Lake Lanier Fishing Report October 2012

Lanier: Level: 9.7 feet below full pool. Temp: 78 degrees. Clarity: Clear at 4 feet or slightly deeper.

Largemouth: Billy Boothe reports, “There’s a lot of bait moving up right now, and the bass are moving up with them. Put the trolling motor on high, and hit as many bait-filled pockets as you can. Start out early with a 3/8-oz. sexy shad War Eagle buzzbait, and make multiple casts to any cover you come across that’s still in the water. As the topwater bite fades later in the day, I’m switching to a grey-ghost Mann’s Baby 1-Minus and fishing it around dock floats in the backs of shallow pockets and over ditches. You can still catch some good fish flipping a green-pumpkin Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver right now, but you need to have bait in the general area for it to work. If you want to target big fish, try to find the pockets that are holding big gizzard shad in them, and slow-roll a bad-shad-green-colored Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper down the middle of the pocket. Rig the Skinny Dipper on a 3/16-oz. swimbait jig head, and it will have the perfect action and sink rate. The pockets I have seen the gizzard shad in lately have all had a major ditch in the back and a bottom composition change.”

Stripers: Guide Shane Watson reports, “Overall, the fishing has been great most mornings and afternoons since my last report. Our boats are doing well on downlined bluebacks fished 30 to 60 feet deep over the channel and in the mouths of creeks. Leadcore is still producing some nice fish out over the channel. Capt. Mack’s 4 arm u-rigs are also working. With fall in the air, it’s time to get your topwater rods ready. As surface temps get down in the 70s, we will begin to see busting stripers on the surface. Last year in the fall, topwater lasted two months once it got started.”