Lake Lanier Crappie
by Dan Saknini
www.laniercrappieanglers.net
Water temperatures are in the low seventies, with high sixties early in the mornings farther north. Fishing conditions are good. The fish are pulling out to deeper docks with structure. Keep in mind that the lake level is about 6″ above full pool, so homeowners have moved docks in, and brush piles that are typically located inside the docks are now on the outside edges of the docks. It is an added bonus if you find a good sized brush pile outside the dock, especially if it is not in direct sunlight.
In this case, stay thirty to forty feet away from the dock and cast your jig to the other side of the brush. Jig it slowly over the brush toward the boat. You may want to experiment and let it fall a little into the brush. This time of the year, four pound high visibility line is very critical. One twenty fourth ounce soft body jigs and hair jigs are working well.
Also, the bigger fish are moving onto stand-alone brush piles in the backs of creeks. Those brush piles are in twenty to twenty-five feet of water, topping out at ten to fifteen feet below the surface. As always, the more brush piles you hit and the more docks you fish, the better your chances of boating more fish. If a spot isn’t working, move on. Four to eight mid to large sized fish is about average per stop. So if your hits are yielding only smaller fish, move on to explore other docks or brush piles.
Stay safe on the water and wear your life jacket!
Lanier Stripers
by Capt Clay Cunningham
Finally, we are getting some nice weather after several months of cold and wind here on Lanier. The water temperature is in the low 70s and climbing each day. The water has been very clear on the south end and slightly stained on the north end.
Now that June is here, look for the stripers to progressively move deeper as the water temperature rises. At the beginning of the month, look for them to be 5 to 20 feet deep. You may still see some topwater action, so be sure to have a Sebile Magic Swimmer ready to cast. Day in and day out, it is hard to beat the Magic Swimmer. All the colors in the Magic Swimmer work. Early in the morning, the Magic Swimmer in white liner is hard to beat. A Storm Chug Bug in white or chrome and blue is also a good choice. Cast these lures on 10 or 12-pound Trilene Big Game on a spinning rod. A good setup is a 7′ medium action Fenwick spinning rod paired with a Penn Conflict 3000 spinning reel.
As the fish move deeper, look for the downline bite to take over. Spool up a Penn Squall Linecounter reel with 15-pound Trilene Big Game on a Shakespeare medium light action striper rod. Tie on a Capt. Mack 2 ounce swivel sinker, a four foot leader of 15-pound 100% Trilene Flourocarbon and a 1/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. Herring from the local tackle shops will be the key bait. Look for the stripers on your electronics before you drop baits. You can use traditional 2D sonar or down imaging to see these fish. Great electronics like the Humminbird units is a must. You can see your bait swim around the sinker.
Overall, June is usually a great month on Lanier for stripers. The spawn will be over and the striper’s metabolism is wide open. See you on the water.
Lanier Stripers 
by Steve Smith
With water temperatures beginning to heat up in May, the stripers have moved from the backs and mid-creeks to the mouths of creeks foraging for bait on main lake points and in pockets, all with access to deeper water via ledges or traditional drop offs. They are positioning themselves close to the deeper cooler waters for the traditional June bite.
June’s techniques would be bringing out our deep-water arsenal which consists of downlines and power reeling Ben Parker spoons. Our bait of choice for downlining is various sizes of gizzard shad from dollar bill size to mongos. Be sure to drop the bait to just above where you are marking fish in the clearings between the trees lines. If you drop the bait over the trees, be prepared to act quickly as a hooked striper will head right for the trees and say goodbye to your catch. We are not ruling out blueback herring just yet, because in the cooler early mornings we can take advantage of pulling them higher up in the water column on weighted freelines 100 to 125 feet back between .5 to 1.0 mph. As the sun hits the water the stripers will head out to the deeper water.
While we mention bait a lot, we really need to mention bait care. The type and quantity of bait you want to use determines the type and size of your bait tank. Your bait tank should be either round or have round-corners, but should not be square, as you want to have the bait constantly moving in one direction. You can determine the size of the bait tank for blueback herring by using the ratio of two bluebacks per gallon of water, times the number of gallons you can have in your bait tank. A twenty-gallon tank could only hold 40 blueback herring.
Another point to mention about bait care is the mixing of the different baits. You should use a separate bait tank for gizzard shad because they put out a tremendous amount of ammonia which can hurt blueback herring by contaminating the bait water. And lastly, you should be using some form of aeration with blueback herring like oxygen at a 1/32 setting on your regulator. Keep the lid of the bait tank partially open to allow the CO2 gases emitted to escape so that the bait can take the oxygen more freely.
Tip of the month: You want lively bait, not bait that’s alive. Consider changing your bait frequently, especially with blueback herring. When you bring your line in to check for bait, replace it. Go to my website at TeamLanier.com for more tips. 404-273-3481