Lake Lanier Fishing Report - 08/03/2011

Not much has changed, Striper fishing is still very good. The fish are biting all day with the best bite starting mid morning. The challenge continues to be finding the fish. The exception seems to be 2, 4 and 6 mile creeks. The fish are there and so are the fisherman. The fish are holding tight to the trees in the south end creeks. I have also seen more fish this week over the main river channel from Browns Bridge to Young Deer. The Dam, Baldridge and Shoal has slowed this week but I do not expect that to last. Start your search in the creek mouths on the side of the creek channel over trees. The fish are holding at 30 to 80 feet. The summer time pattern is in full force and all of the summer time techniques are working. Down line herring at 30 to 80 feet is working but the fish are easily spooked and it can be difficult staying on them. If you see fish vertical in the water column do not hesitate to fish for the deeper fish. As an example; if the 30 foot fish will not bite drop your baits to 55 – 80 feet and fish for the deeper fish. You can also try power reeling for those fish that will just not bite. Drop your bait well below the fish and reel your bait up through the fish. This approach will often trigger a reaction bite and can serve to "fire up" the rest of the fish in the school. Shorten your leader to about three foot when power reeling. You will have a lot less trouble with tangles and knots than with the long leaders. You can also use a 2 oz Captain Mack's bucktail jig tipped with a herring. Downriggers and lead core are both working with Captain Mack's 1oz bucktail jig with a chartreuse or white 4 inch shad body. Leadcore at 7 to 9 colors and a Chartuse shad body has worked best this week. I have not used Umbrella rigs this week but they should work if you can keep them out of the trees. Lead core and downriggers are probably your best bet. Finding fish in trees is a much simpler with the new Lowrance structure scan.