Lake Lanier Fishing Report – December 2007

Lanier: Level: 18.9 feet below full pool. Temp: 60 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Boating advisory: Shoal Creek and Tidwell parks are the only places open to launch your boat. Don’t be surprised if they are both closed in the next few weeks. Both are very close to the end of the ramps right now.

Largemouths: Good, said Billy Boothe. “The keys to December largemouth fishing on Lanier are deep-water access, chunk rock and shad,” he said. “Look for deep, channel-swing banks and flats in 10 to 25 feet of water off of the main river channel. The low water will really have the largemouths concentrated this winter. Watch your graph, and look for balls of shad around the channel bends and flats. Throw a black-and-blue 1/2-oz. TABU football jig paired with a blue, twin-tail trailer, and slowly crawl it over rocks and brush. The jig will catch big fish, but if it gets really cold or the bite gets finicky, throw a 1/4-oz. Bite Me jig head rigged with a green-pumpkin Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm, and fish it extremely slow. On windy days, a pearl Mann’s 10 Plus fished down the middle of wind-blown pockets is an excellent way to catch numbers. If we get any mild weather in December, there’s usually a good spinnerbait bite in the afternoons on shallow points and at the mouths of pockets up the lake.”

Spotted Bass: OK. “The falling water and odd weather has slowed the fishing. The water temps are a little higher than usual and with the constant draw-down, the fish are scattering out,” said Ryan Coleman. “There is very little shoreline cover left with water on it, and most of the off-shore structure is too shallow for the fish to hold on which is causing the fish to go directly to the timber. Most of the timber is starting in 20 feet now instead of the usual 40 feet. This is now a perfect depth for them which is making it very hard to target them with artificials. I have been doing my best on timber edges early with green worms rigged on a 3/16-oz. Spotsticker jig head and white spinnerbaits worked along the shoreline. Jigging spoons have been good for smaller fish, but for the bigger fish work worms and jigs around the timber on the lower end. The spoon bite for the bigger fish will be much better once the water temps get below 55. Up the lake, you can work what shallow structure is available with a worm or crankbait and there will be a few fish there. Some shallow fish are also holding on the points and will take a buzzbait worked very slowly. I had a client who had a huge largemouth — looked like a 10-pounder — take a buzzbait last week but it jumped at the boat and threw it. Look for things to improve in December as the water begins to cool. You are going to have to fish timber for the most part. With the water being down, there will be very few places you can fish where the timber will not exist. Once those big December fronts start to roll in, look for the windy days to produce a good spinnerbait bite on the main-lake windy points. This is a great way to catch the spotted bass of a lifetime on Lanier during the winter.”

Stripers: Excellent on topwater. Guide Greg Robinson reports some 25-fish trips the past week, with fish in the 15- to 20-lb. range not uncommon. Pull live trout, herring or shad on flatlines or planer boards, and you can also get bit waking a Red Fin on top. There are fish in Balus at the mouth of Flat Creek, lots of fish in the Chestatee Bay area, and also reports of a good school in Orr Creek.