“The Original Southern Fishing Report”
Ken Sturdivant
106 Hickory Ridge
www.havefunfishing.com
770-889-2654
Cumming, Georgia 30040

LAKE LANIER IS DOWN 9.85 FEET, THE CREEKS ARE SLIGHTLY STAINED AND THE MAIN LAKE IS CLEAR & 63 DEGREES

Largemouth bass fishing is fair. A spinner bait with willow leaf and Colorado blades in silver and gold’s are fair and add a white and chartreuse skirt. Use the small Spittin Image top water baits in bream and shad patterns up lake. Also have a Storm Chug Bug ready and work the shallow points that hold a little mud line close to shore. 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 deep docks since all the wood on the banks is out of the water. Skip Zoom Super Flukes into docks up lake in the creeks and they will attract the fish. Pearl was the best color. Concentrate your efforts on up lake docks where deep water is present. The docks in the mouth of Little River are good areas because the docks are at or close to deep water. Go past the big rock point and fish all the docks in the narrows. Natural color or bone color Bomber 6A crank baits are working on the sides of points leading into shallow coves. Work the top water bait s early and late and 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 one ounce or smaller as the bait fish hatched recently are very small. If we get a warm up the first of next week and we should, use Bandit 200 crank baits in pearl and root beer in the back of Balus on the docks on the right side on the creek. This is warmer water and crank baits work well back there.

Spotted bass are biting lake wide and there are some big spots out there. Spoons in the ditches in the middle of the lower lake creeks can yield a bonanza. Behind Aqualand Marina are several long deep coves with great ditches. Just ride around these coves and look for the fish to be close to the bottom and drop the spoon or the drop shot. Use several spoons in colors and sizes and look around the larger marinas as a back up area. The 3/16 ounce Fish Head Spin with a Zoom fluke added in white fished with a slow retrieve like a crank bait will get spots and stripers. The 3/16 ounce Spot Sticker and a Zoom finesse worm are deadly combinations all day. Drop shot rigs and finesse worms are also very effective. Docks and the same deep locations down lake are perfect to try these techniques. Rig the drop shot with a #1 mosquito style hook by Mustad. It really does not seem to matter what color worm you use, after 20 feet deep, they are all black. Keep your rod tip tight and do not drop the rod while fishing this bait. Pick deep docks down lake and around Lake Lanier Islands. Green worms in a variety of shades will be the best way to draw these fish to the baits. Use a small Zoom green or black Zoom mini lizard with red flakes. Be sure to work the baits very slowly. Early in the week, spots have been all over main lake points and reef markers. Zara Spooks, High rollers, Chug Bugs all worked and color is not an issue. The island in the mouth of Young Deer Creek was exceptional all week. Lots of schoolers up to 4 pounds were feeding. For some reason, about 5pm, they disappeared. Also at marker #26 in the mouth of Flat Creek, spots are schooling. The Lowrance 332C lit up with lots and lots of spots of all sizes all the to 30 feet deep. The only down side this week is the cold wind and the cold weather. The first freeze is expected tonight (Thursday). Live night crawlers on a 1/8 ounce jig head worked vertically on and around deep docks can work. Use the vertical presentation and let the bait rest dead on the bottom. This tactic works better later each day. The deeper the docks, the bigger the spots. The points inside Holiday Marina are never fished. No one ever goes into the marina and work the points. The deep cove right across from the west ramp in Big Creek also has some great points and deep docks you can doodle or spoon, depending on how deep you want to fish. Sixty feet is not deep on Lanier. Also look in the marinas and there is a good pattern on these large docks from 25 to 40 feet deep. The fish are moving around under these docks so keep a close eye on the Lowrance. With an Aqua Vu camera, you can see these fish under the docks. Try some extra scent on the plastics and this may help the fish hold the baits long enough to feel the strike and set the hook. Try a ¼ ounce Bitsey Bug jig in pumpkinseed with a small trailer by Zoom in the same colors. Shady Grove Park has been good on any point.

Striper fishing has been good down lake and live bait is the key. Shady Grove Park and the mouth of Orr Creek have schooling fish and they have been there all week. Scale down your bait sizes if the fish do not eat large baits. Look for a few sea Gulls working bait and put out either herring or large shiners on free lines with or without balloons or use planer boards. Place these baits 35 to 45 feet deep on down lines this week. Be sure to check your baits about every 20 minutes to be sure a gar has not taken a swipe and killed the bait. Keep eye on the Lowrance. A 5/8 ounce white buck tail with a white curly tail trailer should pick an extra fish or two casting to schoolers. Most of the surface feeding activity has been early in the day. The mouth of Big Creek out in front of the marina also has schoolers feeding at any time. We did not see any fish around the dam, East bank or the saddle dike for some reason. You will also find some groups of fish that will stay on the surface longer, which is a nice change of pace from the one cast and they are gone system. Once you have them found cast small buck tails. Sometimes when you are trying to downsize, fish the jig without a trailer or trim the hair flush with the bottom of the hook to give it a smaller profile and eighth to half ounce, white with small or no trailers, small top waters, or a rooster tail or similar in line spinnerbait’s. The float and minnow rig that is so effective in the spring will also work now, especially if the fish are on the banks. A medium minnow will do well on the float rig. If you are in a group of fish that is staying on the surface for a while, pull a free line or balloon rig while you are casting. Small bait on light line will help. Night fishing is still slow except for a few small stripers. The bigger spots are eating large Bombers at night. Just be on a main lake point and make 30 casts. If they are there, they will attack a trout colored 15 A Bomber or the same bait in the Assault. Depths are ranging anywhere from 20 to 45 feet deep at the bends in the creeks and off the points.

Crappie are not too deep at 19 feet and offshore structure is a magnet. Look in the coves mid lake and watch the deeper docks for man made brush piles. Jigs are working better than minnows so leave the live bait out for now.

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.

Ken Sturdivant
106 Hickory Ridge
www.havefunfishing.com
770-889-2654
Cumming, Georgia 30040