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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
Scott Barnes reports that is took 20.95 pounds to win the Ameris Bank Mortgage/Hammonds bass tournament over the weekend. The winners were Cole Cloud and Justin Padgett. It took 19.02 pounds to get in the money, and eight places were paid. Many teams fished from the mouths of the pockets to the very backs in shallow water. Moving baits that produced fish were Keitech swimbaits on 3/16-oz. heads and jerkbaits. The wind helped the bite. Also, several draggers caught good bags with a 1/4-oz. jig and a shaky head in the 10- to 15-foot range. Lots of male fish are up, and you have to weed through them to get a bigger bite. A few teams did sight fish and brought in 16 to 17 pounds of largemouth. Two bags had all largemouth by sight fishing. Overall the bass fishing is very good at Lake Lanier. The next Hammonds tournament…
Read MoreLake Lanier Articles
Justin Nalley, of Hampton, caught a five-bass limit weighing 22-lbs., 8-ozs. on Feb. 18 to win the MLF Phoenix BFL on Lake Lanier. The tournament was the first event of the 2023 season for the BFL Bulldog Division. Justin earned $5,970 for his victory. Justin’s win came in his first BFL event fished as a…
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…
Limestone Creek has a new look thanks to WRD’s Gainesville and Burton Fisheries’ staff. Crews planted 775 maidencane plants and 10 bald cypress trees that will prevent bank erosion, provide areas for spawning, hiding places for juvenile fish and foraging habitat. The new additions are also expected to provide nutrients to the water. “With the…
Lake Lanier is famous for its big spotted bass, and in August you can catch them from top to bottom on points, roadbeds and humps near deep water. They may be chasing bait on top, suspended in the water column or on the bottom, but fishing the right places with the right baits will put…
Chris Daniel, of Cumming, isn’t a dad guilty of not spending enough time with his kids. In fact, he spent so much time with them in 2021 that two of his sons collected a total of 41 WRD Georgia Angler Awards for various fish species in Lake Lanier. “I have three kids who love to…
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 | 15-lbs., 8.8-ozs. | Matthew Haynes | 04/09/23 |
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…
Lake Lanier is famous for its big spotted bass, and in August you can catch them from top to bottom on points, roadbeds and humps near deep water. They may be chasing bait on top, suspended in the water column or on the bottom, but fishing the right places with the right baits will put…