JC's 2009 Lake Lanier fishing reports

Terry you always have a great report and story and i always enjoy reading them all the time, glad your boss let ya off a couple hours early to hit the water. Congrats on the lonely fish, at least you weren't skunked that just gives ya bad luck or is that when you get that monkey on your back lolol. Thanks for the report terry.

North Star wrote:

Terry you always have a great report and story and i always enjoy reading them all the time, glad your boss let ya off a couple hours early to hit the water. Congrats on the lonely fish, at least you weren't skunked that just gives ya bad luck or is that when you get that monkey on your back lolol. Thanks for the report terry.

I just hope the nights stay cool for a little while longer because it is keeping those beautiful stripers on top and as we both know aint nothing like a big fish hitting at the surface

Great fish again, Terry! Thanks for sharing. Glad your boss let you off a couple hours early to hit the water. Also, glad to hear that you didn't get skunked by fish~ LOLOL Keep the lines tight and the reports coming in!

Cool report...I hope to be reporting a catch or two soon.

Great report! Nice catch!

Got out last night after 12am and figured it would be a great night. Went in search of some bait with the cast net but for some reason the bait stayed deeper and never pushed into the creeks like usually do. Started throwing the net and it seems that I had forgotten how to throw a cast net last night or there is something wrong with it. It was hard getting it to open last night and it was pitch black so I couldnt tell if there was something wrong with it. But anywho after throwing it around for 40 minutes all I had to show for my efforts was 2 medium herring
I decided not to play games and fired up the motor and rushed back to my dock and put those two herring to work for me LOL I let them out on the planer boards so I could run one right under the lights from 30 feet away and one on the outskirts of the lights to my right. The first pass I messed up I was watching the one closest to the dock when the rod on the right side of the boat got hammered really hard and as I was tending to that rod the other rod took off just as it passed the dock. I got that little guy and then I was out of bait So I backed off the dock about 15 to 20 yards and cut the trolling motor off and started throwing artificials. Perfect night no wind and the boat stayed put. I started out throwing bombers of all sizes and colors but no takers. I could see bait being chased out of the water all around the dock with the occasional swirl behind them. I began to throw everything I had sebiles, redfins, and super zoom flukes and still no takers I downsized the flukes and managed 2 little guys biggest about 3lbs so I stuck with that for a tad longer but that was it. I decided to get closer to the dock to try and get a look at what the baitfish were they were feeding and I seen tiny little threadfins swimming around. Then t finally hit me that it may be a whole mess of little guys running around under the dock so I switched up to a super small swim shad on a lead head jig to match the hatch. Started casting towards the dock letting it sink about 3 feet and bingo fish on!!!! I would just cast let sink for a few seconds and reel back ever so slowly and it never failed for about 40 minutes everyother cast was a hookup or a bite losing more than I hooked. They were definately little guys but after not being able to fish since Thursday they sure made up for it. Wound up boating seven between 2:30am and 3:30am till I fished them out or they got smart. But as always I had a great time messing with those little guys. And I broke my old personal best last night for the smallest striper I have ever caught; not the personal best I wanted but it did make me:LOL. And I figured I would also post a picture of Lexis first bass of the season caught on the neighbors dock shhhhh!!! While fishing for crappie.


Here is that monster I spoke of LOL

Great report and Nice catch!!

Great report again, as always, Terry! Glad you got to get the lines wet and caught some fish! Nice PB too, by the way! Great catch, Lexi! WTG girl!~!

Yes great report terry, you know i always find that the fish bite better on the neighbors dock more often than your own lolol, congrats on the PB and man i really need to get out fishing so i need to get that dang garden planted. Keep the great reports and pics coming buddy and congrats to Lexi way to go girl.

Nice!!!

I got out last night for a few hours and went in search of new territory to fish (docks with lights) I stopped at a couple Marina break walls that had fixed lights and nothing was under them. I did side swipe a big plastic floater from a dock last night that was just floating in the middle of the main lake scared the hell out of me and just managed to turn at the last second to avoid serious damage. Only damage I sustained was a big black scuff mark down the side of the boat. But anyways I did manage to get 4 stripers locally near the house under a neighbors dock light but unfortunately the timer shuts that light off at 1am and after that I only managed one striper from under my lights. 3 of them were small and I think I may have nailed the same fish twice cause his striped pattern was the same and he had the same packed belly. The last one I got under my dock was about 5lbs. I took pictures of the last one I will post him after tonight when I get some more pictures to add with him. Looks like the striper reports will slow down soon as well since we are predicted to be in the 80's as far as the weather report goes into next week. I figure we got about 1 to 3 weeks left of the good night bite if the weather continues to climb. Then I guess I will switch over to bass and catfish to make up for time between striper trips out to the main lake.

OOPS on the boat mishap, Terry! At least it wasn't any worse than a black scuff mark. Sounds like you're still hitting the striper, which is a good thing. Yep, it's that time of year when it's going to start to taper off as the water and weather gets warmer. Thanks again for your report. I always look forward to reading them!

Terry, i hate that when you just come across things out in the middle of know were when there is suppose to be nothing. I did that one time myself, but mine was a big tree that had floated out into the lake during a wind storm we had earlier yep it sucked. Great read and report terry, and yep the temp is in the 80's here right now and it is coming your way dang it's hot, thanks for the report and i will be waiting on the pics when you get them up.

Whats the lake record for stiper and cats Terry?

saltfisher1 wrote:

Whats the lake record for stiper and cats Terry?

The lake record for stripers is 46lbs. I think this will be broken in the next few years cause it seems there is a lot of 35lb+ class fish being caught in the last couple years. My window for a giant is rapidly closing. But when the striper dip off the bassin will start to turn on and I will be out there throwing topwater again.

North Star wrote:

Terry, i hate that when you just come across things out in the middle of know were when there is suppose to be nothing. I did that one time myself, but mine was a big tree that had floated out into the lake during a wind storm we had earlier yep it sucked. Great read and report terry, and yep the temp is in the 80's here right now and it is coming your way dang it's hot, thanks for the report and i will be waiting on the pics when you get them up.

The Army Corps. need to get out there and start rounding these things up. Since the water is rising so fast a lot of these docks that were beached had the floats slip out from under them and now they are starting to drift off shore into the main parts of the lake. Used to be you would see one here and one there in a cove or back bay but now there are dozens of them floating in places you wouldnt think to find one. The big styrofoam ones are big and white and can easily be avoided its those big hardened black plastic ones that present a major danger to boaters. They are big some as big as 10 by 10 by 2 and weigh a couple hundred pounds. On a dark moonless night you dont see those damned things until the very last second. If I would have hit that thing dead on it would have been a disaster. It would have been a real challenge to unhook the depth finder, trolling motor rod holders and the other upgrades and swim back to shore before the boat sank

jerseycat9 wrote:

saltfisher1 wrote:

Whats the lake record for stiper and cats Terry?

The lake record for stripers is 46lbs. I think this will be broken in the next few years cause it seems there is a lot of 35lb+ class fish being caught in the last couple years. My window for a giant is rapidly closing. But when the striper dip off the bassin will start to turn on and I will be out there throwing topwater again.

I cant imagine a 45 pounder...That would be a blast.

Well it seems as though the fat lady has sung on the night time striper bite at least for now. I was out last night and tried 4 different hot spots and none not even my dock produced a single bite. The water temperature has shot from 58.6 to as high as 70.3 on the depth finder in two days. Instead of seeing stripers cruise through the lights last night I seen bluegills

But on a high note this is my report from Thursday night which was my best night so far this year as far as numbers go. All of these fish were caught under the same dock light. Turns out my neighbor across the bay forgot to turn his dock lights off that night. I tell you if you were on the moon you could have seen this dock in my estimate he has over 2000 watts of flood lights on this dock and the strategic location of his dock near the creek mouth made this the Mecca for night time fishing if only for one night. The final total was 13 stripers, 7 crappie, 2 bass one break off from a biggun in the 20lb class and a monster striper that ran me all over gods creation till the hook mysteriously pulled for whatever reason. The fish in which the hook pulled was big enough so that I had to follow him around for 10 minutes with the trolling motor just to keep from getting spooled I never got an inch of line back from this fish. I would have taken more pictures but my camera batteries died from taking so many pictures LOL

Great report and Nice catch!

You sure are tearin'em up.

Nice report, pics and fish! Sorry about "the one that got away" lol with ALL your line, I might add hehehehe. Keep up the good work and looking forward to the next report!

Great report again Terry, Them are some nice crappie there to best eating this time of year to, i can taste a fish sandwich with just looking at them things yum. Keep up the great fishing Terry, we all enjoy checking out the pics and reading the reports that you give.

Went out last night for a couple hours and it was really slow. I had one blowup in 3 hours of fishing on a sebile. Seen lots of fish on the lowrance and figured they were still in the feeding area so I would try getting out early and get some bait and have my gear ready for first light Good move on my part. I was on the water with rods out at 5:30am and not a minute to late as the sky brightened just a tad the fish went crazy It was an all out striper and bass feeding frenzy. From about 5:30 to 7am it was just nuts. I picked up 6 stripers to 22lbs and 8 bass to 4lbs using herring and casting sebiles. All stripers were good ones to no little dinky 4 and 5lbrs this morning all fish were 15lbs and up. Although I did forget my camera this time as I took it out of my bag to change batteries and never put it back. It was funny seeing all the striper boats making their way back in the bay today and they were serious as a heart attack too LOL They must have been scratching their heads watching me pack up and leave just when they thought it was time to be in that spot. By the time they started fishing the bonanza was already over for the most part with maybe a fish here and a fish there but I had already blew through 2 dozen herring and was to tired to go and net some more. I did get stuck keeping this fish as she gut hooked herself and no matter what I did she wouldnt revive. She was pretty much the average this morning. And now Im taking my arse to bed I is tired

WTG, Terry! Awesome report as always! Awesome fish too, I might add! Poor people need to get on board with the fishing don't they?

NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever you do never let anyone else tie a not for you. Take that fish I caught the other day and double its size and then some and you will only begin to understand my pain. Me and Rick were out yesterday morning bright and early. I tied up the leaders on the front planer boards and he tied the two in the back. After an hour of fishing my two leaders had pulled 3 stripers to 14lbs and two that got off but the leaders held.
We just put on a big bluegill later in the morning which we figured could be the wild card for a good fish as it was something totally different and swimming lively at the surface. That bluegill wasnt in the water but 5 minutes before a big and I mean big striper started chasing him out of the water. He made 6 attempts at the bluegill but he escaped each time. About 20 yards later all you heard was a big crack like someone breaking a 2 by 4 and the rod was in some serious hurt. I grabbed the rod and just held on but my confidence was high as this was a rod with 50lb braid and and 25lb test flourocarbon leader. Me and this fish went back and forth for about 10 minutes and finally I got her boat side and Rick was getting ready to make an attempt with the net. As he went down to swoop her up she made a turn away from the boat not a vicious turn but a weakened turn of desperation nothing serious. But just as Rick was going for the grab the line popped back into my face slack. I almost cried. But upon further inspection of the line break I seen the tell tail "pigs tail" where the not had simply failed and my sadness turned to disgust as it failed during the weakest part of the fight. My best estimate on this fish was 40+ inches and 30+lbs as I had all day to watch her as Rick fumbled with the net. I didnt even want to fish anymore after that I was just that much sickened by the whole ordeal. That fish was a wall hanger for sure and definately would have broken the bank getting her mounted.

A small consolation to the event was watching Rick lose a big one in the 20+ pound range due to his not failing about an hour later on the last leader he will ever tie on one of our rods.