Lake Lanier Fishing Report – July 2024

Lanier: Level: Full at 1071. Temp: Low to mid 80s. Clarity: Clear conditions from the south end up through the middle of the lake.

Bass: Guide Jimbo Mathley, with Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service, reports, “Depending on the water temperatures, there are several techniques you can utilize to stay on top of the fish, sometimes literally, and remain successful on Lanier during the hot, summer months. Let’s review the locations, techniques and lures you can utilize to ensure you keep catching fish in July. By July, the majority of the spotted bass are normally in their traditional summer patterns. While some fish will be relating to key features at the mouths of the major creeks, you will begin to find more and bigger spots active on the main lake. The fish tend to relate to either schools of bait or to some of the thousands of man-made brushpiles that can be found around the entire lake. Look for brush and other fish-attracting features around the steeper sides of long-running points, rock, steep banks, rocky ledges and humps throughout the lake. Locating these areas and the man-made cover that is often found on them, which will often concentrate the fish, will be important to your success. Topwater lures and swimbaits remain a viable approach until the surface temperatures hit the mid 80s. At this point, the majority of the bait goes deeper, as do the fish. Until then, look for this bite to remain solid around the man-made brush. The Gunfish and Chug Bug are two of my favorite topwater lures. When the fish are stubborn, try a weighted fluke as a great second option on missed fish. Swimbaits, such as the Lanier Baits Hard Swimmer and the offerings of the Sweet Bait Company are two of the best choices for the hard swimbaits. When the topwater/swimbait bite slows, pick up your Georgia Blade underspin. Tip the underspin with a Super Fluke Jr. trailer, and fish the bait over and around offshore brush for your best success. Vary your retrieve speed and depth until you hit on the right combination for that day. When you see fish in brush on your Humminbird electronics, try the worm and jig. I like the Georgia Blade ball head. Explore different worm sizes, shapes and colors when you are fishing. Something different presented appropriately can make a big difference on certain days. Georgia Jigs in 3/8-oz. are my favorite jigs on Lanier. A pb&j color pattern is often a good bet. A drop shot is also a great tool when the fishing gets tough and the water temperatures soar in the middle of summer. I opt for this offering when fish are suspended in or around brush, or when they are suspended on points or humps. This presentation can be made vertically or it can be cast or pitched toward the feature. I prefer the Lanier Baits options. They have a tremendous selection of soft plastics. Check them out at LanierBaits.com.”

Lake Lanier Page: Archived Articles, News & Fishing Reports

Stripers: Capt. Clay Cunningham, of Catching Not Fishing Lake Lanier Fishing Guides, reports, “The striper fishing on Lanier has simply been great the last few weeks, and July looks to be just as good as June. The stripers have moved deep, and the schools are getting larger and larger each week. The water quality so far looks to be better than the last several years, and it shows with the success anglers are having on the lake. Plus, we are seeing bigger fish than the past five years. With the schools of stripers being deep, good electronics and great bait are the essential ingredients to success. With the Humminbird Solix unit, you can see your baitfish get devoured by stripers as they feed deep. The best depth so far this summer has been 40 to 70 feet deep in the larger bays. After picking up blueback herring at the local bait stores (Hammond’s and Oakwood Bait & Tackle), you just need a few key items. The key setup is a Shakespeare Striper Rod, a Penn Fathom II Linecounter reel, Captain Mack’s Swivel Sinkers and Gamakatsu 2/0 Octopus hooks in red. You should be able to see your sinker drop into the schools of stripers. If you want to try artificials, spool up another Penn Fathom Linecounter with 15-lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line and tie on a Ben Parker spoon or a 2-oz. Captain Mack’s Bucktail. Use the Linecounter to drop to the correct depth, and reel the spoon up past the stripers. Many times they will try to rip the rod out of your hands. This is the first time in five years that the spoon is showing good success this early in the summer. July should be even better. Give it a try, and you will be hooked, as well. See you on the water. The time is now.”

Capt. Ron Mullins, with The Striper Experience, reports, “Historically, July striper fishing on Lake Lanier means huge schools of fish in deep water on the south end of the lake, and it is setting up this way for sure as we go into July.  These fish are really starting to group up, and they will readily eat a herring on a downline. The thermocline is finally setting up in these areas, and the herring are not living very long down past 35 feet. When you find these schools of fish and they are near the bottom, you can drop your bait down to them. If they don’t eat, then you will have to change out your bait within a few minutes to keep a frisky herring in front of them. Be prepared for this the rest of the summer and plan on taking lots of herring because you will be changing baits out a lot. If you do not have a frisky bait on the hook, you will likely not get bit. Look for large schools of fish from Browns Bridge to the dam in deep drainages, creek channels and the river channel in 40 to 60 feet of water early in the day to 80 to 100 feet later in the afternoon. The best way to look for these schools later in the morning is to troll with lead core or Cannon downriggers and a 1.5- or 2-oz. Striper Tackle Super Spin Shad in white on sunny days and a chartreuse/chartreuse glitter combo on cloudy days. You can also fish a nickel/silver Fat Hawg or Jr. Hawg spoon. Lead core will be best pulling at 2.5-3 mph with six to eight colors out. When using your downrigger, put your baits 50 to 75 feet behind the ball that is set 20 to 30 feet down. Once you find a school of fish, downlines will be the go to live-bait technique. Your setup should be a 1.75-oz. pencil weight (available at Oakwood Bait & Tackle or at StriperTackle.com), 6 to 8 feet of 10- to 12-lb. fluorocarbon leader and finishing up with a No. 2 Gamakatsu Circle or Octopus hook. This setup will get your fragile bait down through the hot water fast and allow it to swim around without dragging around an oversized hook and heavy leader. The best baits will be herring, but if you can get small to medium gizzard shad, they will get the attention of some larger fish. Power reeling a Boss Hawg Spoon or a 2-oz. Captain Mack’s Chipmunk Jig with a shad or u-tail trailer will also be very effective when you get that school of fish to stack up under your boat. July stripers are really hungry and on the move, so be prepared to move around so that you can keep up with them. When God calls us, He already knows our weaknesses and strengths. Take a look at Judges 6 and see that even though we test God when He tells us to trust Him, He will be with us. God is patiently persistent, and when we put our trust in Him, worship Him, and do as He says, He will make us an unlikely hero and bring us through any dire situation in our lives. Judges is a great read to show how when we turn from God, He will always be there for us when we trust in Him and return to Him.”

Crappie: Capt. Josh Thornton reports, “Crappie are in the summer pattern suspended 10 to 15 feet deep over a 30- to 40-foot bottom. I have been having good luck with minnows on blowdowns and under docks with structure. For jig selection, I am using a green-and-black colored combination (ATX Lure Co., D2D color) with a slow retrieval. The gear I recommend for crappie fishing is an ACC Crappie Stix one-piece rod and reel with 6-lb. test K9 line, along with Garmin Livescope and Power-Pole. For more information and tips, please visit my websites www.crappieonlanier.com and www.fishingwitheverydayheroes.org.”