by Jimbo Mathley
Lake Lanier is arguably at its very best during the late spring and early summer due to the consistent availability of an aggressive topwater bite during this time. This is an excellent opportunity for anglers to catch spotted bass and watch the action as wolf-packs of monster spotted bass chase your topwater plugs! In this month’s installment, you will learn the necessary tackle, equipment, locations and resources to catch topwater fish on Lanier.
Location: Heading into May under normal weather conditions, most of the spotted bass on Lake Lanier are finishing the spawn, and will begin aggressively feeding to recover from the spawning process. After a short period of inactivity, the larger female spots will begin their migration from their spawning haunts to key features at the mouths of the major creeks as well as main lake areas, and can be found on or around: long-running points, rocky shoals and underwater humps/islands throughout the lake. Locating these areas and the man-made cover that is often found on them which will often concentrate the fish will be important to your success. I recommend LanierMAPPED.com to get started. The site provides an opportunity to purchase narrated video and GPS Coordinates for over 800 different fish-attracting features in the lake that were filmed when the lake was 20 feet below full-pool during the historic draught of 2007-2008. Using LanierMAPPED.com in conjunction with your Lowrance HDS Electronics, you will quickly find many locations that match the description above of key fish-attracting structure and cover. These “secret” places are key areas that hold fish and have not changed. They are still the same year to year. The bottom line is that you will catch more fish with LanierMAPPED.com!
Tackle: For topwater action, you should utilize either a medium or medium-heavy bait-casting or spin-casting outfit, rigged with 12-17 pound Seaguar monofilament line. Monofilament fishing line floats, whereas fluorocarbon line sinks, which makes either monofilament or braided line the best option for presenting topwater baits correctly. As far as choosing a rig for fishing these topwater baits, consider the weight of the bait as your deciding factor. Lighter poppers and smaller walking baits are often better presented on spinning gear which allows for easier casting of smaller baits. For swimbaits, I like to present the larger, heavier, mechanical-type swimbaits on a heavy action rod that is at least 7 feet long. My big swimbait rod is from G-Loomis and is a beef stick! I appreciate the extra rod strength to cast these big baits and manage the big fish I catch on them. As far as the many other soft and hard swimbait options, you can scale back to a medium-heavy rod if you prefer, but I definitely recommend keeping the length at 7 feet or more.
Lures and Presentation: Now let’s examine some of the techniques and lures that can be used to catch these fish. Remember that even though we are discussing topwater presentations in this article, when the females first come off the bed, they are lethargic, so the use of more subtle techniques such as a fluke or a Picasso Shakedown head and worm combo can be the ticket. As the post-spawn period progresses, the fish will become much more active and aggressive as eating becomes a major part of their recovery process from the spawn. The fish at times will feed voraciously, and it is at these times that you should focus on fishing fast-moving baits such as the topwater and swimbait presentations we have focused on through the course of this article.
1. Topwater – Nothing beats being able to watch a fish crush your topwater bait! There are many choices of baits here – poppers, walkers, waking baits, etc. The preference of the fish will change day to day, so make sure to experiment to identify the mood of the fish as well as their preference in presentation. Excellent topwater baits for Lake Lanier include: Lucky Craft Sammy, Heddon Zara Spook, Pop-R, Storm Chug-Bug and a Cordell Redfin. All of these lures as well as all the G-Loomis rods and Shimano reels you will need to present them can be purchased at local tackle shops such as Hammond’s Fishing in Cumming, GA.
2. Swimbait – Swimbaits offer great versatility as they can, based on the model, be fished at any depth you wish. Once the post-spawn has advanced, this becomes a great bait to throw around points and humps in both creeks and on the main lake. As far as the mechanical type swimbaits, I am a HUGE fan of the Sweet Herring Swimbait made by Sweet Baits, a local vendor in the Lake Lanier area. In the soft bodied swimbaits, I prefer the ZMan Swimbait offerings.
3. SuperSpin from SuperFish – When the topwater/swimbait bite is tough, pick up your SuperSpin and go to work. Fish the same areas you would normally present your topwater baits and experiment with different depths of the water column. Also, work these lures over brush for big spots!
I still have some dates available in May and June 2017, so call me to book a trip today and reserve your opportunity to come experience some of the best spotted bass topwater action in the country! See you on the water!
Jimbo is a full-time, year-round spotted bass guide on Lake Lanier. Contact him today to book a trip at 770-542-7764 or at www.jimboonlanier.com.