Largemouth bass fishing is fair. A spinner bait with willow leaf and Colorado blades in silver and golds are fair and add a white and chartreuse skirt. ‘Spittin Image’ top water baits’ bream and shad patterns are also working especially up lake. Also have a Storm Chug Bug ready and work the shallow points. Later in the day switch to a Texas rigged six inch Zoom green pumpkin u tail work or other green colors. The bass relate to and around almost any wood in the water.

Up lake in the Little River Forks, many of the shallow docks on the northwest side of the area have some bass schooling in and under them. There are several inlets on the left side of the creek with several large docks that are all good locations for the bass to hold in and the water is very shallow and warm. Use a white Zoom Super Fluke in and under these docks. Concentrate your efforts on up lake docks and any wood found along the shore line right across from the Wahoo Creek access point and there are several small trees in the water. Natural color or bone color Bomber 6A crank baits are working on the sides of points leading into shallow coves. Work the top water baits early and late, cover a lot of water and don't waste too much time. Keep a spoon ready for the suspended fish on the points as they will relate to schools of shad. Keep your spoons to a one half ounce or smaller as the bait fish hatched recently are very small.

Spotted bass fishing is good and there are a lot of fish biting lots of different baits. As the water cools, spots are feeding on shad and herring all over the lake. Keep some type of top water bait on a rod all day and watch for schooling fish to pop up. Spots are eating lot of baits from top water to jigs. There are some big spots taking super spooks, red fins, chug bugs, and weightless flukes. If the wind is up, try jerk baits and spinner baits as they can be very productive as well. The fish are on the move and can be found in on variety of structures and depths.

The Lanier Standard, a good ole brush pile, is hard to beat and may be the most consistent structure. Concentrate on main lake brush, around 25 feet deep. Fish lake wide are relating to points, humps and man-made brush piles as they start feeding for Fall’s colder weather. At daybreak, go into Young Deer Creek and start on the first dock on the right you see. Work all the docks in the shade early and fish all the way to the back of the deep pocket. When you see the sail boat on the dock on the left side of the pocket, and then head to the points from marker #7 on the main lake. Work all the wind blown points from this marker all the way to the other side of the mouth of Bald Ridge Creek inside the deep coves past the park. Fat Albert grubs in single tails in root beer pepper green on a 1/8 ounce lead head will get you a 3 pound fish and plenty of bites. DT6 blue Rapala crank baits will work all this week all day too.

If you go up lake, just spend the day in Wahoo Creek past the bridge and fish the entire left hand bank all day. Don't overlook a crawfish colored jig on any structure and old brush piles at 25 feet are loaded with fish lake-wide. Run small green jigs, Shad Raps, DT6 crank baits and Fish Head Spins on and over these fish. Repeat this pattern on several areas and also work any shallow cuts or bowl areas that might appear along the bank. Shady Grove Park and the mouth of Big Creek right out in front of the marina on the hump to pop up any time of the day. There are some small 3 to 5 pound stripers in the mix too so be sure to have fresh line on the reels. Large Chug Bug, Sammy’s, Pop R’s, and even #7 and #9 Rapalas can work. Try to keep the wind on your back so the baits will travel a lot further. Try some of the jerk baits too, Rouges and any other suspending jerk baits will also work. Also use a Pointer 78 in Aurora Blue, American Shad and Chartreuse Shad. Just fish several types of retrieves to find the right one to trigger strikes. For a lot of numbers, use the 1/8 ounce Spotsticker with a Zoom green pumpkin, sand or red bug finesse worm on any point. In many locations lake-wide, just sit and wait and about every 20 minutes, they will pop back up. Try a spoon and cast it way out to the schools and swim it back with a moderate retrieve. Up-lake in the creeks, look on the long runs out points as they are producing some nice spots in the three pound class. White tubes and dark color worms seem to be the baits that are working the best in this area. Also check out the left hand side of the river from Gainesville Marina north. Monster spots along with some largemouth are biting all during the day in this location. Stay out of the back of the shallow creek areas.

Striper fishing is slow but it will pick up with the cooler weather on the way next week. To catch stripers, you have to be more of a hunter right now instead of a fisherman. Typical for this time of year the fish are very inconsistent and may be found in a variety of depths. Be versatile and ready to fish from the surface down to 40 or 50 feet. Searching for the school is still the best way to locate fish and the surface activity has not started yet. No birds on the lake yet. Recently we have noticed that the fish are changing some of their habits and they can be difficult to catch even when you find them. Lots of “shoppers”. This is probably a result of the stripers feeding on small threadfin shad, and if you do not match the hatch it may be tough to get the bite. Downsize your baits and you will generate more strikes.

With the fish are keying on such small baits, fish the jig without a trailer or trim the hair flush with the bottom of the hook to give it a smaller profile. Go as small an eighth to half an ounce white with small or no trailers. Also use small top waters or a White Rooster Tail or similar in-line spinners. The float and shiner rig that is so effective in the spring can also work off the deeper points on the main lake. Small baits on light line will help. Drop a spoon ½ ounce Flex it in white to them and if the fish are pretty thick, the spoon should get the bite. Try adding a herring to the spoon or use a small buck tail with a herring trailer and drop them to the fish. Down rods and herring and shiners will work on the deep fish as well if you can stay on top of them. Downsizing will be an advantage here as well. Some of the areas that have can be consistent producers are the mouth of bald Ridge, Cocktail Cove and Shady Grove Park. You will just have to keep fishing and hope the cooler weather gets them all fired up. No night bite yet.

Crappie fishing has been fair and the up-lake fishing is picking up in the warmer creeks. There is a stain up-lake and this will hold heat when the sun is out. Pick a northwest cove, large docks and then get the tube baits and small jigs in solid color. Add some Jack’s Juice scent and shoot the larger docks that are covered. Most of the lower lake docks have only small schools and small fish so stay mid to up-lake. Wahoo Creek docks close to the bridges have been good areas.

Lake Sidney Lanier ramp calculator:
http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/BoatRampElevations.htm Once on the spread sheet, at the word HERE blank that word out and then add the current lake level for that day. Today's elevation is 1061.83. Hit enter and the spread sheet will automatically calculate the end of the ramps for the entire lake. Many thanks to Mark Williams for this information.

Please visit www.havefunfishing.com for more information.