Lanier striper report 10/14/13

The fishing on Lanier continues to disappoint despite the fact that we are now squarely on the full moon. While I expected the fish to be all over the surface and tearing it up the past few days, it has been just the opposite. The fish have scattered and have been non existent for top water anglers. What probably caused the fishing to become slow is the mild weather we have seen over the past 7 days. Water temps have climbed back up into the mid 70’s and we need this to fall a good 3-5 degrees before the top water action kicks into high gear. For now, I am postponing trips til the bite kicks in but continuing to monitor and fish thru the slow days. Even the spotted bass have gone deep! Very unusual to see this but not to worrisome at all. The small bait is out over the channel and can be seen both early and late in the day. This is exactly what one would expect to see this time of year and once the water temps drop a little we will see our bite kick in just as if someone flipped on a light switch. Hang in there! it is coming very soon. We always talk about the fishing going off around baseball’s world series. Well the world series is 7-10 days away…GO TIGERS! Stay tuned and hope to see you on the pond!  HC

Lanier striper report 9/24/13

Well it is that time of year again only it is starting earlier than normal. The stripers are already hitting the surface and taking them on both fly and top water lures has started. Fish into the teens have been caught the last week and it is only going to get better as the waters cool down. Both early in the mornings and late in the afternoons are best. However we caught them from 1-3pm this week too! Best bet is to look for fish south of Browns Bridge. Spotted bass are also schooling along with the stripers. We are now booking trips for the fall run. The last 2 years have shown some of the best fishing of the year during October and November. Chug bugs for conventional tackle and poppers and crease flies for fly rods are what we are using. Stay tuned as we will start posting photos over the next few weeks. Fish are schooling in both small groups of 8-12 fish and large groups from 40-50 fish. You can see them busting a long ways off on the lake. So it is important to keep binoculars handy to scan the water for surface feeders… See you on the pond!

Henry

Lanier striper report 4/7/13

Hit the pond this morning for some dock light fishing and some up on the bank fishing. Had the boys from Southern Culture on the Fly E-Zine out with me today. The weather was fantabulous! The fishing wss as good as the weather. Fish are now moving north for the spawn and are shallow. I mean right in the skinniest water you can imagine. Using mostly intermediate lines and some fairly fast sink lines too. We managed close to 20 fish (combination of spotted bass and striped bass). The spots were up to 3+ lbs and the stripers went to near 12 lbs. Most of the stripers were in the 3-5 lb range. Clousers and coyotes were the ticket. The bait is up on the banks and the fish are right there with them. We also hit a few dock lights heading north and saw some BIG gals still swimming and eating on the lights. With the warm weather finally here you need to just get out on the water and take advantage fo some great fishing! Hope to see you on the pond… HC

Lanier striper report 3/31

We continue to see some really nice fish being caught in the backs of the coves as the water temps continue to warm as we head into spring. Stripers are feeding on very small shad in the 2- 2 1/2″ size range. Clousers and somethin’ else flies are still the ticket. While I always carry a sinking line in my boat, I am stictly tossing intermediate lines up and onto the banks of the coves. Many of my eats are coming in under 7 feet of water and in some cases in just 2-3′ of water. This is my favorite time on Lanier as we are fishing skinny to BIG fish. Most fish this past week hae aeraged over 15 lbs. Biggest this week on fly was a 21 lb fish. This pre-spawn bite will continue for another weekbefore the fish start leaving the coves and head north for their spawning run. When that happens, the spotted bass should start moving shallow making for the best of the spring bite with both stripers and spots being caught on fly. This is usually when we get our most eats for the year on the fly. Dock lights continue to produce nice sized fish on slightly bigger baits tossing sinking lines. The dock light bite will surely continue to get stronger throughout the spring. I had a busmans holiday yesterday (opening day of trout season) when both Jimmy Harris and Jeff Durniak took a morning off to fish the pond in Jimmy’s new boat. It was great fun and both trout guys had a ball. Jeff hooked, landed and released a 15+ lb striper on a little fly he tied. Ironic to see two of No GA biggest trout names fishing stripers on opening day 🙂  Now is the time to get out and fly fish the pond. Hope to see you there… HC

Lanier striper report 3/9

OK fellas…spring has officially arrived and the striper bite is pretty good. We have two patterns to fish. The dock light bite is okay. Not as consistent as it will be in a week or two but the fish on the lights now are beasts! We saw a couple of 20+ lb fish earlier this week. Fish are feeding on medium sized threadfin shad so flies of choice will be coyotes, Clousers and baitfish patterns. The second bite is the back of the cove bite. Now is the time to toss small flies (somethin else, Clousers and coyotes) in the backs of the coves. Fish are in ALL the coves. Just make sure you start at first light or be there for last light as that is when they roll on top the best. FIsh are moxed in size. Some fish are 3-5 lbs and others are teen sized. You need to bring two outfits… intermediate line and a fast sink. Use your fishfonder to locate both the bait and the stripers. Some monster largemouth are also being caught. It’s time folks to get in on some really nice fishing in shallow water. Hope to see you on the pond.

HC

Lanier striper report 1/6/13

Well it has been quite a while since my last report. Fishing was terriffic in Nov but most of Dec was a bust. Right around Christmas the dock lights lit up with fish and the fish that were mostly down south began migrating north. The coves are starting to load up with shad and the fish are following them into the creeks. Winter as we know it has arrived. Small to medium sized flies along with sinking lines are the norm. It pays to keep an intermediate line in the boat in case you see fish on the surface or running the banks. My best fly now has been a coyote fished on a sinking line. Simply hard to beat. Today was one of those really fun days where the fish just ate the way they are supposed to. We caught them on fly and on spoons., Flies outfished the spoons 2:1. My client today hooked approx 15 fish on both fly and conventional outfits. We had 4 fish hooked on dock lights and 4 fish on spoons along with another 5 or so on flies after first light. Wed also caaught a couple of really nice spotted bass to 4 lbs on fly. Just a great day  overall. Most fish are in the 10-12 lb class with fish to 20 lbs caught ths past week. I suspect this will continue for some time. Now is the time to really find the large schools of fish on the fishfinders. I love the winter! See you on the pond.

HC

Lanier striper report

Well I finally have some good news to blog…the top water bight appears to be in full swing. Water temps dropped to the low/mid 60’s and that is just what the striped bass and spotted bass wanted to see happen. Fish are feeding on top all over the south end of the lake and some of the area we call mid-lake. They are busting both early and late in the day and the schools while not enormous are big enough to get your fly or top water bait to them. Fish are mixed sizes with plenty of 8-12 lb fish as well as 2-5lb fish too. Best top water baits are a bone redfin and a bone top dog. For fly anglers a pole dancer or pucker lips will get you a few bights but nothing beats an intermediate line with a coyote tied on. Keep a set of binoculars in the boat and just drive till you see the explosions. We are now booking trips thru the season and Nov and Dec are typically a really great time to fish Lanier. Dock lights are also in full swing however the fish on the lights are on the smaller side. That will change as the bigger fish move up the water column and start pushing further north. C’mon boys….it’s top water time. Get your Carhardts on and give it a go! See you on the pond…

Lanier striper report 9/28

Welcome back to our fishing reports! Summer was spent catching carp on the Hooch and hybrids on Allatoona with a little Hooch striper fishing mixed in. Now we are back to business on the pond. Typically early October is mostly a smattering of scattered top water striper fishing along with schooling spotted bass. As the weather starts to cool off we will see more and more stripers schooling on the south end of the lake. These fish moght be on small threadfin but could also be on 3″-5″ bluebacks. I would cary both a floating and an intermediate fly line and have both a surface and sub surface fly tied on, FIsh will be seen popping both out in open water as well as inside some of the south ends major creeks. There are no birds yet to key in on so a set of binoculars is a must. The key is to just drive and look until you find fish schooling. This might occur in the morning or in the afternoon. The dock light bite is still a few weeks away so no need to start looking at that pattern yet. We are now booking trips for mid to end October when the bite should really kick in. Last year the fall bite was easily our best and most consisitent of the season. For those wanting to catch some spots, your best bet is to fish the points in about 15’to 25′ of water and throw your top water baits over some brush. The spots are big and starting to get active. Man I just love the fall on Lanier. This is a great time of year to do a witching hour trip. Hope to see you on the pond!

 

HC

No GA fishing report 5/23

Well Lanier is basically over! We never had much of a spring bite and what little bite we had was short lived. The fish are scattered and running into them has been a chore.The spotted bass fishing has been good and that is certainly a plus for anglers looking to wet a line on the pond. However for me….I am done on Lanier until I get a good report from some of the bait guides. Dock lights still are holding fish but they are mostly smaller stripers in the 2-4lb size. At this point I am switching gears over to both Lake Allatoona for the top water hybrid bite and the Hooch for either stripers below Morgan Falls dam or carp above Morgan Falls dam. I have been to Allatoona a few times now and while it has been a tad hit or miss you will always see some fish schooling on the lake. It is just a matter of whether you are going to catch 3 or 4 fish one day versus 12 fish on another. These hybrids are just a great fighting fish and are perfect on both 6-8 wt rods. I really like to fish a 7 wt. FIsh are eating small threadfin shad and finding the big schools up is not too hard. As for carp fishing the Hooch, I have gone two times in the past week and we have fed 5 fish on two trips. This fishery is just heating up and should kick fully into gear over the next couple of weeks. Time to leave the Cumming/Gainesville area and start fishing south and west! See you on the dead sea or the Hooch!

Lanier striper report 4/15

It appears most of our striped bass are still up both rivers on their annual spawning run. For the past 7 days the only stripers I have been able to target are on the lakes many dock lights. After the lights shut off the stripers appear to be ghosts and disappear completely. Today, we were able to raise a nice sized striper on a point using a walk-the-dog type lure from Rapala. We also marked some fish over the past 2-3 days and while they were not caught the signs of the fish moving down river and back into the lake is clearly evident. While the stripers have been on vacation, the spotted bass fishing has been pretty consistent. Top water flies and lures have taken many nice spotted bass over the past week to ten days. Yes there are also some small fish that you need to weed through but the action has been very good for the most part. Fish are concentrating on the points around the entire lake. Both north and south have produced but I am staying north as the stripers will have to pass through this area before heading south again. Best flies have been both Flat Freds and gurglers along with crease flies. It shouldn’t be long before the pole dancer becomes the fly of choice when the stripers come back in full strength. For conventional anglers, try throwing medium sized Sammy’s, top dogs and sppoks as well as medium sized chug bugs. We are closing in on the best part of the spring run. I still have some open dates in the middle of May. See you on the pond…

HC