Lake Lanier Fishing Report May 2013

Lanier: Level: 1.0 foot above full pool. Temp: Mid to upper 60s. Clarity: Clear.

Spotted Bass: Good. Guide Ryan Coleman reports, “There are spots on bed all over the south end of Lanier right now. This process should remain through May this year with the late spawn. Fishing has been excellent. There are tons of fish up shallow all over the lake. The best shallow-water structure right now is the flooded grass in the backs of the pockets. Almost every pocket has some of the overgrowth that came in during the drawdown. Now, a lot of this grass is in 2 to 6 feet of water. I am working around this stuff with either a white Mini-Me spinnerbait, a fluke or a 3/16-oz. Spotsticker jig head rigged with either a sand or green-pumpkin Zoom Swamp Crawler. Use the new Spotsticker football head with the screw lock and the Swamp Crawler is a perfect fit. The new head will not damage the thin finesse bait. There are also a good many fish up shallow on humps all over the lower end. Weightless Super Flukes, wake baits and suspended jerkbaits all work great for these fish. Just run places until you hit one that has some fish on it. They are there. Look for fish to start to hold on the brush very heavy in the first part of May. These fish are prime for a brown jig or slow topwater worked over the brush. This is always a very strong postspawn pattern for our big spots. As May rolls through, look for the topwater, swimbait and jig bites to be key. I typically start working points and humps in 35 feet of water and work my way in. Once you find the depth, just repeat it on all your places. May is a pattern month.”

Largemouth: Billy Booth reports, “The shallow bite is very strong now and should be all month. The majority of the largemouth are done spawning but will continue to hold in the flooded grass and wood. The main key right now is covering water. With fish in all three stages of the spawn, I’m running and gunning pockets and hitting as many as I can in a day. I’ve had the best luck with a bone Mann’s Baby 1 Minus and a 3/8-oz. chartreuse/white Terminator spinnerbait. If you get multiple fish from one pocket, turn around and fish it slow with a green-pumpkin Trigger X Flutter Worm. Some of my best bites are coming from the thickest areas of grass, so make sure you have the right line to get a big fish out. I’m using 40-lb. Sufix braid with a 4-foot leader of 20-lb. Sufix fluorocarbon, and I have not lost a fish in the grass yet. Later in the month, look for the shad-spawn bite to start. Target hard-bottom rocky points and flats with a bone Rapala Skitter Walk or white Terminator buzzbait.”

Stripers: Very good. Guide Mike Maddalena reports, “Striper fishing is great! The lake continues to warm, and the fish are aggressive and on the move. We have been halfway back in the creeks, but there are also fish being caught over open water off the river channel from Browns Bridge south to the dam. Herring remains the go-to bait on unweighted freelines. However, some big fish have been reported on gizzard shad. Put as many freelines and boards as you can with lines from 50 to 120 feet back. Add weight to a couple of lines as the day progresses, and vary your speed. The spotted bass will drive you crazy, so check your baits often, and be sure to pick up a few extra baits. I have not had any reports of topwater action, but some fish are being caught casting a Captain Mack’s bucktail jig with a small fluke on points. I have not pulled the umbrella rig this past week because the herring bite is so good, but there is no reason why a shallow rig pulled on points would not work. The key is to cover as much water as possible with baits. Flat Creek has been on fire, but there are fish lake wide.” Guide Shane Watson reports, “The stripers, crappie and spots have been biting well most mornings and afternoons. Freelined bluebacks out over the channel, on points and on deeper humps have produced well. A white bucktail and a lead-head fluke have also worked well on the stripers when the fish have been up boiling and pushing the bait up close to the bank. The crappie have been biting well on minnows and jigs, back in the rear of stained creeks around brush.”