Lake Lanier Fishing Report – May 2022

Lanier: Level: 0.4 feet above 1071. Temp: 63-68 degrees. Clarity: Water clarity varies from stained up in the river systems, slightly stained south to the Highway 53 bridge on the Chestatee side and the Highway 60 bridge on the Chattahoochee side and in most of the southern creeks, and clearing up down to Highway 369. The main lake south from Highway 369 is clear. 

Bass: Jimbo from Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service reports, “May starts topwater time on Lanier. Lake Lanier is arguably at its very best during the late spring and early summer due to the consistent availability of an aggressive topwater and swimbait bite during this time. This is an excellent opportunity for anglers to catch spotted bass and watch the action as wolf-packs of monster spotted bass chase your topwater plugs! In this month’s installment, you will learn the necessary tackle, equipment, locations and resources to catch topwater fish on Lanier. Now, at the end of April and heading into May under normal weather conditions, most of the spotted bass on Lake Lanier are finishing the spawn, and in doing so, will begin aggressively feeding to recover from the spawning process. After a short period of inactivity, the larger female spots will begin their migration from their spawning haunts (both in creeks as well as on the main lake) to key features at the mouths of the major creeks as well as main-lake areas and can be found on or around long-running points, rocky shoals and underwater humps/islands throughout the lake. Locating these areas and the man-made cover that is often found on them, which will often concentrate the fish, will be important to your success. Trust your Humminbird units to find these brushpiles around the features mentioned above. Focus in the 20- to 25-foot depth range. For topwater action, you should utilize either a medium or medium-heavy baitcasting or spin-casting outfit rigged with 12- to 17-lb. Seaguar monofilament line. Monofilament fishing line floats, where as 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. My big swimbait rod is an IMX Pro from GLoomis and is a beef stick! It can handle the biggest of swimbaits or A-rigs. I appreciate the extra rod strength to cast these big baits and manage the big fish I 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 definitely recommend keeping the length at 7 feet or more. Now that we have explored the location that the spots can be found in May, as well as the tackle necessary to fish them, let’s examine some of the techniques and lures that can be used to catch these fish. Remember that even though we are discussing topwater and swimbait presentations in this report, when the females first come off the bed, they are lethargic, so the use of more subtle techniques such as a fluke or a Georgia Blade jig head and a Berkley Max Scent worm combo can be the ticket. As the postspawn period progresses, the fish will become much more active and aggressive as eating becomes a major part of their recovery process from the spawn. The fish at times will feed voraciously, and it is at these times that you should focus on fishing fast-moving baits, such as the topwater and swimbait presentations we have focused on through the course of this report. Nothing beats being able to watch a fish crush your topwater bait! There are many choices of baits here—poppers, walkers, waking baits, 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 include a great line-up of Berkley Baits: Surge Shad, J-Walker, Highjacker, Cane Walker, and of course, the Choppo. All of these lures, as well as all the G-Loomis rods and Shimano reels you will need to present them can, be purchased at Hammond’s Fishing in Cumming. Swimbaits offer great versatility as they can, based on the model, be fished at any depth you wish. Once the postspawn has advanced, this becomes a great bait to throw around points and humps in both creeks and on the main lake. Popular hard and soft swimbaits are made by a number of different tackle vendors, to include many local options. As far as the mechanical-type swimbaits, I am a HUGE fan of the Magic Swimmers, and they are the perfect representation of a herring. In the soft-bodied swimbaits, I prefer the Lanier Baits Swimmer and Keitech Swimbait offerings. When the topwater/swimbait bite is tough, pick up your Georgia Blade Shad Spin and go to work. Fish the same areas you would normally present your topwater baits and experiment with different depths of the water column. Also, work these lures over brush for big spots. Try a fluke, a Lanier Baits Swimmer or a Keitech swimbait as a trailer.”

Lake Lanier Page: Archived Articles, News & Fishing Reports

Stripers: Capt. Ron Mullins, of The Striper Experience, “The striped bass spawn will wrap up early this month as will most of the spotted bass spawn. These fish will be hungry and will be concentrating on the blueback herring spawn that has already gotten underway and later in the month on the threadfin shad spawn. The herring spawn takes place in a lot of areas, but one of the best areas to look at will be blow-through areas between the main land and islands that are close. These saddle areas will range in depth from 2 to 3 feet to 10 to 12 feet. This will happen all over the lake so there are many of these spots to look at. Flatlines and Captain Mack’s Perfect Planer Boards will be the best live-bait option to cover these areas as you pull across these high spots with herring as the best bait choice. Herring will spawn almost anywhere, and vertical structures like marina break-water walls will also be great places to fish. These areas can be fished with a couple of flatlines close to the wall as you troll 5 to 10 feet off the wall at about 1 mph. Off the front of the boat you can pitch a herring to the corners of the walls or toss a jerkbait, fluke-style bait or the Cast Prodigy swimbait paired with the new Cast swimbait head offered by Captain Mack. This head has a short shank hook that will not interfere with your soft swimbait’s body movement, but the hook is also stout enough to handle a big striper and not straighten out like most of the light-wire jig-head options that are out there. As the water warms throughout the month, the threadfin shad spawn will get going and the stripers will be right there to gobble them up. These shad tend to spawn on vertical structure like rock walls, rip-rap, fallen trees and seawalls. Areas like these that are close to well-defined points will be best fished by simply pitching herring up to these areas and letting the bait just swim around. If the wind is blowing to the point, then set your boat in around 35 to 40 feet of water, Spot-Lock your boat there with your Minn Kota trolling motor, and pitch your bait with the wind up to the point off the back of the boat. If the wind is blowing over the top of the point, then put your motor up on the bank, deploy your Minn Kota Talons or Raptors, and then pitch off the front of the boat. Either way you set the boat up you are looking to use the wind to help pitch that extremely light herring out to the 10- to 20-foot depth that most of the predatory fish will be hanging out in to ambush bait coming across the point. This technique will catch every fish in the lake and be prepared to catch a striper on one toss, a spot the next and a channel cat on the next. This will be a fast and furious bite and you will go through lots of bait, so be prepared with 8- to 10-dozen and going home early most days. The topwater bite on these points and over humps will also heat up this month for anyone wanting to toss artificials. Your best bet will be a Zero Minnow, Redfin, Chug Bug or Magic Swimmer in bone on clear days and chrome on cloudy days. In this time after Easter remember that Christ died on a cross as the last sacrifice needed to pay for all our sins and came back so that we all might have life in Him for eternity. ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ Romans 3:23-24.”

Capt. Clay Cunningham reports, “Finally getting some better weather here on Lanier. Winter held on longer than usual, and it skipped to late spring, almost summer. Topwater time for stripers is here. Nothing better than watching your Berkley Surge Shad wake across the surface and it vanish as a striper engulfs it. Spool up a 7-foot medium-heavy Abu Garcia Veritas PLX spinning rod, paired with a Penn 3000 Conflict with 12-lb. Trilene Big Game line and you are ready for action. If you want a longer cast, spool up with 10-lb. line. Several baits will be needed for casting to the stripers. You will need a wake bait like the Berkley Surge Shad and a walking bait like the Berkley J-Walker. Look for the bone color and the chrome black back color and you have the two primary colors in the J-Walker and Surge Shad. Twitch the J-Walker  so it zigzags across the surface. If the fish are wanting a subsurface lure, the Berkley Magic Swimmer is a great bait. The green back ghost Magic Swimmer is hard to beat on Lanier.  Cast these baits to points and humps across the lake, and be prepared for some explosive action. If you need a more subtle presentation, rig up a 3/8-oz. Berkley Fusion swimbait head tipped with a 3.3 Berkley Power Swimmer. Live herring on a freeline across these same points and humps will also be a great tactic. This is the old reliable technique. Spool up a Penn Fathom II Linecounter 15 series reel with 15-lb. Trilene Big Game and a Shakespeare Striper Series rod and you are ready for live-bait fishing. Be sure to pick up some Gamakatsu 2/0 Octopus hooks, some Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon and some Spro Power Swivels for your leaders and you are all set. Pull these freelines across these areas at about 1 mph. As the water temperature increases, do not be afraid to add a little weight to the freeline to get down a little deeper. As the water temperature increases, look for the fish to go deeper. May should be great weather and great fishing. It is a great month to be on the water before the summer heat. See you on the water.”

Crappie: Capt. Josh Thornton reports, “I am finding crappie on the docks suspended 10 to 15 feet deep over a 20- to 45-foot bottom. I am also finding crappie in shallow brush. If you pull up to your normal honeyhole and the fish are not present, look around in the same area toward the back of the cove or toward the bank. If you are using jigs, I would recommend starting with a solid chartreuse small body or a hair jig with a dark body and a bright color tail. Always bring small crappie minnows with you. Half of this week’s catch came on minnows. I am setting minnows  8 to 10 feet deep over schooling crappie. Most of the crappie I found on docks this week were suspended 10 to 15 feet deep. Crappie love the shade, so cast into the shadows. When dock shooting, the biggest fish are usually the first to bite. I’m using Skippers Jig Moon Jigs. Use the promo code ‘heroes’ when ordering. 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.”