Lake Lanier Fishing Report – September 2007

Lanier: Level: Down 8.5 feet below full pool. Temps: 86-90 degrees. Clarity: Poor. The water color is turning green.

Spotted Bass: Fishing remains tough, but it will improve later this month, according to guide Ryan Coleman. “With the cooler temperatures coming in, the fish should start to get active. September is the month where the big spotted bass get out on the timber edges in 35 to 45 feet of water. Look for them on timber around the humps and long main-lake points. Watch your graph closely, there may not be a big school. You will be targeting smaller groups of fish this time of the year. Stay vertical on these guys, and work a drop shot on these fish. I would suggest going to a 3/8-oz. weight from the standard 1/4-oz. when you get over 30 feet deep. You can get to the fish faster this way. A little larger worm like the Spotsticker Hand Pour will produce better on these deep fish for the most part. Keep a topwater chugger of some type ready for the occasional schooling fish throughout the month. Look for the fish to get very active by the end of the month. They usually start to move around once the turnover begins. That is usually the end of this month. A topwater or Fish Head Spin will be your best bet.”

Largemouth: Fair, but the bite will improve later in the month, said tournament angler Billy Boothe. “For early September, your best bet is topwater right at daylight, then main-river ledges the rest of the day. I’m starting the day off with a baby-bass Mann’s Spit and Chug fished on main-river flats in 2 to 6 feet of water. Look for clouds of threadfins on the surface, and work the Spit and Chug with a very fast and erratic retrieve, throwing in a pause every couple of feet.” He said some bass just boil on the plug, so he throws a pearl Super Fluke Jr. “Once the sun gets up good, it’s time to fish ledges and points that fall off in the river channels. Start off with a grey ghost Mann’s 20+ as a search lure. When you get bit, throw out a marker buoy and go to work with a 1/4-oz. Bite Me jig head rigged with a green-pumpkin Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm. About the middle of September, the bite will start to improve, and it will be time to power fish. This is normally when the largemouth start to head shallow. Even if the water is still falling and it’s hot, they’re going to move up. A grey ghost Mann’s 1 Minus and a 3/8-oz. chartreuse-and-white tandem spinnerbait are hard to beat. Start at the mouths of pockets, and work your way back throwing at any cover that still has water on it. The dock bite will also start back up toward the end of the month. For big fish, target the walkways with a 3/8-oz. black-and-blue TABU jig with a twin-tail trailer. Most of the strikes will be on the initial fall, so make a couple of pitches then move on to the next dock,” Billy said.

Stripers: Guide Shane Watson said it’s been excellent for numbers of fish, and they’re catching some quality stripers, too. Shane said the best techniques right now are trolling bucktail jigs or fishing live blueback herring on downlines. The trolling bite is specialized. Shane is pulling Mac Farr bucktail jigs on lead-core line, which takes the jigs down to below 30 feet deep. He’s trolling over 80 to 110 foot deep bottoms along the river channels. With his downlines, Shane is dropping the blueback herring down to about 40 feet deep. He said you have to get below that 30-foot level to get to the right temperature water for the stripers this time of year. See the feature article on page 56 for more details on late-summer stripers at Lanier.