Lake Lanier Fishing Report – August 2009

Lanier: Level: 5.6 feet below full pool. Temp: Mid 80s. Clarity: Clear.

Spotted Bass: Fair. Ryan Coleman reports, “The spots are on offshore structure and holding in 22 to 30 feet of water. There has been a decent topwater bite over main-lake structure, but that is getting less and less every day. There is a pretty good jig bite out there if you are very patient. Work a brown or green 1/2-oz. football-head jig on main-lake points and humps around structure. A lot of fish are suspending later in the day as the sun gets high and will fall victim to a 3/8-oz. Fish Head Spin slow-rolled across brush and rocks on main-lake structure. Green-albino and albino will be your best colors for the Fish Head Spin. The best bite going is the drop shot. I’m catching good numbers as well as very good-sized fish on drop-shot rigs in 22 to 30 feet of water. Look for fish on your electronics, and work them hard. They will eventually get tired of seeing your offering and eat it. I am using a No. 4 drop-shot hook, 1/4-oz. weight and 15-inch dropper on 8-lb. fluorocarbon line. Look for things to start back on a good bite as September rolls in. Topwater and even the spinnerbait bite should pick up as the water temps start to cool.”

Largemouths: Fair. Billy Boothe reports, “There’s a pretty good topwater bite right at daylight around the clouds of threadfins. The largemouth are crushing a ghost-minnow Mann’s Baby Waker fished around any shallow cover or ambush points near the shad. Once the sun gets up, flip docks near grass that have ditches or drop offs under them. I’ve had the best success with a 3/8-oz. green-pumpkin/green TABU jig and a watermelon-red Sweet Beaver, skipping way under the floats. The ledge fish are pretty scattered, but when you find them, they’re grouped up. Work a Mann’s 20 Plus in the gold-digger pattern down the ledges until you locate them. Once you find them, a Carolina-rigged Trick Worm in junebug is hard to beat.”

Stripers: Very good, according to guide Mike Maddalena. “Downrods are going to be your primary method to get good numbers of fish in the boat,” Mike said. “Trolling is the best way to locate an area holding fish, and once the fish are located, stop and hit them with live bait on a downrod. Bluebacks fished 30 to 50 feet deep over 50- to 90-foot bottom is your best bet. If you’re marking a school of fish and not getting bit, try quickly dropping the herring below the fish and burning it back up through them. Change baits often, every 15 minutes or so, to keep them fresh. The fish are moving very fast, and it’s not easy to stay on them, so be ready to pick up and start searching again. Do not fish bait unless you are marking good numbers of fish on your graph. Your trolling setup should be lead-core line fished seven to eight colors back with a 1 1/2- or 2-oz. Captain Mack’s Chipmunk with foil jig or a 6-inch swimbait with a built-in jig will do the trick. You can tip the jigs with worm trailers, shad bodies or a herring. Taking the rod out of the holder and jigging it while trolling will increase your bites. A 3-oz. U-rig fully loaded with 1- or 1 1/2-oz. jigs fished 100 to 130 feet back is also very effective. The creek channels near the creek mouths and main-lake coves remain the places to look. Some fish are just starting to move out into the main-river channel, normally after 10 a.m. The area from Brown Bridge to Three Sisters is currently holding the majority of fish.”