Black bass fishing has been fair and crank baits in the middle of the day are working up lake. Use a DT6 Rapala crank bait in hot mustard, a Shad Rap or Bomber 6a or 7a and use 10 pound test Sufix and fish the warming clay banks.

This is a good time head up the rivers and find the warm and off-colored waters. There are lots of areas above Gainesville Marina and past the Little Hall area that have small fingers off the rivers that have shallow cover close to the banks. So watch the water temperature all day and find any warming waters.

Early and late, go to all black or all brown 3/8-ounce Strike King Jigs with either a Zoom salt trailer or an Uncle Josh pork trailer can work. Try swimming the jigs on and around cover then drop them into the cover after a few swimming casts. Run a Leverage spinner bait in the 3/8- ounce size with silver and gold blades in either the willow leaf or Colorado combinations on any wood.

Later each day up river, use the chartreuse and white Bill Norman crank baits or the chrome and blue combination Shad Rap crank bait. Work these baits right up on points but get the baits run as deep as 12 feet for strikes.

Spotted bass are feeding almost all day. In the middle of the day, spots are biting all white 3/8- ounce Rooster Tails, Sammy 85’s, a shad Spittin Image and all white crank baits. The Zara Spook Jr. in the salt water bone pattern has been deadly all day. You may not see feeding fish, but with a slow easy retrieve, this bait calls them to the bait. When they bite it, they eat it. Several times a day, you will have to dig the bait out of their gullet.

Shady Grove Park has been very good for spots all day on all the baits. Spotsticker jigs are the go to baits and these lead heads with a Zoom finesse worm on a spinning reel, and 8 or 10 pound test has been an excellent all day. The Spot Sticker allows anglers to feel the light strikes and the spots will pick up this lead head and hook combinations and swim off with the whole rig in their mouth. Dipping the soft plastics is to dip the tail in clear garlic.

We are also catching some good fish -- not a lot -- on the 1.4 ounce green Strike King Bitsey Bug with a 4 inch green Yamamoto twin tail trailer. Use some Mega Strike gel on the baits, and the spots seem to hold on to the bait longer. Drop shot rigs are accounting for lots of fish, and this is an easy rig to use. Just be sure to keep your line tight while fishing the baits.

Zoom mini lizards are also good lure to use on the drop shot. Use a 3/16-ounce sinker on the bottom of the rig or lighter. Spoons like the ½-ounce white and blue Flex-It are also working. Use this size, as all the bait fish the spots are eating are very small.

Sit on the end of a point over 30 feet of water and watch the Lowrance 332C. You will actually see the spots on the bottom. Be sure to sit still with the boat nose into the wind and drop the spoon right to the bottom and hop it only 5 inches off the bottom. Strikes occur on the fall 85% of the time. Live minnows will work on the drop shot too. Sand worms, natural blue and cinnamon green pig and jigs or creepy crawlers are the baits of choice. Be sure to drop a ½-ounce Flex-It spoon on the same locations.

Stripers are scattered and there are some fish schooling, but it’s limited. This has been a tough month as the water continues to drop and the full moon is passing. Water temperatures are varying mid-lake also, and there is still a little turnover effect going on, too. Main lake creek mouths are the best areas, and if the wind is blowing down lake, be sure to work main lake humps and points. Just stick to the major creek mouths from River Forks to the dam. The mouth of Big Creek and the south end of Three Sisters are good areas.

Look out in front of Lake Lanier Islands around marker #8 and at marker #9. A few sea gulls are showing up, so keep watch for them. Just be versatile and use spoons, Super Spooks, Red Fins and buck tails, as well as live bait. Vary your bait sizes and styles, as many stores have all sorts of sizes of baits to choose from. Live baits include herring -- and add a few large shiners. Flat lines seem to be best but have a top water lure ready, and a 115 Sammy is a great choice in Aurora Black.

Many anglers are hunting for hours before running up on some schoolers. If the fish don’t bite, use a small shiner or a spoon or small buck tail with a shiner as a trailer might work.

Crappie fishing has been fair, and the up lake creeks are best with a little stained water. Fish are around the deeper docks -- around 17 feet deep. Tiny minnows and small tubes on the lighter jig heads fished on a down line will work.

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. Ex. -- 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.

Southern Fishing Schools
106 Hickory Ridge
www.havefunfishing.com
770-889-2654
Cumming, Georgia 30040