Doug Youngbloods Fish Lanier Guide Service - 770.945.0797
Doug Youngbloods Lake Lanier Fishing Reports
Late Fall early Winter on Lanier.. November 20, 2009
Striper action is improving as water temps begin to drop. Last Friday while out with Larry P. we boated 9 stripers on a half day charter. All our fish were caught on downrods at 35-40 depths using live bluebacks and rainbow trout. Using the live rainbows produces well this time of year. This is especially true when water temperatures get down to the mid to low 50's. Floating live trout on planer boards and balloons is also working well. Don't forget to watch the birds this time of year. Diving loons and seagulls will always point you to where the Stripers are holding. I have seen Stripers in all areas of the lake from Shoal creek all the way up to the Gainesville Marina area. The North end of the lake should continually start to hold more as the Stripers always migrate towards the upper reaches of the lake in November and December. I have heard some reports of bass being caught jigging spoons and drop-shoting. November and December is a good time to get into the spots as they bunch up under the schools of bait. I will be out the rest of the week and will report back soon.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for the Summer...
Stripers, Stripers and more Stripers.... That about says it all! Sorry I haven't posted but I've been running two trips a day so I'm exhausted by the time I get home at night. The summertime pattern is on and I'm boating a lot of fish every trip. If you've been waiting for a good time to come out you need to call me now. It just doesn't get any better. I've been downlining mostly since the fish have been eating bait as fast as I can get it down to them. Trolling will work too and I've been pulling some leadcore when I'm looking around. This past week there seems to be fish most everywhere from Browns Bridge south. If you want to come catch some fish, now is the time. Look for some more videos to be added as I get good clips to post and I will try to keep more current on my reports.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for second week of June, 2009
Went out early in the week with customer CD Wilson and had a super day. Best day of the year so far. We started with only 3 fish at noon. Moved down the lake and started catching fish on down rods at 35-40 ft. deep on main lake points. We ended up with 33 stripers when we ran out of bait around 3:00 p.m. Fish are really starting to bunch up and this pattern should continue as the water temps rise pushing the striper into the deep summer holes. The rest of the week was more of the same with double digit numbers of Stripers caught daily. Temps are in the low 80's now and as they move higher the fishing will only improve. From now through October will be some of the best fishing of the year so if you were looking to get out when the fish are really active, give me a call.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for June 1st, 2009
Fishing continues to be good for Stripers. The umbrella rigs are getting the most action right now. We have been catching 10-15 Stripers on half day charters with most of the fish running in the 5-12 pound range. Last Saturday we boated 2 Stripers on 1 umbrella that were around 14 pounds each and have hooked up on some other huge fish that straightened the hooks out. The umbrella pattern should last a few more weeks or until the water temp moves up into the mid 80's. There has been some topwater action with Redfins, spooks and super-flukes. I heard of some schooling action late in the afternoon from around 6:00 PM till dark. Look for the Stripers to bunch up later this month over deep water as the water temps rise. The downrod pattern with live herring will really kick in then. Will be out tomorrow will report back later.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for May 25th, 2009
Fishing conditions for the Stripers on Lanier is still good although conditions have changed the fishing. For the past few weeks we have been having good success fishing bluebacks on downlines and flatlines. For some reason that bite has slowed quite a bit maybe due to the overcast conditions and cooler water temps. The water temps this month have been nearly 10 degrees cooler than they usually are at this time of the year. Normally the water temps are creeping up into the 80's which makes the Stripers start to bunch up deep. The majority of the fish seem to be holding on main lake points and humps at 15-25 foot depths. Umbrella rigs trolled over these Stripers seem to be triggering more strikes now than bait but that probably will change as soon as we get some warmer temps moving in. We will be out this week and will report later.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for May 19th, 2009
Went out today for a half day charter. Didn't have too much confidence going out today with dropping temperatures but managed to boat 10 Stripers with the largest weighing around 17 pounds. We headed up above Gainesville and started downlining herring to 25 ft. Caught only 2 stripers in the same area where we boated 10 yesterday. Fishing was quite slow until around 11:00 a.m. We started catching them on windblown points at 25-30 ft. deep. I think the howling wind stacked to fish up and got them aggressive. Wind is always your friend as long as it's not too bad to control your boat. They always seem to be more aggressive on those windy day's. Stripers are starting to school up better each day and fishing should continue good for months to come. Will be back out tomorrow and will report later in the week.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for May 15th, 2009
Stripers are on. I had a half day charter today with the best catch of the month. We boated around 25 stripers weighing up to 14 pounds. Most of the fish hit herring on downrods around 25 ft. deep. We fished creeks on the North end of the lake. We also caught several flatlining herring. The flatlines caught the bigger fish. Water temp today got up to 80 which should make the fish very predictable. We should start to see a lot more schooling as these temps get hotter. This weather is what we have been needing to really get them biting. Fishing should continue to be good as we get away from the recent full moon. Fishing last week was tough around the moon. We will be out tomorrow and will report back later.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for the week of April 6th-10th 2009
The action on Lanier is finally starting to crank up. This past week we had good catches on Stripers using blueback herring on flatlines. All the fish I caught this week were in main lake bays and coves. The birds are still pointing out the Stripers and they will be here for a few more weeks or at least til they start their summer migration. We've also caught a great number of spotted bass with some huge fish weighing up to 5 pounds. The size of the spots are larger than I have seen in quite a while. Most of the Stripers we are catching are very close to the banks. Try to drag your bait as close to the banks as you can. This time of year the fish will be so shallow you won't graph many but they will still be around so don't give up if your fish finder isn't showing anything. We also had good luck casting pearl zoom super flukes rigged on 1/4 ounce jigs heads. Cast the flukes right up on the bank and swim them back letting them fall in the 4-6 foot range. These patterns will last for several more weeks and get even better as the water temps rise. We will be out the rest of the week and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for the week of March 9th-13th 2009
Fishing this week has really been a roller coaster with the changing weather patterns. The best day I had this past week was with customer E. Moore. We fished for spotted bass which was really good; we boated around 18 spots on a full day charter. The largest fish we landed this trip was a 5 lb 4 oz Spot which is a MONSTER!. All our bass came on windblown points using a 100 pointer minnow from Lucky Craft Lures. The crappie action has slowed down a little with last weeks full moon and the 85 degree days. I think that combination moved the crappie off the boat docks and right up on the bank where they will soon spawn. The Striper action is slowly picking up. I never really do well for Stripers on a full moon. There was some night action last week on long A bombers. I picked up 3 Stripers last Friday using live trout on planner boards. The fish we caught were in the Flat creek area. The planner boarding for the Stripers will be the way to get'em this month. Watch for the birds and drag your baits through them. Ballooning will also work well. I usually do better on live trout this month while the water is still quite cold. I will be back out this week and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Thursday, March 5th 2009
Lake Lanier has crept up slightly with last weeks snow and rain. Yesterday the water temps dropped down to 47 on main lake and 49 yesterday afternoon in the creeks. Crappie fishing continues to be hot and should be good for 4-5 more weeks. Last Friday I took a charter to lake Hartwell and boated 87 crappie up to 1-1/2 pounds. All our crappie were caught on tube jigs fished around boat docks. The crappie are holding at 2-10 ft. depths. Striper action has still been inconsistent but should improve greatly after this weekends warm up. Usually the Striper action really heats up the first or second week in March or when the water temps get up over 50 degrees. Planner boards and ballooning live trout are usually the best patterns for the Stripers in March and don't forget the birds; they will put you in the areas where the fish are feeding. Also, keep a pearl zoom fluke rigged on a 1/4 oz lead head if you encounter any schooling action. The best time for the flukes are late evenings near the back of the creeks. I will be out the next few days and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Monday Jan 26th - Friday Jan 26th 2009
Fished 3 charters this week all for crappie. Even though water temps are still down to the mid 40's crappie action is awesome. Our best day this past week was Wednesday January 28th where we boated 166 crappie on a full day charter. All our fish were caught around the 5-15 ft. range on chartreuse and red crappie tubes. Look for the stained water for the best crappie action. Friday I went with customer E. Moore from Athens to try our luck on Lake Hartwell. We boated only 52 crappie but they were the largest string of crappie I've caught out of Hartwell. We had around 15 fish that weighed close to 2 pounds. Striper action on Lanier is still sporadic, the water temp. needs to come up to around 50 then I believe we will see the Striper action begin to crank up. Umbrella rigs trolled at 15-18 feet are still taking some fish. Also live trout fished on planner boards and balloons will put a few in the boat. Will be back on the lake tomorrow and will report back.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Friday, Jan 23rd, 2009
I fished today with long time customer C.J. on half day charter. We started fishing around 11:00 AM and fished to around 5:00 PM. The lake really has not warmed up as I thought it would with a few day's of sunshine. The water temp. was 45.7 at Shoal Creek when we launched and we saw water temps as low as 37.5 way up the Chestatee river. We even saw frozen pockets way up the Chestatee on the shaded sides of the coves. The umbrella rigs are still producing well and have all week. We have been able to land anywhere from 5-8 fish every afternoon starting around 3:00 PM to dark. We got into the Stripers Friday in the Johnson and Lathem creek areas. These creeks were packed full on threadfin shad and the water temp. in there was around 45.8 The u-rig pattern should continue for another 4-5 weeks. I also got some reports from some fishing buddies that caught fish in the back of the creeks South of Browns bridge fishing small trout on planner boards and balloons. Planer boarding and balloon fishing should improve as water temps begin to warm. Will be out for crappie tomorrow and will report back later this week.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Monday, Jan 19th, 2009
Went out Monday on half day charter with customer John Allen. We let the temps warm just a bit and met at 10:00 a.m. Our main goal today was to catch a mess of crappie and we didn't do too bad in spite of the very cold water. The warmest water we saw was 47 and that was around 3:00 p.m. We ended up catching 57 crappie by 2:00p.m. We then tried to catch a few Stripers and headed up the Chestatee. When we got to the Little hall park area we saw birds working in that area and were able to troll up 4 Stripers in just a short while on umbrella rigs trolled around the 15-18 ft. depth. The water temp around Little Hall was 46.8. The water has settled quite a bit since the rain and the water color looks much better than a week ago when the lake was so muddy you could walk on it. The best fishing should continue to be in the afternoon with the cold water conditions. Fishing should get even better later in the week with a little warming trend moving in. We will be back out on the Lake this Wed and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Friday, Jan 9th, 2009
Water temperature around 48-50 degrees. Went out Friday to ride the lake and see what areas were effected by all the incoming water we had from recent rains. We put in at Shoal Creek ramp and headed north up the the Chattahoochee where we were catching Stripers prior the the rains. Most of the feeder creeks are very stained all the way out to the mouths on the main lake. North of Holly park was solid red which will be unfishable for a week or so. The Chestatee was the same north of Little Hall Park. One good thing is that the water level has come up to 1055.96 and rising. This level opened up a few more ramps offering access to other areas on Lake Lanier. Recently opened ramps are Little Hall park, Keith's Bridge, Vann Pugh and Old Federal. Others will be opening soon as water levels continue to rise. They are working on Balus Creek, extending the ramp out with a cofferdam. They say Balus will be open in a few weeks this will be a great ramp when finished with a lot of trailer parking. Fishing should be back to normal within a week, it usually takes 4-5 day's for the water to settle out and the fish adapt to all the new water. It always seems when you have this amount of water pour into a reservoir in such a short period of time it puts a damper on the fishing for a few day's. We will be back out on the lake this week and will report back. Don't forget to book your spring fishing outing now while good dates are available. January, February and March are the best months for crappie if you want to fill your cooler. Come visit us at Bass Pro Shop for the spring boat show Saturday January 17 and 18 from 12:00 to 4:30 and the Atlanta boat show Saturday January 17 at 6:30 p.m. Hope to see you there.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Monday, Jan 5th, 2009
Water temperature around 48-50 degrees. Fishing is still quite good for this time of year. The water temps are holding around 48-50 degrees which makes for some good umbrella action for the Stripers. This time of year when water temps drop the fish tend to get lazy on the live bait. You can drop your bait directly in huge schools of Stripers that would maul your bait if the water temp was a little warmer but during the winter they will just swim up to the bait and turn away. This is common for this time of year but thanks to the umbrella rig you can trigger the fish into a reflex strike and have some fantastic action in January and February. The best action has been in the afternoon with the peak time being from around 3:30 p.m. to dark. I have been catching 5-10 fish up to 15 pounds trolling a 4 arm umbrella at 18-20 deep. Late in the afternoon you will see the schools of bait begin to rise up to around 20 ft. depths with the Stripers following them up. That's the perfect depth range for the umbrella to be effective. Most of the Stripers are holding over the main river channel in the Gainesville Marina area. Look for bait suspended around 40 ft. and you will probably be close to the Stripers. This pattern should continue for the next 6-8 weeks. Crappie fishing has really heated up too. I checked them last week to see if they were biting and we caught nearly 40 nice slabs in about 1 hour. Jan-Feb are peak times for the crappie and catches up to 150 a day are common.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Monday, Dec 16th, 2008
Water temperature was 49-50 degrees. Went out Dec. 16 with Blake Israel from Vulcan Materials and some of his good customers from E.R. Snell. We fished a full day charter starting around 8:30 a.m. We ended up boating 7 Stripers downrodding 8 inch trout at 40-50 ft. deep out over the main channel. Fish are still holding out at the mouths of the creeks in the Gainesville Marina area and North of 53 Bridge.We missed quite a few fish as the bite was very non aggressive with the drop in water temp. This little warming trend should prolong the Striper action as it brings the water temps back up a few degrees. Water color has begun to settle and clear up in the creeks after last weeks rain. Fish should start to move back into the creeks as this happens. I had couple of buddies fishing North further up the Chattahoochee and got into some Stripers drifting live trout on planner boards and balloons. Will be out fishing again tomorrow and will report back then. Shoal Creek ramp is open again thanks to Charles Pruitt Grading and Ricky Smith Grading and all the other folks that helped out.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Friday, Dec 12th, 2008
Water temperature was 49-50 degrees. Friday fished with buddy Jon Whimpy from J.W. Trucks in Sugar Hill. We hit the water launching at Charleston park around 8:30 a.m. and headed straight up to Gainesville where we have been having good success on the Stripers. I knew it would probably be a tough day with all the rain we had Thursday and the sudden drop in temperature. We searched all the main creeks north of Gainesville Marina with no luck. The 3-4 inches of rain muddied up all the areas in the creeks where the Stripers have been hanging. We ended up boating 2 Stripers just north of 53 bridge; we boated both fish on live trout fished on downrods 35-40 ft down. The Stripers had been pushed out of the creeks and were suspending over the river channel. We saw huge schools of bait and Stripers suspended at 30-50 ft. depths but had a hard time hooking up with them. This sluggish bite is typical of the cold front and all the new water dumped in the lake from Thursday's rain. We had 7 or 8 other pull downs but couldn't get a hook in them. I believe the umbrella rigs will soon come into play. I saw the Stripers on the sonar late Friday afternoon coming up in the 20 ft depth range which is a perfect depth to catch them on umbrellas this time of year. Will rig up and be ready for them this coming week. Fishing should continue to improve this week as the water settles and weather stabilizes. Will report back later this week.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Tuesday, Dec 9, 2008
Water temperature was 51 degrees. I fished Tuesday with customers Jay and Christie Johnson on Jay's 27th birthday. I met them at Gainesville Marina aorund 8:30 and idled around for about 30 minutes before locating a few fish in Gainesville Creek. We got our live trout out on downrods at around 30 ft. deep and immediately boated Jay's first Lanier Striper that weighed in at about 11 pounds. After that fishing was quite slow till around 11:00. We cranked up and moved North up toward Thompson Bridge and saw a few birds working a area that was holding good number of Stripers hugging close to the bottom in 25-28 ft. of water. We again put out our live trout on downrods and after sitting on that school for around 30 minutes got a fish on which triggered them into biting. We ended up with 7 Stripers on a half day trip. The fish were in a very non aggresive mode until we got that one fish hooked up. That is typical this time of year when the water temp. is hovering around the 50 degree mark. This time of year you have to be patient, the feeding times will be short but once they turn on you can load the boat in a short period of time. I cancelled my charter today due to severe weather but should be back on Thursday Dec 10 and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Thursday, Dec 4, 2008
Water temperature was 53 degrees. Weather conditions was cloudy with scattered showers. I had a half day charter with customer Kasey Green. We headed out from Shoal Creek and ran up to check out some reported fish in Balus but failed to find them. After that search we headed up north of Gainesville Marina and started seeing huge bait schools in Sardis, Adda and Gainesville creeks. Went into Gainesville creek and caught 11 stripers. The first fish we hooked up on was a solid 18 pounder. We caught all those fish from around 8:30-10:30 am. Seemed like the bite was really on as soon as we got there. We boated all our fish that day on 7-8 inch rainbows using downrods at 35-45 ft. deep. There are a few fish being caught on planners and balloons but the downrod action is the hottest right now. Also heard a few reports of guys catching some on u-rigs trolling around areas that the gulls are working. Other areas to check are Bald Ridge creek near Mary Allice park and Six Mile creek back by the bridge. I saw a good many birds working those areas this week.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Tuesday Nov 25, 2008
Water temp was 55 and we caught all our fish up in Gainesville creek on down rods at 40 ft. using live trout. We are kind of repeating reports but that pattern will continue on through December. To locate the fish again watch for concentrations of sea gulls and loons hanging out in certain areas. Also, if you find large schools of baitfish on your sonar, chances are likely that the Stripers will be around. I have not been graphing many fish until I drop my baits down through the shad. The bait fish are so thick this time of year many times the sonar won't pick them up through the bait schools and many times the Stripers will be laying right on the bottom. Be patient this time of year; the feeding times will be short but you can load the boat once they start feeding. If you're in the bait you're in the right place. Just sit and wait them out. Will be back on the lake Monday, Dec 1st.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Monday Nov 24, 2008
Went out with customer Jeff Hannah on a half day charter that turned into a full day. The fish were biting so well we decided to make a full day of it. Again we are in the main creeks just North of Gainesville Marina. We boated 21 stripers up to around 16 pounds. The 6-8 inch trout seem to be producing the best. The water temp. dropped down to around 55 degrees and that even makes the trout more frisky. Look for large concentrations of shad on your sonar and fish your downrods around the large bait schools. We never marked any fish on the sonar until we put our baits down in the shad schools. Saw a few schools of surface feeders and caught 2 of our fish casting to them with flukes on 1/4 ounce jigs. Will be out tomorrow and will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Saturday Nov 22, 2008
Fished this past Saturday with long time customer Larry Philips. Larry is one of the luckiest customers I have, we always seem to load'em up when he is with me. We launched Saturday at Shoal Creek and our first stop was Flat Creek. We searched around Flat for nearly 30 minutes with no luck and no stripers on the sonar. We headed North again and ended up North of Gainesville Marina and started seeing a few stripers hitting occasionaly on top. We stayed in the area the rest of the day and boated 9 stripers on live trout fishing them down at 30 ft.. The best action was from around 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. We saw surface activity with some good surface feeding late Saturday afternoon around 5:00. I talked to one buddy on the water and he landed several on his fly rod. This area norh of Ginesville marina will continue to get even better as we get into December. This is one of the hottest areas for winter striper action. Water temp. Saturday was around 57 degrees which is perfect. The next 6-10 weeks should be great fishing. Some of the largest fish I've caught on Lanier have been during this time of year. Will be back out on the Lake Monday and will report back.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Nov 20, 2008
Went out on half day charter with clients. Got out and started fishing around 8:30 a.m. and watched schooling stripers in Shoal creek as I launched my boat. We ended up with 5 stripers on that charter that weighed up to 13 pounds. All our fish were caught down rodding 7 inch trout 25 to 30 feet deep in Flat Creek. Some other anglers reported catching fish flatlining trout also. The birds again put us on the fish. This was some of the best schooling actvity I've seen lately. Make sure you keep a casting rod rigged with a small bucktail, leadhead fluke or jigging spoon to cast into schooling fish. Will be out on a charter Saturday and will see if the cold front effected the bite. Will report back then.
Lake Lanier Fishing report for Nov. 17 2008 Fishing on Laner continues to improve as the water temps drop into the 50's. A good buddy of mine, Donald Wigby, was out last Friday and boated 12 Stripers. All caught casting Zoom Super Flukes right up against the bank. Donald said most of the fish they caught were caught going down the banks blind casting a peal super fluke rigged weightless. A lot of times when the water is in the upper 50's large stripers will cruise shallow and you will never see a sign of them.
Live bait has also been working well. Live herring and trout fished on flatlines and planer boards are starting to produce. The trout will start to outproduce the herring as the water temp falls into the low 50's. Look for the Stripers to move north up to around the Gainesville Marin area and even north of there. Gianesville, Sardis and Adda creeks are good areas to find winter Stripers. December is a great month to catch large numbers of Big Stripes as they follow bait schools that group up in the major creeks.
Good fishing and hope to see you soon.
Doug Youngblood
