JC's 2009 Lake Lanier fishing reports

Wow that was some tough fishing last night We hit the Northern stretch of Lanier and really worked hard for 3 fish. We stayed on the water till 2am from about 6pm and tried just about every style lure we had in the boat. Ive never seen bass fishing this tough on lake lanier before and neither has my buddy and hes been fishing Lanier for 20 years. Surface temps were still at 91 degrees at 1am

Thats some warm water....Atleast you caught 3

Wow! Sorry to hear the fishing is getting tough for you there, Terry.. It has been VERY tough here all year. Fish just do not want to budge this year. I haven't seen fishing this bad around here in a LONG time..... Kinda scary....

Sorry about the tough fishing. That cats have been biting pretty good for me but most of them are little dinks.

Heck, I've only caught 2 channels this year. I posted the one and the other one wasn't worth sharing LOL.... It was a baby flathead about 5" long LOLOL....

Another slow day of fishing this morning. Tried for stripers in the new rig. We checked all the summer time hot spots and didnt mark many fish in any of them. Went to a creek arm in the South end of the Lake and there was at least 35 striper boats there and I cant tell you what the hell they were fishing for cause we didnt mark a damned thing anywhere in that whole creek arm. We finally found some fish not far from the house in deep water 55ft down over a 96ft bottom and they wouldnt even give our baits a sniff. Gonna head out tomorrow morning before the animals wake up and hit the lake again around noon. Today was amazing by 1pm there were no short of 1000 boats on Lanier.

WOW!~! Sorry to hear the fishing is still tough for you. I haven't been able to get out fishing in the last couple weeks. I've been too busy with working and other things that I've been taking care of when I have some time off. Which, isn't much here lately. Hope you start to do better on the fishing soon, Terry! Thanks for the report! We all enjoy reading them!~!

That warm water might have the bite slowed down.

Well I layed out of work today to fix the A/C system. Rick got home around 4pm with a few dozen herring in the bait bucket so away we went. Got to the first spot and never left because the fish finder was stacked high and low with stripers by far the most Ive ever seen in one area. Probably in the hundreds but dont let that fool you as they were not very active when it came to feeding. We made several passes over them which the school was probably a hundred yards long and nary had but a tap. So I suggested a technique to Rick that sometimes pays off on lethargic fish "power reeling" which is basically dropping a bucktail to the bottom and reeling it up through the fish as fast as humanly possible to entice a reaction strike. When we got over top of a good bunch he dropped down and burned it back up and bingo fish on first try which was about a 5lbr and a few feet later on this pass we picked up another one on a live herring around 7lbs. And it was pick and go from there we would pick one up power reeling here and there and it seemed to get another fish excited and another rod would double down on a herring. All together we caught 7 fish to 10lbs combined on both techniques. First striper I caught since May 24th and his first since who the hell knows LOL Which felt real good and the skunk has been kicked off the new boat in style


Now the only downside to all this is I broke another camera which I left in the tackle bag in the rain overnight so this one is fried now to.
But I did buy insurance on it at walmart which also covers water damage

Man that is great that you have that skunk out of the boat and off your shoulders, but now the camera thing lolol you just have no luck with those do ya. Thanks for the report terry hope things keep on the good side with the fish for ya.

Glad to hear the skunk is off the boat for you, Terry! Sorry to hear about your camera. Maybe you need to get an "indestructible" one LMFAO!~! You may have better luck with one of those!~! Glad to hear you caught some fish though. Thanks for the great report!~!

Sounds like a fish fry coming.

Howdy Gang been a while LOL Personally I havent been fishing much lately. I guess I just spoiled myself rotten during the spring and just cant find the same joy in the summer time bite I did however get out over the weekend with my buddy from work to Lake Burton up in the mountains and wow is all I can think of We didnt catch any fish which was disappointing but the scenery was well worth it. Lake Burton is a very old impoundment from the early 1900's and while its not huge on Southern reservoir standards it is huge on beauty. Its tucked in between untouched woods and mountains with beautiful colonials and wood cabins nestled in the lake wooded surroundings. The docks on this lake are old style dutch cabin docks that are covered docks beneath with small cottages built on top (BIG $) The lake boasts the biggest pound for pound spotted bass catches in the country consistently with minimal fishing pressure. We didnt catch any cause I believe we had went about it all wrong but we did get into a school of big BATS It seemed everytime we would cast we would get dive bombed by 3 or more bats zeroing in on the lures and rods I cant tell you how many times we set the hook on a bat bumping are line and almost falling out of the boat trying to cross a fishes eyes that wasnt there If you get the chance search lake burton on yahoo and check out the pictures of this lake. I would have taken plenty of pictures but I still dont have a camera

Now Rick on the other hand has been doing well on the stripers in the evening but I dont approve of it cause the survival rates for stripers pulled from depths of 50ft or more in the summer are low with the low oxygen and high water temps but to each his own I guess. Hes been pulling them from 50 to 85 deep over a 90 to 130ft bottom. The stripers are in full summer mode and schooling up in the hundreds but tightly packed so they can be hard to find but when you find them the action is second to none.

Glad to see youre back....We were wondering what happened to you....Nice fish as always.

Sorry to hear you didn't catch any fish at Lake Burton. But as you said, the scenery was well worth the trip. Any time to the mountains is a great time. Nice catches, Rick! It's about time you have gotten back on the board and posted. We figured you found another mermaid and took off somewhere and got married LOLOLOL.

Awesome report buddy from the both of you, congrats on the fine looking fish looks like they at least kept one of you busy. glad to see ya back on the board and hope to see more of ya terry even if your not fishing buddy.

Well now that the idgits have all gone back to Atlanta to winter over. Aint really been fishing much lately and took a good look at the poor old brown boat and she really got the snot beat out of her over labor day weekend it will be nice now that all those wakeboats and cruisers start disapearing.

I decided to get back out and start to pick up a pattern and get on the morning bite again. Started the past 2 mornings before daybreak creeping my way up flat creek about a mile and a half into some super skinny water about 3 feet deep and 17ft wide (I know this cause Ive gotten the boat stuck twice sideways LOL).

Yesterday morning was slow although I seen a lot of fish with the spotlight cruising. I managed 2 dinky little spots and missed a small striper.

This morning I took some small redfins and Yozuri crystal minnows to slow roll subsurface and damn glad I did I managed my new personal best spotted bass that had to go 5lb maybe 6lbs but I will say 5 even just to be safe. And a change I noticed this morning was the amount of bigger fish I seen in the shallow stretches this morning. I saw tons of channel cats with the spotlight in less than 3ft of water and also seen 3 stripers that would have went 12+lbs along with the many many 2 and 3lbrs. I caught 4 more spots to about 2lbs and 2 stripers to 4lbs and had one of the bigger stripes hooked for a few seconds but trying to control a striper on a 8ft 6in noodle rod spooled with 6lb test in such tight quarters is virtually impossible

After the sun came up the fish got more wary of what was going on and tapered off to almost nothing so I went and check a few main points close to the house and worked them with a deep diving crank and picked up 2 more spots before the trolling motor started to peter out on me.

All in all a pretty fun morning and I think I enjoyed watching the fish with the light as much as I did catching them. I hope tomorrow is just as much fun

Well yesterday just sucked from top to bottom!!! I went out at 4am and warmed up the boat and pulled off at 4:30am immediately seen that one of our neighbors had left some bright dock lights on for me to investigate. Got within 100yrds and dropped the trolling motor and went into stealth mode.

As I got closer to the dock I started marking tons of bait and fish all around it and figured I had stepped in shit and was going to tear them up. NOT!!! I fished that damned dock for over an hour throwing everything but the kitchen sink and managed one tap with a tiny swimshad. Fish would occasionally come up chasing bait under the lights but they never would keep at it. I am left wondering if they were crappie that I was marking and just wasnt matching my bait size to the fish.

Finally got frustrated and cruised over to the creek Ive been fishing with good success. Got back into the really narrow shallow section and dropped the T-motor. My 3rd cast was met with a loud crash on the surface and was surprised at the size of the striper I had hooked up with. After about a 30 second fight my line went slack and I was really swole about that. I reeled up my bomber and seen that one of the back trebles had straightened out which aloud that fish to get away. Another 2 casts later I casted that lucky bomber about 20ft into a tree overhanging the water. I tried like hell for about 15 minutes to get the lure out but eventually had to break it off. Now Im just totally pissed off and steaming at my luck so far. I then proceeded to try just about every lure in my bag and nary a sniff after that. There were plenty of fish in the creek whenever I turned the light on to check my depth I could see bass and stripers at just about every spot.

The sun started to brighten things up and from experience this is usually the end of that super shallow bite in the creek. I then turned to a chug bug surface popper and worked my way back towards the lake. I hit a good stretch of creek where I was hooking a fish for every 20ft of shoreline covered and every damned one of them pulled off next to the boat as they were short striking the plug and getting hooked thinly on the back treble. I must have had about 7 of them pull off within 2 feet of putting them in the boat.

Now Im just irritated and cussing like a sailor as to the fact Ive lost my favorite lure, lost a big fish, had every danged bass I hooked come off boatside and have yet to put my hands on an actual fish!!! I finish working my way out of the creeks and start heading up the shoreline where it enters the bay behind the house.

As Im rounding the first point a mega$$ bass boat comes flying up and stops 20yrds from where Im fishing and begins to fish the stretch of shoreline that Im fishing and the sunnuvabitch stays ahead of me the whole time fishing what I was clearly charting to fish. I finally flipped my friggin lid and just layed into this asswhipe. I inform him that he has no damned respect or fishing etiquette whatsoever. He starts jawing back at me and I just about got up on him flirted with the idea of knocking him the hell out. He has a 50K bass boat and can fish anywhere instead he comes and cuts me off and prefishes everything I was obviously charting to fish in such an ignorant jerkoff way that I just popped!!

Now Im hot and my blood pressure is through the roof!! I decide I had seen enough and fire up the motor to go in search of points with deep water. I button everything down, sit down swing the baseball cap backwards and READY!?!? SET!!!! NO!!!!!!!! I throw the throttle forward and not a damned thing happens except the sound of the motor hitting a Kajillion RPM's. What the hell?? I throw it in reverse...nothing....check the linkage under the dash and every thing looks up to snuff. Go pop the cover off the motor and everything is in line. I swung my big head over the back of the boat and take a look in the water and hmm aint that rich I think to myself as I see........I AINT GOT NO FRIGGIN PROP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now Im just laughing my ass off out of pure frustration and sit back in my chair and light up a smoke. I finally get myself together after flirting with the idea of tossing all my gear in the water and set the course for home with the trolling motor. After that I was spent and took a nap till Rick woke me up and asked if I wanted to head out for stripers in the big boat LMAO!! Thats a story in itself and I will save that one for tomorrow.

I've had those kind of days...They truly suck....Atleast you came home alive and a free man.

Sorry to hear you had such bad luck fishing the last couple times you've been out. I completely understand what you're saying about jerkoff's that doesn't have ANY respect for anyone.... Been there done that. Glad to hear you didn't throw your gear in the water though, as you have spent thousands of dollars on your equipment and would hate to hear you threw it in the drink just cuz you were pissed........... Hope you have better luck tomorrow.

Holy crap Terry i hate days like that, yes i have been there and done just about everything you did but i wasn't fishing stripers. Man i do not miss those days one bit, hopefully things will work out for you better next time.

Man, that's suck.. I have expierence with it before.. thats really suck!

Well folks I aint gonna dredge up all the details but my boat sank twice in 6 days and now she is polished clean and running like a champ waiting for its next owner. Im selling it because it was not ment to be a boat left in water year round and shes just getting the snot kicked out of her more and more as time goes on. Im going to be in the market for an aluminum really soon. So my lack of reports will drop off even further until I find a new ride for a good price that can take being tied up dock side.

jerseycat9 wrote:

Well folks I aint gonna dredge up all the details but my boat sank twice in 6 days and now she is polished clean and running like a champ waiting for its next owner. Im selling it because it was not ment to be a boat left in water year round and shes just getting the snot kicked out of her more and more as time goes on. Im going to be in the market for an aluminum really soon. So my lack of reports will drop off even further until I find a new ride for a good price that can take being tied up dock side.

Holy crap that sucks Terry, i have had a couple of my boats sink on me before also and i know the work that it is, get yourself a pontoon buddy there awesome for room and almost im possible to flip.

Sorry to hear about your boat sinking Terry. I agree with Mike though... I think a pontoon would work really well....