Fishing

Lake level: Down six feet
Temperature: 70s
Clarity: Mostly clear

BASS: Bass fishing on Lanier is good. The bite is still on a day-to-day hour-to-hour routine. One day it will be on fire and the next day it’s a grind or the morning, tough, then the afternoon is on fire.

Top water and hard swimbaits have been the most productive baits over recent days with spinnerbaits and the Alabama coming into play this week. The Slickstick and the Sebile in either Blue Herring, Chrome or white have been the steadiest colors.

For the top water bite it has been a variety from day to day. The Gunfish and Ima Skimmer have worked well but a variety of other baits have worked, too. If you can get on the schooling fish it seems they will take a lot of different baits. The fish are scattered but seem to be more in the first third of the creeks and on the main lake around humps and long points. On days with stronger wind a three eights ounce white with silver blade spinnerbait has produced fish on rocky points and wind blown banks. The Alabama rig has also produced fish in the same areas. The bass are feeding up for the winter and a lot of nice spotted bass are being caught right now so looking for the areas with shad is critical.

The jig bite has slowly picked up and should increase of the next few weeks. A brown three eights jig with either a cinnamon pepper or root beer trailer will produce some good quality fish right now but just not a lot of fish. Fall on Lanier is always a great time to get on the water so Go Catch ‘Em!

Report by Phil Johnson: pjohnson15@hotmail.com, 770 366-8845.

STRIPER: Striper fishing is good. Work the channel as the water temperatures cool down. Stripers are in the river channel. The methods are planer boards and weighted flat lines. Blue backs is the choice of bait but take some shiners, also. Put baits 30 to 40 feet behind the boards and flat lines 80 to 100 feet behind the boat using the trolling motor at .05 to 1 mph. Fish are from Big Creek and the Port Royal area so locate fish using your electronics. Watch for the arrival of the birds and have a top water bait tied on just in case they pop up in front of you. Remember to wear your life jacket.

Report by Buck Cannon, 404 510-1778.

CRAPPIE: Crappie fishing is good. As water temperatures are cooling, the crappie seem to be mostly suspended at the 10- to 12-foot depth. Most of a recent week’s catch was on live small minnows straight down with a split shot. Also, try small jigs with a slow retrieval and black and gray are working well. Look for covered docks near a channel with brush or structure underneath.

Report by Captain Josh Thornton, 770 530-6493, www.crappieonlanier.com.