Lake Lanier Weekly Report January 8th - 13th, 2023
Lake Lanier Weekly Report for 13 January 2023
Water Level: 0.88 feet below full pool
Water Temps: 48-52 with warmer pockets scattered around
Water clarity has improved daily, but it still varies greatly depending on where one is on the lake. The backs of the creeks and up the rivers are still stained to heavily stained. I found slightly stained to clear water down on the main lake this week. An interesting observation on water clarity; as the week progressed a couple of the live feed, smaller branch, creeks started to clear up in the very back while remaining stained in deeper water. They had clean water coming in which was diluting the stained water.
I had an incredible week on Lanier this past week with two 19lb 5 fish limits and two 20+ fish days. I focused on ditches for most of my bites, moving to other things only when that bite died. With the exception of Saturday, I stayed South of Flowery Branch / 6 Mile.
The most important key to success this week was water clarity. I found all my fish in water that was slightly stained to clear. While I found fish in water with more color, those fish were not as willing to bite as the ones in the cleaner water.
I fished the creeks methodically. This maximizes fishing time and minimizes running time. On cold windy days, that is a blessing. When ditch fishing, I start on the calmer side of the creek. I will pull into the first ditch and start looking for fish on the edge of the timber line. I will start working my way back fan casting and watching the FF sonar and 2D sonar for signs of bass. If I don’t catch one or see things that really interest me in 10/15 min then it’s off to the next spot. If I catch fish or see fish coming up off the bottom, I will stay and fish it for a while. When I am done fishing that ditch, I leave it and pull into the very next one.
I caught fish in water from ~20 to ~50 feet. Some days/ places the fish were deeper on others they were shallower. I just fished around until I found them.
Three baits were the most productive this week: a 2.8 Kietech on the 3/8oz guppy head, 3” CAST Prodigy on a 3/8oz Queen tackle sonar head, and a 1/2oz War eagle spoon. Honorable mentions this week are a ¼ oz Davis shakey head and a Rapala Jigging Rap. I fish the Kietech and Prodigy on the bottom with a slow, constant retrieve. I was not working the spoon as aggressively as I was early in the fall. I decreased both the speed which I raised the spoon as well as how far I raised the spoon.
As was the case a couple of weeks ago, depressions within ditches were very productive. These depressions can be very well defined or as shallow as a couple of feet. Additionally, bends in ditches that are close to steeper slopes. Both locations can be found by paying attention to the contour lines on your map. If you have Hummingbird, you can use the shading feature to help identify the depressions. Just play around with the highlighting depths and you can highlight those changes.
When the ditch bite slowed, I moved to steeper rock and clay banks and fished a shakey head. This pattern produced big fish of the day twice this week, including Zac’s personal best spot. We were not over working the shaky head, just drag and pause, drag and pause. Little to no other action applied from the rod.
Fish were coughing up two types of forage this week: crawfish and small threadfin. Even some of the ditch fish had pinchers visible down their neck. If you are a fan of imitating crawfish to catch your bass, those types of patterns should produce as well. Personally, I love the finesse swimbait bite and it is hard to get me off that bite when I know it’s working.
Thank you to all my clients and sponsors. Without your support, these weekly reports would not be possible. I have availability for the latter half of next week and the last week of January. I am booking February as well. For February, I am only available until the 16th.
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know.
Best of luck to all on the water this week!
Jeff
770-715-9933
Jeffnailfishing@gmail.com
#TritonBoats #LanierBaits #advantageboatcenter #trixstercustombaits #stcroixrods #castfishingco #gillfishing #Spotchoker
