Happy New Year Everyone – I sincerely hope that each of you enjoyed a wonderful holdiay season with family and friends. Ours was pretty quiet with no traveling, which was my gift this year. LOL. The lake currently sits at .46 feet over full pool and somewhere between 47 and 48 degrees at daylight, depending on where you launch. The lake came up about a foot with the recent rains. Many of the lower lake creeks are stained from the recent rains, particularly in the very back. The main lake is mostly clear down south, with the best water clarity found on the extreme south end. The bite on Lanier has been pretty good most days the past couple of weeks. I was on trips everyday from the 26th of December through Jan 1st and then most days since then when the weather was somewhat reasonable. The coldest day we fished it was 13 degrees at launch. We still caught ’em that day even though the temp never got above freezing during the trip. We have been fishing the 15-25 feet range on most days, with 20 feet about the average depth where we find most of our biting fish. The fish have not been out as deep consistently for us so far this year. The large majority of our bigger fish have been coming shallow – less than 10 feet in most cases. We often find “numbers” fish out in 15-25, with some scattered fish in 30+. I was out on a trip yesterday and saw more fish out deeper in the timber but they did not seem to cooperate. We tried ’em a bunch, but no takers. Again, we found our biting fish in the 20 foot range. The ditch fish have been cooperating most mornings as you can often show up at daylight and catch some good fish with a fish head spin or scounger directly in the ditch. As the day progresses, you can often find thefish around the docks next to the productive ditches or on rock ledges in the near vicinity. Main lake rock points have remained prodcutive as well and should be tended regularly. Look for those that have deep waternearby to be the most productive. A jig and a Davis Shaky Head have been our most effective presentations overall. We have one of these two baits in our hands 60% of the time or more on most days. I have Tuesday (tomorrow) open and with the front coming Wednesday, it could be a good one and certainly a warm one. I also have Thursday and Saturday open this week as well, in addition to several dates next week. This is a great time to learn winter patterns on Lanier, both shallow and deep. Give me a call and let’s go fish! Rick is back up and running on Hartwell after repairing a blown power head, and Craig is still running trips for me on Allatoona and Carters with the Float and Fly if you would like to learn that technique. I have been throwing the fly some on Lanier, and have not crushed them on it yet, but I still look for it to have a place this coming winter. I have been teaching the Float and Fly on Lanier some already this winter, and I can help you with that technique on Lanier as well if you are interested. For fishing reports on other Georgia lakes, please visit: www.southernfishing.com Thanks to all and May God Bless – Jimbo
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