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.
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.
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 →
Went out yesterday on half day striper charter and braved the 30-40 mph gust as this arctic weather system moved in. We started fishing around noon and fished till about 4:30 boating 3 good stripers in the 10-12 pound range. That much wind made the trolling difficult as it would almost stall the boat out when going into the wind. Boat speed is critical when trolling for stripers with umbrella rigs and keeping the boat at 2.5-3 mph was tough in those conditions. We did see fish on the sonar but could’nt control boat to effectively fish the areas out in the open water. Stripers are still on the u-rigs and this action should kick back in as the weather stabalizes. Hope to be out later this week after the snow blast hits. Will report back soon.
Went out yesterday to check the crappie action. We hit the water around noon and fished a couple of hours. We boated around 25 crappie up to about a pound. Caught several nice bass also mixed in with the crappie. All our fish hit tube jigs at 15-20 ft. depths. This month crappie action will kick in as we near the full moon. Also had a half day charter last Sunday on an extremely windy day. We managed to squeak out 8 stripers all on umbrella rigs. All our action came after 4:00 in the afternoon till dark. Heading out on a striper trip today for some afternoon umbrella trolling. Will report back later; check out the following video to see how I fish u-rigs this time of year.
Fished a half day charter new years eve, what a beautiful break in the weather, it was sunny with a air temp around 55 degrees. We hit the lake around noon and headed for the mid lake area in the Browns Bridge section of the lake. We boated 8 stripers on us rigs. Most of the fish were in the 7-9 pound range, no monsters just good solid fish. We also boated a few nice spots that hit our u-rigs. Water temp was 46 to 47 perfect for the umbella rig bite. Live bait action has been slow for stripers as usuall when water temps are this low. I will be out on a crappie charter Monday to check that action. It is time. I will let you know next week. Also I’m gonna head up to lake Hartwell to fish with good buddy and a great guide Preston Hardin. Preston say’s he has em stacked up and we are gonna try the u-rig on em. Will report back next week.
Have not fished since December 23 but had a few good fishing trips before the Christmas break. I had a charter on December 22 and 23 and was able to land 10-12 nice stripers on each trip. The fish on these days averaged between 5 to around 13 pounds, all of them hit umrella rigs trolled at 18- 20 ft. depths. The water temperature those day’s hovered around 48-49 degrees which is perfect for the umbrella bite. The most active times have been late afternoon from around 3:00 p.m. till dark which usually the case during the colder months. This u-rig action should continue on into January. Looks like we will have a slight warm up in the weather later this week which should trigger some activity. Crappie season is just around the corner. January is the month when big slabs start to bunch up. I will be out on charters later this week and will report back soon.
Fished a half day afternoon charter with Todd and Adam Thomas of South East Landscapes last Friday and got into some good umbrella action. We got out on the lake around 11:30 with not much action the first couple of hours. We were downlining trout with not much success. That afternoon from around 3:00 to dark we boated 12 good stripers up to around 12-13 pounds on umbrella rigs trolled around 50-60 ft. behind the boat. All our fish hit a 3 ounce 4 arm umbrella with Mack Farrs 3/4 ounce white with chartuese trailer curl tails on the back. This is u-rig time. When the water temp. is in the high 40′s to low 50′s the u-rig will trigger strikes when live bait is slow to produce. This umbrella action should continue for the next 4-5 weeks depending on how low the water temps drop. Will be out Friday and will report back soon.
