Lake Lanier Fishing Report September 2014

Lanier: Level: 1.5 feet below full pool. Temp: Low to mid 80s. Clarity: Lightly stained in the backs of the creeks, and clear on the main lake both north and south.

Stripers: Excellent. Capt. Clay Cunningham reports, “The stripers are in the deep water on the south end of the lake chasing large schools of herring out over deep water. Downlines have been the best tactic. The downline is more or less a Carolina rig with a 2/0 Gamakatsu Nautilus Light Circle hook. Spool up a 6500 C3 Abu Garcia reel with 15-lb. Trilene Big Game on a 7-foot Shakespeare Striper Rod, and you are ready for action. Good electronics are crucial this time of year. On the Lowrance HDS units, you can see your bait swimming around the hook, and you can see the fish come up to eat it. If you want to troll, the best tactic is leadcore.” Guide Mike Maddalena reports, “This is the longest string of excellent fishing I have seen in a long while. I think the primary reason has been the consistency of the water temperature. The key has been trees in 70 to 120 feet of water just off the creek channels. Most of the fish are being caught with blueback herring on downrods at 50 to 80 feet, although I have caught a few at 40 and 120 feet down. There has been a lot of discussion about using long 12-foot leaders of 10-lb. test on your downrods. While there are some good fishermen using these leaders, I have continued using a 7-foot, 12-lb. test Seaguar fluorocarbon leader without any problem. Trolling Capt. Mack’s bucktail jigs with a 4-inch shad bodies with lead-core line at eight to nine colors is working as are umbrella rigs fished 150 to 170 feet back. The fish are starting to show up on the river channel. The river-channel bite should continue to strengthen as the water temperature rises. Flat Creek, Two Mile Creek and Six Mile Creek remain good places to start.”