Lake Lanier Fishing Report October 2013

Lanier: Level: 0.7 feet above full pool. Temp: Mid to upper 70s. Clarity: Clear.

Spotted Bass: Good. Guide Ryan Coleman reports, “With any luck, we will be below full pool sometime in October for the first time in more than six months. Fishing is excellent out there. The fish are loving the lower water temps and are feeding up heavily on blueback herring. There is a pretty good schooling bite out there as well as a great bite over brush and points after the schooling stops by midday. I have been doing most of my damage on topwater, swimbaits, Fish Head Spins and jigs. That about covers what you need right now. You can drop shot. It’s effective, but the bigger spotted bass are eating the jig. For topwater, I have been working a large walking bait like a Vixen, a Super Spook or a big Sammy over points and humps with brush and watching for the schooling fish. On calm days, try the mid-sized Chug Bug in shad color. Before leaving the humps, make sure to slowly work a 3/8-oz. Fish Head Spin over the same areas. On days when I have some wind, I have been killing them on a 6-inch Bull Herring swimbait. I am working this bait on a 7-1/2 foot St. Croix rod in medium action with 15-lb. fluorocarbon line. That’s a great setup for that size bait. The bait does most of the work. Just sling it out there as far as you can, and reel it back with a medium to fast retrieve, and hold on. The bait does the rest. It has fantastic lifelike action. As things slow down by midday, our best bet by far is working a 3/8-oz. SpotSticker hand-tied casting jig with a Yamamoto twin-tail trailer over the humps and points with brush. This has been my go-to bait for a month or so and will continue for months to come. I typically stick with the silicone skirts until the water temps dip below 60, and then I switch to the living-rubber skirts. For now, my best colors are PB&J, dark smoke and green craw. All three colors are tipped with a 5-inch twin tail and worked on 12-lb. fluorocarbon line. The spotted bass in the fall and winter on Lanier love the jig and always have. This jig is designed to work in the deep structure and comes through the trees very good. Look for the bite to really pick up as October rolls through. Swimbaits, topwater and jigs will be your staple baits, and look for the spinnerbait bite to pick up as the fall fronts start to roll on through.”

Stripers: Guide Shane Watson reports, “The trolling bite for stripers has been great using white 1-oz. bucktails with either a white or chartreuse trailer. Fish lead core eight and nine colors out, on and just off the main river channel from the dam up to mid lake. Our boats have been out daily, and the numbers on lead core have been great. Power reeling and downlined bluebacks have also been working well this past week when the stripers have been loaded up on the screen. We have seen a few nice schools busting on top this week, which means the fall topwater bite is near. The stripers are very active and feeding well both in mornings and afternoons.” Guide Mike Maddalena reports, “Striper fishing is very good. We are seeing schooling fish and suspended fish at 25 to 40 feet over a 50- to 120-foot bottom. The trolling bite has turned on, and both the umbrella rig and lead core is working. Run your umbrella rigs from 130 to 150 feet back at 2.75 to 3 mph. Set your lead core at eight to nine colors with a Capt. Mack’s 1-oz. jig tipped with a white or chartreuse 4-inch shad body. Downrod fishing with herring is also working, and if you can find a school, the action is non-stop. I am using 6 to 7 feet of 12-lb. test Seaguar fluorocarbon line as a leader and a No. 1 or 1/0 Gamakatsu octopus hook, depending on the size of the herring. There is a topwater bite first thing in the morning off main-lake points and humps. The Red Fin, Spook and Sebile Slim Stick are all working. Focus your fishing on the mouths of the creeks from Flat Creek to the dam. Weighted flatlines are working on these same points and humps as the sun gets up. The bite picks up again every afternoon when they start pulling water. We have not seen any fish in the main-lake channel, but it may be worth a check on your next trip. The good fishing should hold until the lake turns over, which normally starts around mid October.”