May the 4th be with you! The lake has certainly come alive since my last report. Overall the fishing has been excellent. There is a lot of spawning activity and the fish are responding accordingly.
Lake Lanier is currently 1071.02’ MSL, .02’ above full pool. Surface temp is about 65 degrees.
The month of May provides many types of great fishing opportunities with plenty of hungry fish. The bass are finishing up in their post spawning stages and there is still Stripers in full spawn mode. Yesterday we boated a big female with about 6 males still beating the eggs out of her boat side on the surface. It was very cool to watch! Blueback Herring are spawning on the shallow points, blow throughs, saddles, and breaker walls. The Threadfin Shad have showed up on the vertical hard surfaces such as docks and bridge pilings. These are the locations we are targeting and will be throughout the month. The herring and threadfin shad are the preditors primary food sources right now and when they show up in these areas, they are there for one reason.
There is a couple primary ways I am targeting these food sources. Trolling freelines/planners and pitching. Troll a spread of live blueback herring in these areas with a small split shot behind planner boards, break-away floats, or directly behind the boat about .5-1.0 mph. When pulling these herring make sure to get pretty close to these clay points or the bank. The bank side planners have been favored in the past couple weeks. You can use this same tactic while trolling along sea walls or marina breakers. Again, run those baits tight. As far as pitch baits, it’s your lucky day! I’m attempting to try and get some video content this season. I started a YouTube channel yesterday and uploaded the first video. The material will mainly contain tips, tactics, and fishing methods I use on Lake Lanier that has become almost a “hybrid” way of doing things. By that I mean from what I know people used traditionally here for years with a spin from my Gulf Coast background. The link for “Live Pitch Bait Tips n’ Tricks on Lake Lanier” is below. Check it out and please like and subscribe!! Take it easy on me, it’s my first video..hopefully I can work out the kinks as the season progresses! Next week I will be giving away a FREEEE charter trip to one of my new YouTube subscribers. There is not many since I just created it yesterday so your chances are high to win! Stay tuned in the next few days on how to win a free fishing trip.
The weather is getting really nice and it’s the time of year everyone looks forward to getting out on the water. Please stay safe ya’ll, hope to see you out there soon!
Tight Lines,
-Capt. Andrew Hammond