a crappie trip. Fishin was a little tougher than last week. The sun didnt poke out all day and the air temperature hovered around 38 degrees. This usually makes for tough conditions during the winter months when you dont get the sunlight warming the water a few degrees. We ended up boating 55 crappie which is ok but not as good as last week when we had a couple of 100 fish days. All our fish hit tube jigs fished at 3-12 foot depths. The larger creeks off the main lake produced best. The crappie were holding close to 20-25 ft. creek channels. They should move further in the creeks whenever we get another warm spell. I am heading back up to Hartwell Monday to chase the crappie again. Will report back soon.
Posted in crappie, late winter
Tags: buddy, eddie hicks, fish, fish days, Fishin, foot depths, hartwell, Report, tube jigs, warm spell
Went fishing last week with long time cusomer Corey Regan to Lake Hartwell for crappie, That day we arrived at the lake around 10:30 and loaded the boat back on the trailer around 5:00 p.m. We ended up boating around 100 fish with around 50 of those pushing the 1 pound range which is huge for crappie, We caught all our fish on tube jigs at 5-25 ft. depths. The water temp. that day was right at 45 degrees which usually triggers the crappie action this time of year. Lanier has been a little cooler ranging from 38-42 degrees. Just a difference of 3 degrees makes all the difference in the fish beginning to turn on. For some reason Lake Hartwell is always a few degrees warmer than Lanier possibly due to the difference in elevation. Striper action has been a little slow although there have been a few good catches reported pulling umbrella rigs over deep points. I will be out later this week and will report back soon.
Went to lake Hartwell Jan. 20 with customer Earl Moore. We always try to plan a trip to Hartwell on MLK week. We usually hammer the crappie there starting mid to late January and that day we did load em up. We lauched the boat around 10:00 am that morning and were loading back up on the trailer around 4:30 that afternoon. We ended up boating around 100 fish with around 50 of those weighing close to a pound each. The water temp. in January on Hartwell seems to be a little warmer than Lanier. Water temps on Lanier have been ranging from 38-42 degrees. That day on Hartwell the surface temp. was about 45 degrees. That is when crappie really start to turn on ,just a difference of 2 degrees gets em going. The photo in the top right corner of this page is the stringer we caught that day. Dont miss the boat. Book your crappie charter now. Crappie season for the big ones only last around 6 weeks.
Went out on a charter today for crappie. This was my first day on the lake since the snow blast. Water temps today ranged anywhere from 38.9 to 42 degrees which is extremely cold for Georgia resevoirs. We managed to catch around 37 good size crappie. All our fish hit tube jigs at depths ranging from 10 ft. as deep as 40 ft. Many of the fish we caught were hugging the bottom at 35-40 ft. Bites today were very hard to detect, most of the strikes were just pressure bites, no ticks just a slow pull down. Im heading out to Hartwell tomorrow on a crappie trip. Last January around this time we crappie fished on Hartwell and caught around 80 fish most of them real slabs. Will report back tomorrow when I return. Read the rest of this entry →
