Lake Lanier Fishing Report – June 2025

Lanier: Level: 1.2 feet above 1071. Temp: High 70s. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Guide Jimbo Mathley, with Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service, reports, “June on Lanier is a topwater bonanza! It is hard to beat the topwater bite in June on Lake Lanier. Spotted bass chasing a topwater bait in wolfpacks from brushpiles is unmatched excitement and fun. In this month’s installment, we will review the different options to take advantage of the incredible offshore topwater fishing on Lake Lanier in June. In June, most of the spotted bass have completed the spawn and have transitioned into replenish mode. Keep that in mind in terms of the timing of your pursuit of this bite. Postspawn, many fish will be relating to key features at the mouths of the major creeks, as well as main-lake areas and can be found on key structure, such as long, running points and humps. Locating these areas and the man-made cover that is often found on them (example: brushpiles, which will often concentrate the fish and can be found in 20 to 25 feet of water), will be important to your success. Now that we have explored the location where the spots can be found in June, as well as how to find them, let’s examine some of the techniques and lures that can be used to catch these fish. There are many bait choices in the topwater category—poppers, walkers, wakers, etc. The preference of the fish will change day to day, so make sure to experiment daily to identify the mood of the fish, as well as their preference in presentation. Excellent topwater baits for Lake Lanier from Berkley include: J-Walker, Cane Walker, Hi Jacker, Surge Shad, Choppo and Bullet Pop. These lures, as well as all the rods and reels you will need to present them, can be purchased at local tackle shops, such as Hammond’s Fishing in Cumming. The friendly staff at Hammond’s Fishing will be happy to help you make the proper selection and match the rod and reel to the presentation you are seeking. Make sure to check out those G. Loomis rods and Shimano reels—truly world class tackle. Swimbaits offer great versatility as they can be fished at any depth you wish. Popular hard and soft swimbaits are made by several different tackle vendors, to include many local options. As far as the mechanical type swimbaits, one of my favorites is the Lanier Baits Hard Swimmer. Vary your retrieve speed and depth with this bait until you find the retrieve for which the fish are searching. Look for these baits to be a big producer of monster spotted bass in June. When the topwater/swimbait bite is tough, pick up your underspin and go to work. Fish the bait over and around brush for your best success, especially when the sun is out. The sun will concentrate the fish in this type of cover, and the Georgia Blade Shad Spin offers the perfect solution for the finicky fish that won’t come up. You can tip your underspin with either a straight-tail or boot-tail style trailer. Another option when the topwater/swimbait action slows, and you see fish in the brush on your Humminbird, is to try the worm and jig. I like the Georgia Blade jig head and worm combinations. As far as jigs go, I prefer Georgia Jigs. Explore different worm and jig sizes, shapes, textures and colors when you are fishing. Something different presented appropriately can make a big difference on certain days. Keep trying until you find the presentation for which the fish are searching that day. For topwater action, you should utilize either a medium to medium-heavy baitcasting or spin-casting outfit, rigged with 12- to 17-lb. monofilament line. Also, an option is spooling with Seaguar Smackdown braid/mono leader combination. Monofilament (and braided) fishing line floats, whereas fluorocarbon line sinks, which makes either monofilament or braided line the best option for presenting topwater baits correctly. As far as choosing a rig for fishing these topwater baits, consider the weight of the bait as your deciding factor. Lighter poppers and smaller walking baits are often better presented on spinning gear, which allows for easier casting of smaller baits. For swimbaits, I like to present the larger, heavier, mechanical-type swimbaits on a heavy-action rod that is at least 7 feet long, and I will utilize 20-lb. test monofilament or Seaguar Fluorocarbon line. My big swimbait rod is a G.Loomis IMX Pro Swimbait Rod, which is perfectly matched for these baits. I appreciate the extra rod strength to cast these big baits and manage the big fish you will catch on them. As far as the many other soft and hard swimbait options, you can scale back to a medium-heavy rod if you prefer, but I recommend keeping the length at 7 feet or more. G.Loomis also offers some outstanding topwater rods from which to choose. I really like the IMX Pro options. Check out the options at Gloomis.com. Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy some of the best fishing on Lake Lanier during the month of June!”

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Stripers: Capt. Ron Mullins, with The Striper Experience, reports, “June is a big transition month and most of the fun times with Captain Mack’s Perfect Planer Boards will come to an end.  The shallow bite will be over, and the fish will be moving deeper with the increasing water temps. Most of our stripers this month will be caught in pockets from Brown’s Bridge down to the dam and in drainages coming into the main creeks on the south end. These areas are great for stripers as they give the fish multiple environments to feed in. They can chase shallow bait early and late in the day in 10 to 20 feet of water, while having 40 to 50 feet of water to go to when the sun comes up. Downlines pulled slowly at .04 to 0.6 mph through these areas with herring or small shad at 25 to 35 feet down will be very effective. When you find a few fish, Spot-Lock on these fish with your Minn Kota Instinct and hang on. If the stripers move out from under your boat, break out your thump stick and thump the floor of the boat to get them back over to you. The rubber bottoms on these sticks will make a low-pitched tone through the hull of your boat and often attract stripers to the boat and to your baits. There are also some machines that you can hook up to your battery that will make these thumping noises. Go see Terry at Sherry’s Bait and BBQ and ask about the thumpers he has available and also get yourself some of the best bait on the lake. Some days, however, stripers can be skittish, so try putting a couple of your downlines away from the boat using your Captain Mack’s 10-inch Perfect Planer Boards. Put your weights down the same 25 to 35 feet, clip on your boards, and send them 20 to 30 feet away from the boat. Pulling these ‘downer boards’ will give you a shot at those fish that move out from under the boat as it passes over. Humminbird’s 360 transducer has been absolutely a game changer by being able to see schools of fish in front of the boat and being able to adjust to them as they go to one side of the boat or the other. When those fish move out from directly under the boat, you can also tell which way you need to move to stay with them. June will also be the start of our lead-core trolling season. Troll 1.5-oz. white/silver or white/chartreuse Captain Mack’s Chipmunk Jigs with a white or chartreuse u-tail or shad body trailer pulled 2.5 to 3 mph anywhere from 150 to 180 feet behind the boat. This is a great way to fish more water while you are looking in these pockets for schools of stripers. A Captain Mack’s Mini Mack on lead core will also catch a lot of fish this month in the larger pockets where you have more room to turn out of as you reach the end of the pocket. Keep a 1/4-oz. Striper Tackle Pro swimbait head and a 3.3-inch Keitech swim body close by to cast to the last of the topwater action. Be ready for anything this month. Salvation is available to everyone. ‘For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,’ Romans 10:13. This verse teaches us that it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, how you’ve done it or even where you’ve done it. Everyone has the ability to trust that Jesus is your Savior and will be granted His grace and be forgiven of your sins. Get out there and catch ’em up.”