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Lake Lanier
Lake Lanier is a very popular reservoir in north Georgia for anglers and recreational boaters. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee and Chattahoochee rivers. The lake encompasses 38,000 acres, or 59 square miles of water, and 692 miles of shoreline at normal level, which is at full summer pool of 1,071 feet above sea level. Lake Lanier boasts some of the best striped bass and spotted bass fishing in the country.
Lake Lanier Resources
Lanier: Level: 0.4 feet above 1071. Temp: Low to upper 50s. Clarity: The corps has been doing very little to drop the lake, which has kept the northern reaches of the lake very muddy as there is very little flow. Most creeks go from a moderate to light stain as you move to the back. The main lake is mostly clear below the Highway 53 bridges, and the rivers are muddy. Bass: Guide Jimbo Mathley, with Jimbo’s Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service, reports, “Fishing during the spawn can provide some interesting opportunities and many different choices. Bass focused on the spawn are often quite finicky and tough to catch at times. Bed fishing is very popular this time of year, especially for tournament anglers, and certainly can provide some outstanding catches. In most instances, I prefer to leave the fish to their reproductive cycle, and often shy away…
Read MoreLake Lanier Articles
A total of 500 striped bass in Lake Lanier have received an orange tag affixed by WRD Fisheries biologists. The tags are worth $5 if you return them to WRD. Beginning in mid February, WRD Fisheries Biologist Reggie Weaver and other Fisheries personnel began catching striped bass with electro-fishing gear for a year-long tagging study.…
A few warm days in February can be the finest days in the world on any Georgia reservoir. February can also bring some wicked cold fronts that seem to give all the fish lockjaw and convince you that winter will never end. These two extremes can have drastic effects on fish behavior, location, and activity…
Tired of rocking and rolling over boat wakes while probing deep brush as you hope a bass will bite at Lake Lanier? There is an alternative way to fish, one that puts you on smaller water with fewer boats, and it produces quality fish. The Chattahoochee River up near the Lula Bridge is one such…
What’s this? A bass article on Lake Lanier that focuses on largemouths? Virtually every bit of press having to do with bass fishing on Lanier over the last couple of years has focused on the growing spotted bass population in this famous body of water north of Atlanta, and with good reason. A number of…
Russ Toole holds the current Lake Lanier shellcracker record with a 1-lb., 5-oz. fish he caught on June 13, 2002.
Lake Lanier Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 17-lbs., 9-ozs. | Emory Dunahoo | 12/19/65 |
| Spotted Bass | 8-lbs., 0.5-ozs. | Patrick Bankston | 05/20/85 |
| Striped Bass | 47-lbs., 12-ozs. | Ward Schanhals | 04/03/10 |
| Hybrid Bass | 12-lbs. | Fred Duncan | 12/22/92 |
| White Bass | 5-lbs., 1-oz.* | J.M. Hobbins | 06/16/71 |
| Shoal Bass | 5-lbs., 5-ozs. | Peter T. Thliveros | 12/01/94 |
| White Crappie | 3-lbs., 2-ozs. | Bill Fretwell | 04/17/91 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 5-ozs. | Chris Williams | 10/06/06 |
| Walleye | 8-lbs., 9-ozs. | Buddy Wade | 01/20/13 |
| Bluegill | 1-lb., 2-ozs. | Mrs. Pat Johnson | 06/03/79 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 8-ozs. | Jeff Howard | 02/02/90 |
| Shellcracker | 1-lb., 9.44-ozs. | Michael Madryga | 12/12/21 |
| Rainbow Trout | 9-lbs., 6-ozs. | Brooke Wheeler | 03/02/19 |
| Brown Trout | 6-lbs. | Tim Wyatt | 04/24/04 |
| Flathead Catfish | 51-lbs., 10-ozs. | Rodney Stephens | 08/14/16 |
| Channel Catfish | 22-lbs., 8-ozs. | Robert Hancock | 09/28/11 |
| Longnose Gar | 30-lbs., 13-ozs. | Gerald Kennedy | 09/04/13 |
| Common Carp | 19-lbs., 9.6-ozs. | Charlie White | 03/17/24 |
| Blue Catfish | 19-lbs., 5.5-ozs. | Tyler Kesselring | 07/27/24 |
For Subscribers: Lanier Map-Of-The-Month Bass Articles
Anglers are learning to go to the ditches at Lake Lanier during the winter months for numbers of spotted bass, but you can also fish rocky points for kicker-size fish to feel the fight of a magnum Lanier spot. The ditch bite is in full swing this month, and you can catch a lot of…
Everyone has heard about the good winter ditch bite at Lake Lanier, but how do you locate those fish and catch them? James Harmon, known as “Lanier Jim,” or LJ for short, has spent years learning to read electronics and using them to catch Lanier bass, and his tips will help you. In 2012, I…
Big spotted bass are feeding from the surface down to 35 feet deep at Lake Lanier this month. You can catch October bass all month long on a variety of baits by fishing humps and points that have wood cover. Lake Lanier’s 40,000 acres on the upper Chattahoochee River northeast of Atlanta is ranked in…
Parker Guy teamed up with Tyler Campbell to represent Emmanuel College in the Georgia Bass Nation state championship that was held on Lake Lanier Oct. 8. They won with five bass weighing 17.58 pounds and had big fish with a 4.49-lb. spotted bass. Their weight beat out 17 other college teams, and the win earned them…
Editor’s Note: George Stewart “Stew” Medlin passed away on Sept. 20, 2023. In addition to being a fishing guide, Stew was the longtime bar manager at Gino’s NY Pizza Bar in Atlanta, where the bar has been renamed Stew’s Watering Hole in his honor. Stew’s Obituary Lake Lanier is famous for its big spotted bass,…