After some networking for information about the whereabouts of some fish that might be in this high water, debris ridden, 58° lake, it was suggested to try the mouth of Flat Creek. It was a blustery cold and windy day reaching only 48° by midday. After putting out everything like Downlines, Directional Bobbers, Freelines and Transom lines using medium Gizzard Shad and large Bluebacks, we managed to boat a nice spotted bass weighing 4 1/2 pounds.
Watch the video
On the last day of 2015 with most of the lake ramps closed and the lake full of debris due to the recent overwhelming rains, Team Lanier decided not to launch a boat but to go Crappie fishing on the docks of Gainesville Marina. Determined and almost having to walk on water, Duggan and Dale maneuvered across the sunken walkway to make their way to the various slips on Dock 9. The results were three Crappie. Earlier we decided to fish Dock 4 because the walkway wasn’t underwater. I dropped a minnow into two slips opposite each other laying the rods on the platform then while dropping in the third rod in an adjacent slip each of the first two rods suddenly started moving towards the water at the same time. Apparently a large spot or a striper grabbed one of the minnows and swam by the other line hooking the other rod. I was able to grab the other rod before it too went into the water. After wrestling the hooked fish with 4 pound line, it snapped and I ended up losing a spinning combo. I never liked that combo anyway. The catch on Dock 4 was a small striper and two Crappie caught by Jim Duggan.
Thanks to Woodie Malone, Derrick Danner, Jim Duggan and Don Finfrock who didn’t leave me stranded when my boat was in the shop.
Go TEAM LANIER!!
Sunday morning 29° Lynn & I went to Gainesville Marina and fished Tony & Jean’s slip for crappie. We got two spots right off then we got two nice slabs. We were there only 15 minutes when Mad Dawg called asking us if we wanted to go striper fishing. We left the covered dock where no sunlight could make its way through the chilly temps to keep us warm, to meet Derrick at Charleston Park boat ramp. After searching for about an hour and not finding any stripers we found those elongated bait balls hugging the bottom like Doug Youngblood told us about in the last LSC club meeting. We decided to put some down lines in right in the middle of the bait balls and that’s when we were able to hook up with a nice striper. We let the spots go, filetted the crappie and released the striper. At the end of the day we finished up by having dinner at Rice.
On a foggy socked in morning leaving Charleston Park, we set out to fish the sailboat dock in Four Mile Creek in Woodie’s boat. It was so thick that you couldn’t see the sun nor other boaters and certainly no landmarks. Had it not been for the old Lowrance unit on the boat we couldn’t have safely continued. Following the existing trails on the unit was the ticket. Team Lanier was able to contribute some crappie to Woodie’s team for the weigh in. The December 2015 North Georgia Crappie Anglers Club weigh in was held on Saturday the 12th at Sherry’s Bait and Barbecue in Gainesville.
Please checkout these videos.
The Weigh In
https://youtu.be/ZPXMJvk_xv4
The Fishing
https://youtu.be/hIP0UfFTAik
The Fellowship
https://youtu.be/6CjFAbkVEyY
When you’re in em, you’re in em. Came up on striper spaghetti but got hammered by Spotted Bass. Lines were going down left and right. Got most into boat keeping this beauty.
Nice fish Richard!!
Duggan, Lynn & company were on ready most of today after pulling baits for several hours seeing all kinds of stripers in Little River that just didn’t want what we were offering. Then around 3pm we got a double but were only able to get one nice striper into the boat. We lost the 2nd one after a conflicting battle with all of the unused rods that were strapped to the boat’s console. This all happened just before Lake Marker 55 in front of the Chattahoochee Country Club marina.
The day started out at a brisk 44° as we moved cautiously through the thick mist watchful of floating debris from the recent storms. Leaving Don Carter state park boat ramp at 8:30am with Gizzard Shad, Rainbow Trout and Blue Back Herring, an arsenal to be used with planer boards and free lines heading up to the narrows of the Chattahoochee as what is termed “up the river”. Once we were distant from the floating debris and the river began to slowly form we were able to speed up a bit. Once we passed Lula Bridge we were to put out 6 planers, 2 directional bobbers, a transom free line and another free line on a float ball 150′ behind the boat. Before we had all our lines out our first striper slammed a planer board with a Herring as bait. This fish was uncontrollable as he took drag from one side of the boat to the other crossing 5 other lines, shaking his head and appearing at the surface occasionally until he tired then came in peacefully. He wasn’t a huge striper but he was a striper in the boat at 28 1/2″. Go TEAM LANIER!!
Striper techniques and ideas were discussed with president Steve on Sunday in between one striper and two spots caught. While it wasn’t our best outing with the low pressure front sitting down on us, there was not much difference in the way we sought after our Lanier stripers and the Jordan Lake Striper Club. Techniques used were Lead Core, Umbrella Rigs and Down Lines. Patterns used were creek pockets in the mouth of creeks and 1/3 back over a 40 to 60ft bottom and main lake points and humps over 60 to 100 ft bottoms. Stripers were lethargic to the bite even with artificials and live bait because of the front. We fished north and south of Browns Bridge. Temperature was a constant 74°. Took some good videos of various techniques.
Steve hails from North Carolina’s Jordan Lake Striper Club. He will be visiting us this Sunday for some striper fishing with Team Lanier. Lucky Lynn Gregory from Weekend Hookers will be our first mate.
Visit Steve’s club website at
http://www.jordanlakestriperclub.com
Team Lanier 