Lanier striper report 4/4

Okay so the past 4-5 days had lots of small bass being caught and the stripers were playing hide and go seek. Well here we are, 3 days from the full moon and the redfin top water bite turned on today. Only fished a couple hours this mornign to just see where to find some fish. Found them on a non redfin kind of day but they chowed on the redfin anyway. Caught 3 stripers in the 7-10 lb class all on top. Looks like with the water temps hovering @ 71-72 degrees we are in full spring swing. Top water on the points should go strong for the next couple to three weeks. Pole dancers & strip tease flies will work best on a floating line while spooks and redfins do the job on conventional tackle. Now is the time to run and gun to as many points as you can. A buddy of mine caught a 30lb striper on a redfin yesterday on the south end of the lake at 11:30am. If you do not like warm weather, beautiful sunrises and toilet bowl flushes on top water takes then this is not the time of year to fish Lanier! Fish are from the south end all the way to Little River. That means the fish are everywhere and you just need to commit to a section of the lake and fish it hard. Fish the wiggle baits (redfins and strip tease flies) on windier days while fishing the spooks and pole dancers on windless days. Now is the time to lose a little sleep and get out on the pond. See ya out there.

HC

Lanier striper report 3/24

It appears we are locked in for spring! Everything that normally happens by mid April is happening in March. Stripers are up the river running their yearly spawn while some of the immature males are hanging on the points eating anything that flies by their way. The spotted bass are all over the shallow water and it is just a #’s game of hitting as many points on the main lake as possible to rack up some big numbers. Spotties are mixed sizes with plenty of 2 1/2-4lb fish chowing in 2′-8′ of water. Clousers, coyotes and baitfish patterns are all working. Fish are everywhere!!! North, south and mid-lake. Dock lights are fishing well some days and off on others. The first and last light bite is key to getting consistent bites. Today we caught close to 18 fish of which most were bass. We did manage to hook 3 good stripers up to the mid to high teens! Had a celebrity fishing on the boat today. Film director George Lucas bought a trip to give away to one of his favorite people!!! Nice touch George….may the force be with you. See you on the pond

Lanier striper report 3/16

With all the warm weather throughout the entire country it looks as if an early spring is here and both the striped bass and spotted bass on Lanier think so too. Fish are starting to move up shallow….I mean real shallow. Yesterday we fished for 3 hours and in a short time we landed a conbination of 14 spots and stripers on fly. Most of these fish came on an intermediate line that was thrown up and onto the bank. Fish are going to stay shallow for some time now and it really pays to get an early start (especially if it is a sunny day outside). Both first light and last light will be your best bet to catch fish in knee deep water. After that it pays to toss sinking lines off of the points as the bass are getting ready to do their pre-spawn ritual and the male stripers are sticking to the points in hopes of following a big female up river to spawn. Boy do I love springtime fishing. Yesterday our biggest fish hit 16lbs on the Boga. Now is the time that the stripers look like they need to go an an all out diet as their bellies are enormous. Fish are going to be found all over the lake this time of year but I tend to stay mid lake and points north. Go gettum’! See you  on the pond

HC

Lanier striper report 3/10

Have been out of town traveing the past week so I have not had much of a chance to get out. I did get out the past couple of days and have found 2 patterns that are working very well. First of al there are plenty of fish to be found on our lake dock lights. This has been a consistently steady pattern that usually will last thru May. There is also a night time bite going on right now that is very, very good! There are also some good fish being caught in the creeks up on the banks as well as out in the deeper water in the creeks. Best bet is to use the wild life to tell you where the fish are. Look for herons, loons, gulls and terns to put you onto the fish. The fish on the banks are good size and mostly onesies and twosies. The fish in the deeper water are both small and large groups. Small flies is definately the ticket. On Friday, I went out for a couple of hours and landed a 10 and 17lb fish on a Somethin’ Else fly. Today I had a trip and yesterday evenings cold front that came through put the fish down and off their feed. We still managed to get a spot, 1 LMB and 2 stripers for our efforts. Hope the fish will rebound tomorrow! See you on the pond…

Lanier striper report 3/2

Fishing has not changed a whole bunch but I can tell you for certain that the fish are starting to work the backs of the creeks and pockets all over the lake. Best bet is to drive around and look for terns, gulls and loons to help locate the fish. Fish are on all sizes of bait but I am liking the herring flies best. Toss a fly that is between 3-5″ in length. While there are not big schools of fish on the surface, there are big singles that are cruising for an easy meal. Sometimes you are tossing flies into 5-10 feet of water and next you tossing flies out into 30-40 feet of water. I like a sinking line with a slightly longer leader to help keep your flies a tad higher in the water column. These fish are VERY aggressive and the spotted bass are showing as well in greater numbers. Look for schools of fish sub surface on your machine and keep a watch out for bait high in the water column too. BIG schools of bait are from 3/4 of the way into the backs of the coves to all the way in the back of the coves. Fish are spread out all over the lake but I am liking mid-lake best this week. This is a great time to look for a trophy! Went out with buddy Kevin Arculeo again this morning and had fish on dock lights, in the backs of the coves and about 3/4 of way back too. See you on the pond!

HC

Lanier striper report 2/26/12

Hit the lake this morning w/buddy Kevin Arculeo for a little fun fishing. Went to one of my pet dock lights and low and behold there were 4 fish swimming on the light. Two of the fish were loners that appeared to be in the low double digit size. The other two were piggies and appeared to be in the over twenty catagory! I told you on my last report that this is BIG FISH TIME. I slowly positioned the boat so Kevin would have a perfect right handed cast to the light. Kevin had an intermediate line so that we might see the take of the fish rushing the fly.I mentioned to him NOT to just toss the fly at the light but rather wait until the two big gals started to swim thru and then launch a cast in front of them so their paths would cross. As soon as I saw the two gals move into the right corner of the light, Kevin tossed the big herring fly over to te left side of the light. The lead fish saw the fly, lunged forward and left her companion. I told Kevin, “here she comes” and two seconds later Kevin was solidly hooked up to this animal. After a tremendous battle, Kevin slipped her toward my hand and we were celebrating once I grabbed hold (I am a human Boga :)…We weighed her, photoed her (using a cell phone as we had no camera) and worked her back to full strength so she could again give another angler the joy of catching a big fish. She weighed a tad over 26 lbs. Now that is a beast!!!! After that we just played half hearted. Found lots of bait in the backs of the coves. I suspect the full moon coming the week after next will surely fire ings up. Time to dust off the whppy sticks! See you on the pond. HC

Kevin Arculeo’s 26 lb dock light striper

Lanier striper report 2/24/12

Well I guess I have been remiss in keeping up with my blog. Truth is, the fishing been poor the past 4 weeks. Perfect for me as I was in the fishing show mode. First was Atlanta followed by Somerset, NJ and finally Raleigh, NC. Whew….am I tired of show season! Got back on the pond yesterday and while all reports talk about fishing being good, I have to say it is very skewed! The big fish have shown up and now is the time to cat a trophy striper. If 20+ lbs is what you want, the next 3-4 weeks is the time to go! Keep in that big fish time means fewer fish time. he guides claiming fishing is real good are not telling you that they are putting 1 or 2 fish in the boat for an entire trip. While the size is great, the bites are few and far between. Things ought to pick over the next few weeks. I was out yesterday on an exploratory trip and caught 1 fish about 13lbs on fly. Fish are still holding towrds the backs of the coves but are very spread out. They were in deep water near a shallow bank. Sinking lines and grey/wht rabbit Clousers caught my fish. No top water activity at all but there were some signs of life as herons on the banks gave away some info as well as terns circling on some choice points. Keep your eyes open and focus on the wild life this time of year. Some splashing and tails are soon to follow! See you on the pond.

HC

Lanier striper report 1/17

First I want to remind everyone that this upcoming weekend is the Great Southern Fishing Show located @ the North Atlanta Trade Center. Should be a dandy of a show!

Finally got back on the water the last couple of days and while fishing was far from stellar, I did find the fish both singles and doubles cruising on the banks some as well as some BIG schools down deep in 20-30 feet of water. Looks like we are finally getting back to what winter fishing is supose to be like. Had Alex Lunsferd (Unicoi Outfitters guide) out today and while the numbers were not great the size was. Alex caught a beauty of fish that weighed a tad under 20 lbs. Probably a high teens fish. We are seeing some really nice sized fish being taken and this should continue thru the winter. Fish are feeding on small threadfin in the 1-2″ size range. WIll be back out on the water as soon as the weather permits. See you on the pond! HC

Lanier striper report 1/8/12

A nice pair of January stripers

First let me start out by saying, “GO BIG BLUE!”… Yes, I am a huge NY Giants football fan!

Fishing on Lanier remains very consistent as the fish are moving further north and into the coves. This is what we fly anglers look for during the winter months. We were in a cove today w/4 boats and we were the only ones consistently catching fish. We landed 5 fish from 8-12 lbs. All fish were taken on sinking lines and Clouser type flies. The fish are eating as one would suspect in the winter. All eats are on the pause as the stripers like to eat the wounded shad that are free falling. Overcast days will produce better than sunny days and finding the fish can be done using wildlife and your fishfinder. We are not seeing many fish surfacing but there are a few being seen early in the morning. Looks like January will shape up to be a good month. See you on the pond! HC