Lake Lanier Fishing Reports – December 2024

Lanier: Level: 3.6 feet below 1071. Temp: 60-65 degrees. Clarity: The main lake is clear with some light stain in the backs of the creeks. There is still some remnants of the turnover, but only in isolated areas.

Bass: Guide Jimbo Mathley, with Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service, reports, “While the outside elements are not always favorable, December and throughout the winter can offer some outstanding angling on Lake Lanier. Big sacks of spotted bass can be taken during these cold-weather months if you approach the lake with an open mind and are willing to try some different techniques and locations, and mostly get off the bank. Let’s explore two productive approaches to Lanier in December—rocks and ditches. A ditch can be defined as a significant depression, typically narrow in width (2 to 15 feet), which offers a sharp depth change of 2 feet or more from the surrounding structure. Ditches can be naturally occurring or man-made. An example of a naturally occurring ditch would be a creek channel that feeds a pocket, cove or creek arm. A man-made ditch could result from a trench that was dug during the construction of a housing edition near the lake. These features exist in many places on Lake Lanier, and they hold fish during the winter months. Ditches can be shallow or deep, and sometimes both depending on the length and location of the ditch. The lake will be down about 9 feet from full pool going into December, and historically speaking, this lake condition normally puts fish into the ditches more reliably and consistently than normal lake levels. Use your Humminbird electronics to find creek arms or pockets just off of the main creek channels that offer a deep vein extending back into the arm or cove/pocket. The farther the deep water extends into the creek arm, the better. Also, the more rock that is present, the better. When you enter these areas and are searching for productive water, search for the presence of baitfish in and around the timber, which you will find in the deeper-water portions of the ditch. If you do not find bait, you will not find fish. Leave and check other similar areas.  Start your search in 50 feet of water in the mouth of the ditch and work your way back. Start fishing when you find the bait. Once you find a creek arm that meets the above criteria, you must now determine how you are going to fish these potentially productive waters.  Your approach should be determined by the location of the bait and time of day. Early in the mornings, active fish will often be positioned shallower in the ditch toward the back and sometimes right in the middle. Your presentation speed should vary directly with the water temperature. The colder the water, the slower your presentation should be. Experiment with different lures and retrieve speeds to determine the optimum strike-provoking presentation on any given day.  As the water chills on Lanier heading into December, rock points and veins of rock (in creek arms or on the main lake), as well as rocky humps, can be a big factor. Rock holds heat from the sun and therefore attracts forage that seek to meet their metabolic need by finding the warmest available water, even if it is only a slight temperature difference. Accordingly, make sure you find the rock in whatever area you are fishing, as that might indeed be the area the fish are holding because the bait is in that same area. Rock often provides the sweet spot as the water gets colder. A Georgia Blade Shad Spin is one of my favorite baits for this time of year. Cast this bait down the center of the ditches in which you have found bait and fish. Work the bait slowly on the bottom (or in the area of where you see the bait and fish suspended) and be alert for very light bites. Make sure to let the fish load up on the bait before you set the hook. That is the toughest part of this approach. It is easy to feel the first bite and immediately set the hook. Resist the temptation and keep reeling slowly until the fish loads up. Use a boot-tail type trailer as the water gets colder. The vibration of this type of trailer helps the fish zero in on the bait.  If the bladed bait is not working, try the Keitech swimbait on a jig head. When the fish are shallower in the ditches, particularly in the mornings, a crankbait can be an effective search bait. Fan cast the backs of pockets and ditches with a crankbait, and work the bait slowly and deliberately. The presence of rock in the areas you are fishing is a plus. The more the bait bumps and deflects off the bottom and acts erratically, the better. The Spro MD or Little John Baby DD are excellent options in the backs of creeks. Don’t forget to try the Spro jerkbaits as well—a McStick or McRip can be excellent options in the backs of these creek arms early in the morning. Overall, stay flexible in your approach and don’t be afraid to switch techniques. When the fish are not as active, a jig or worm fished in the ditches can be effective. Work the baits SLOWLY on the bottom. Make sure to pause the bait frequently and impart some pops and hops in the presentation. This can be key to triggering strikes. Play with color selection on both the jig and worm. Green-pumpkin derivatives are usually good places to start. I prefer the Georgia Jig options and will fish a worm on the Georgia Blade jig heads, as well. As the day progresses, particularly on sunny days, the bait and fish will move into the deeper portions of the ditch and will relate to the available cover, such as brush or standing timber. Presenting a Georgia Jig, drop-shot worm by Lanier Baits or Georgia Blade jigging spoon to these fish can be effective, as well.  Make sure to experiment with different places and approaches as the lake fishes differently each day. Stay flexible and enjoy more success. Good luck, and I’ll see y’all on the water!”

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Stripers: Capt. Ron Mullins, with The Striper Experience, reports, “The birds are here, and even more will show up on the full moon on Dec. 15. The birds will be lots of help in finding the stripers as they have spread out all over the lake in recent weeks. The creeks in the Chestatee and Chattahoochee like Johnson/Lathem, Thompson, Gainesville and Little River and southern creeks like Flowery Branch and Bald Ridge will all be holding fish in December. The stripers are really starting to key on small baits, so the go-to artificials this month will be Striper Tackle Jigging Spoons and Pro Swim Bait heads rigged on a 2.8-inch Keitech swimbait. Both of these baits can be cast to surfacing schoolers or dropped and cast to fish that will be staging in drainages that are running to the main creek channels, as well as those that are running to the main-lake river channel. Early in the morning and throughout the day on cloudy days, there will be quite a few shallow fish in 5 to 15 feet of water on humps surrounded by deep water, as well. Approach these areas that you have highlighted on your Humminbird graph using your Lakemaster map and fan cast from one side of the hump to the other with long casts and make a steady retrieve with the swimbait and get ready. The Striper Tackle Jigging Spoons in the 1/2- to 1-oz. sizes will be best used on deeper schools of fish in 30 to 50 feet of water on feeding flats off the creek channels, ends of secondary points and especially on the ditches running to the creek channels inside the treeline (less than 45 feet of water right now). After you mark large schools of bait in these areas, you will find the stripers not far off. Drop your spoon vertically to these fish and using a sweeping motion to lift and flutter the spoons up and down through the schools below. Lots of these bites will happen as the spoon is falling, so make sure you’re paying attention and set that hook when your line stops moving. Both of these lures are very versatile and can be cast to surfacing fish with long casts and yo-yo’d back through the school. Live-bait options will be downlines in these same drainages or planer boards and flatlines with small herring, medium shiners or small trout around the last groups of surfacing fish that will be showing up on the main lake. Don’t forget the fish are keying on small bait, so try to match the hatch. This is the season that gives us the birth of our Savior, and we should all remember that this is the reason for Christmas. We also need to remember that the Holy Spirit is part of the trinity of our God, and He is the person of God that lives in us and is the personal and intimate part of God that is within us all. He lives in us to lead us toward a righteous life that we cannot live without His leadership and guidance. Righteousness is doing the right thing, the right way, at the right time. It is impossible for us to live this way without the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as we move into 2025!”

Capt. Clay Cunningham of Catching Not Fishing Lake Lanier Fishing Guides reports, “The striper fishing on Lake Lanier is finally falling into the winter patterns. The bait is finally thickening up in the creeks, and the stripers are following them. Live bait will be hard to beat in December. Some of these bait schools are absolutely massive. On and off throughout the day the stripers will move through this bait and feast. You want to be waiting on the stripers with the traditional downline with blueback herring and rainbow trout. You will need the same setup for both of these baits, but you will need different size weights and hooks. Spool up a Penn Fathom II 20 reel with 15-lb. Trilene Big Game clear line paired with a Shakespeare Striper Rod. You can use this setup year-round for stripers. Tie a Carolina rig on the end with a Captain Mack’s 2-oz. Swivel Sinker and a 5-foot leader of 15-lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon and a Gamakatsu 3/0 octopus hook for the medium trout. If the trout are smaller, go with the 1/0 or 2/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. On the herring, use the smaller, 1-oz. Captain Mack’s Swivel Sinker. Also on the herring use a smaller size 1 Gamakatsu Octopus hook and 12-lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. All of these details are important. These details will make the difference between fishing and catching. To find where the deeper pods of bait are, look for any birds. The birds always narrow your search. Now that you are in the right area, the proper electronics are crucial. On the Humminbird Solix, you can see these huge pods of bait and even see your bait swimming around on the hook around the schools of bait. During the winter, do not be afraid to fish in the middle of the day. Many times in the winter the best fishing is during the warmest part of the day. If you want to catch these fish on artificials, the spoon is a great choice. Tie on a Captain Mack’s Super Spoon on a 6-6 Fenwick medium-action rod paired with a Abu Garcia Revo X with 10-lb. line and drop the spoon to the bottom and work it in a yo-yo type motion. Most of the bites will be on the fall of the spoon. If you do see some surface action, keep a Berkley Spy tied on a spinning rod. The stripers are now keying in on the threadfin shad on the surface. As a result, the smaller baits like the Berkley Spy are a great choice.”

Crappie: Capt. Josh Thornton reports, “Right now the fishing is absolutely incredible! The water’s at a perfect 60 degrees, and the crappie are super active. Big schools of them are hanging out around 10 to 20 feet deep above an 18- to 30-foot bottom. Live minnows are working like a charm. We can jig them up, or if you prefer a more relaxed approach, we can use rodholders near underwater brushpiles and other spots where they like to hang out. To make things even better, consider using an ACC Crappie Stix rod and reel with 4- to 6-lb. test K9 line. A Garmin Livescope (with a sonar shield to keep it safe) will really help us find those fish. And a Power-Pole will keep the boat steady and in the perfect position. For more information and tips, please visit my websites www.crappieonlanier.com and www.fishingwitheverydayheroes.org.”