Lake Lanier Fishing Report – December 2021

Lanier: Level: 1 foot below full pool. Temp: 53-62 degrees depending on where you are on the lake. Up the rivers are where the cooler water is, and you’ll find warmer water down on the main lake. Clarity: There is still some turnover going on and should be all done by the first or second week of the month.

Bass: Jimbo, from Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service, reports, “While the outside elements are not always favorable, December and throughout the winter can offer some outstanding angling on Lake Lanier. Big sacks of spotted bass can be taken during these cold-weather months, if you approach the lake with an open mind and are willing to try some different techniques and locations, and mostly, get off the bank.  Let’s explore two productive approaches to Lanier in December—rocks and ditches. A ditch can be defined as a significant depression, typically narrow in width (2 to 15 feet), which offers a sharp depth change of 2 feet or more from the surrounding structure. Ditches can be naturally occurring or can be man-made. An example of a naturally occurring ditch would be a creek channel that feeds a pocket, cove or creek arm. A man-made ditch could result from a trench that was dug during the construction of a housing edition near the lake. These features exist in many places on Lake Lanier, and they hold fish during the winter months. Ditches can be shallow or deep, and sometimes both depending on the length and location of the ditch. The lake will be down about 1.5 feet from full pool going into December, so I anticipate a normal year in terms of this bite. Use your Humminbird electronics to find creek arms or pockets just off of the main creek channels that offer a deep vein extending back into the arm or cove/pocket. The farther the deep water extends into the creek arm, the better. Also, the more rock that is present, the better. When you enter these areas and are searching for productive water, search for the presence of baitfish in and around the timber, which you will find in the deeper water portions of the ditch. If you do not find bait, you will not find fish. Leave and check other similar areas. Start your search in 40 feet of water in the mouth of the ditch and work your way back. Start fishing when you find the bait. Once you find a creek arm that meets the above criteria, you must now determine how you are going to fish these potentially productive waters. Your approach should be determined by the location of the bait and time of day. Early in the mornings, active fish will often be positioned shallower in the ditch, toward the back and sometimes right in the middle. Your presentation speed should vary directly with the water temperature. The colder the water, the slower your presentation should be. Experiment with different lures and retrieve speeds to determine the optimum strike-provoking presentation on any given day. As the water chills on Lanier heading into December, rock points and veins of rock (in creek arms or on the main lake), as well as rocky humps, can be a big factor. Rock holds heat from the sun and therefore attracts forage that seek to meet their metabolic need by finding the warmest available water, even if it is only a slight temperature difference. Accordingly, make sure you find the rock in whatever area you are fishing as that might indeed be the area the fish are holding because the bait is in that same area. Rock often provides the sweet spot as the water gets colder. A Georgia Blade Shad Spin is one of my favorite baits for this time of year. Cast this bait down the center of the ditches in which you have found bait and fish. Work the bait slowly on the bottom (or in the area of where you see the bait and fish suspended) and be alert for very light bites. Make sure to let the fish load up on the bait before you set the hook. That is the toughest part of this approach. It is easy to feel the first bite and immediately set the hook. Resist the temptation and keep reeling slowly until the fish loads up. Use a boot-tail type trailer as the water gets colder. The vibration of this type of trailer helps the fish zero in on the bait.  If the bladed bait is not working, try the Keitech swimbait on a jig head and swim or drag that as an option. When the fish are shallower in the ditches, particularly in the mornings, a crankbait can be an effective search bait. Fan cast the backs of pockets and ditches with a crankbait and, as with the Super Spin, work the bait slowly and deliberately. The more the bait bumps and deflects off the bottom and acts erratically, the better. The Spro MD or Little John Baby DD are excellent options in the backs of creeks. Don’t forget to try the Spro jerkbaits as well—a McStick or McRip can be excellent options in the backs of these creek arms early in the morning. Overall, stay flexible in your approach, and don’t be afraid to switch techniques! When the fish are not as active, a jig or worm fished in the ditches can be effective. Work the baits SLOWLY on the bottom. Make sure to pause the bait frequently and impart some pops and hops in the presentation. This can be key to triggering strikes. Play with color selection on both the jig and worm. Green pumpkin derivatives are usually a good place to start. I prefer the Georgia Jig options and will fish a worm on the Georgia Blade jig heads, as well. As the day progresses, particularly on sunny days, the bait and fish will move into the deeper portions of the ditch and will relate to the available cover, such as brush or standing timber. Presenting a Georgia Jig, drop-shot worm by Lanier Baits a or jigging spoon to these fish can be effective, as well. Make sure to experiment with different places and approaches as the lake fishes differently each day. Stay flexible and enjoy more success. Good luck, and I’ll see y’all on the water!”

Stripers: Capt. Clay Cunningham reports, “The striper fishing on Lake Lanier is finally falling into the winter patterns. The bait is thickening up in the creeks, and the stripers are following them. Live bait will be hard to beat in December. The topwater bite has just disappeared. The baitfish are now moving into the creeks in very large schools. Some of these schools are absolutely massive. On and off throughout the day the stripers will move through this bait and feast. You want to be waiting on the stripers with the traditional downline with blueback herring and rainbow trout. Trout are already being used with success this winter. You will need the same setup for both of these baits, but you will need different-size weights and hooks. Spool up a Penn Fathom II 20 reel with 15-lb. Trilene Big Game clear line paired with a Shakespeare Striper Rod. You can use this setup year-round for stripers. Tie a Carolina rig on the end with a Captain Mack 2-oz. Swivel Sinker and a 5-foot leader of 15-lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon and a Gamakatsu 3/0 Octopus hook. If the trout are smaller, go with the 1/0 or 2/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. On the herring, use the smaller 1-oz. Captain Mack Swivel Sinker. Also on the herring, use a smaller size 1 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook and 12-lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. All of these details are important. These details will make the difference between fishing and catching. If you want to catch these fish on artificials, the spoon is a great choice. Tie on a Captain Mack Super Spoon on a 6-6 Fenwick medium-action rod paired with an Abu Garcia Revo X with 10-lb. line and drop the spoon to the bottom and work it in a yo-yo type motion. Most of the bites will be on the fall of the spoon. The spoon bite has started early this year with some great catches of spotted bass with a few stripers mixed in along the way. If you do see some surface action, keep a Berkley Spy tied on a spinning rod as they are keying in on smaller baits. To find where these deep pods of bait are located first, look for any birds. Birds always narrow your search. Now that you are in the right area, the proper electronics are crucial. On the Humminbird Solix, you can see these huge pods of bait and even see your bait swimming around on the hook around the schools of bait. During the winter, do not be afraid to fish in the middle of the day. Many times in the winter the best fishing is during the warmest part of the day, a win all the way around. No need to freeze at daylight. As an added bonus this time of year, no wakeboard boats. See you on the water.”

Capt. Ron Mullins, of The Striper Experience, reports, “The Chattahoochee and Chestatee arms, northern creeks like Latham/Johnson, Thompson, Gainesville and Little River and southern creeks like Sardis and Bald Ridge will all be holding fish in December in 30 to 60 feet of water. Look in these areas for lots of bait with your Humminbird Helix or Solix electronics. The fish will be close to these schools of bait, and even if you don’t see them, go ahead and get your baits in the water. Be patient and spend at least 15 to 20 minutes in these areas so that the fish can find your baits. The bait bite will continue to be the best bite throughout December. Captain Mack’s Perfect Planer Boards and flatlines will be the preferred tackle for early morning fishing. As the sun gets up, switch over to downlines with a 3- to 4-foot, 10-lb. leader. The best baits will be small trout, herring and medium shiners, but larger shad and trout will be good for those few bigger fish that are showing up. As water temperatures continue to cool, the stripers will begin to key on smaller baits, and the Captain Mack Super Spoon will be the artificial to keep at the ready. The 3/4-oz. spoon will be the size to go with as it can be easily used in deep (50 to 60 feet) water and in shallower (25 to 30 feet) water, as well. The workhorse white/chartreuse scale, white/blue scale and glitter will all be great colors to start with, and the new chrome glitter and chartreuse/chartreuse scale will produce on overcast days. These spoons are usually used for vertical jigging when you have schools of stripers under the boat. Drop the spoon to the bottom and lift the spoon 5 to 10 feet up and let it flutter back to the bottom. You will get a lot of hits while the spoon falls back down, so stay awake. The Striper Experience boats like to use 15-lb. braid with 3 to 4 feet of 12-lb. fluorocarbon leader on a 7-foot medium-action casting rod so that you can feel these bites on the fall. Twisted line is inevitable with these spoons and casting rods handle that twisted line better than spinning rods, but a spinning rod can still be used. Try to be the shepherd. Leave the 99 and go out and look for the lost one until you find it (Luke 15). When someone is lost, go look for them and then rejoice when they are found. Remember with all the shortages that Jesus is the real reason for the season.”

Crappie: Capt. Josh Thornton reports, “Right now crappie can be found on just about any part of the lake. You can find schooling crappie on docks if you enjoy dock shooting. You can find crappie on shallow, open-water brush and blowdowns if you like bobber fishing. You can find crappie on deep-water timber if you like vertical jigging. In the past week, I have had success in each of these situations on different parts of the lake. The biggest fish I have been catching have been coming from vertical jigging in about 25 to 30 feet of water. If I am looking for big numbers, I go look for a dock with brush near a main channel. I’m using ATX Lure Company plastics. I use 5-lb. test high-visibility yellow braid for my line (unless I am using a bobber) and a Piscifun reel on an ACC Crappie Stix. I use Garmin LiveScope and the Navionics Boating app. Find me on Facebook and like my pages @crappieonlanier and @fishingwitheverydayheroes.”