The heavy rain we've been enjoying here in Georgia is filling up Lake Lanier. We just breached 1059 and I'm pretty sure we'll break 1060 in the next day or two. We haven't had this much water in almost 2 years so it appears we're headed in the right direction water wise. Unfortunately, all this rain will make the fishing tough for a short while. We were just getting into a good solid night bite pattern. Though we haven't had any "killer" nights on the lake, we have managed a consistent bite pattern with some decent sized fish being landed. I expect this pattern to pick up in the next week again and last through mid April. But at some point real soon these fish will get into their spring run and when this happens, they seem to disappear for a few weeks. We usually start catching them in May again and then the summer pattern starts to set up. Can't wait!
Winter is just about over. Look for some fishing reports to be posted as I make it out of the house and back to the water in the coming weeks. I should be hitting the river and the lake starting in March, 2009. For now, the best place to find a good fishing report on Lanier would be on Doug Youngblood's site. He posts reports on both Crappie and Stripers during the winter and gets out as much as any other guide if not more.
Rk won an auction trip I donated to a school function and decided to bring out two of his kids, Georgia and Oliver. I was a little worried given that we were hitting the lake on a Saturday and the "more than normal boat traffic" that would probably spook off a lot of fish. Fortunately we were able to find some Stripers down by the dam around mid morning and the kids got to reel in a few fish. Oliver got the big Striper of the day during this morning feed and little Georgia got to reel in her first Striped Bass ever. Fortunately it wasn't too big so she was able to handle it just fine. After lunch the fish disappeared as the high pressure and winds set in. I always like to troll back to the dock and today it proved to be a good decision. This effort provided a few more fish in the main channel just above Aqualand. These fish were small but provided a nice way to end a great day on the lake. Rk has two great kids and they were a treat to have out on my boat. Georgia and Oliver are welcome back anytime!
Rick's Dad Bori spends his falls catching big Salmon up in Oregon. Some years the fish are plentiful and some years they're hard to catch. This year they're just big! Bori landed his biggest Salmon ever tipping the scales to a whopping 49.5 lbs. And just a few days later he boated another giant weighing in at 45 lbs. Suffice to say he'll have a lot of smoked salmon for Jill and him to eat in the next year…..
After being kept off the lake on our last attempt, my neighbor Hank wasn't going to be shortchanged on our second attempt to catch some Striped Bass. It was windy and the fish were scattered around the lake but when we were over them, they were ferocious! We boated a good many fish and Hank had all he could manage. I don't think he had any idea catching a Striped Bass would be so physical! I hope he didn't mess up his golf swing; his monster of the day took a lot of energy and just about killed the two of us trying to get it back into the lake. But in the end, his giant 24 lb'er swam back on it's own and hopefully will double in the size in the next 5 years. Check out the photo's here.
