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LAKE LANIER IN MAY MEANS TOPWATER

from The Angler Magazine | May 2023 | Greater Atlanta Area Edition

from The Angler Magazine | May 2023 | Greater Atlanta Area Edition, page 42

KAYAKER LANDS 102-POUND PADDLE...

Contributed By: Jim “Jimbo” Mathley www.jimboonlanier.com

Lake Lanier is arguably at its very best during the late spring and early summer due to the consistent availability of aggressive topwater and swimbait 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

Now, at the end of April and heading into May under normal weather conditions, most of the spotted bass on Lake Lanier are finishing the spawn, and in doing so, 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 (both in creeks as well as on the main lake) 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. Trust your Humminbird units to find these brush piles around the features mentioned above. Focus in the 20–25foot depth range.

For topwater action, you should utilize either a medium or medium-heavy bait-casting or spin-casting outfit, rigged with 12-17 lbs. monofilament line. Monofilament fishing line floats, where as fluorocarbon line sinks, which makes either monofilament or braided line the best option for presenting topwater baits correctly. Also, Seaguar Smackdown braid, floats and is also a good option for topwater if you prefer. 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 (Ex. Sweet Herring Swimbait) on a heavy action rod that is at least 7 feet long. My big swimbait rod is an IMX Pro from G-

Loomis and is a beef stick! It can handle the biggest swimbaits or A-Rigs. 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 recommend keeping the length at 7 feet or more.

Lures and Presentation

Now that we have explored the location that the spots can be found in May as well as the tackle necessary to fish them, 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 and swimbait 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 GA Blade jig head and a Berkley Max Scent 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 daily to identify the mood of the fish as well as their preference in presentation. Excellent topwater baits for Lake Lanier include a great line up of Berkley Baits: Surge Shad, J-Walker, Highjacker, Cane Walker, and of course, the Choppo. All 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. Popular hard and soft swimbaits are made by several different tackle vendors, to include many local options. As far as the mechanical type swimbaits, I am a HUGE fan of the Lanier Baits Magic Swimmers, as they are the perfect representation of a herring. In the soft bodied swimbaits, I prefer the Lanier Baits Swimmer and Keitech Swimbait offerings.

3. GA Blade Shad Spin – When the topwater/swimbait bite is tough, pick up your GA Blade Shad Spin 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. Try a Lanier Baits Jerk Shad, a Lanier Baits Swimmer, or Keitech swimbait as a trailer.

I still have some dates available in June 2023 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

Jimbo is a Full-Time, Year-Round Spotted Bass Guide on Lake Lanier. Contact him today to book a trip! Contact info, Logo, Picture, etc.

As you can see in below photos, from May of 2022, Lake Martin is very productive in May for great quality and good quantities of stripers. We will continue to pull planer boards as long as we can get hits on them but sometime this month pulling boards will be best at first day light and even up until about 9:30 or 10:00 am and then we must go looking for schools of stripers that we can drop bait down on. The down lining bite should be good the remainder of the day. May also is the month that you will need to start getting out on the water earlier; I personally like to be at my first spot as the sun is breaking. Something we also do in May is make sure we have some top water plugs tied on for casting at surfacing stripers. Some of my favorites are Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs and Redfins. This type of fishing won’t last long in the mornings, but the first hour of daylight is really good. From my experience, you only have time to hit one good spot before they will quit hitting the artificial plugs on top, so I always try to go to the best place I know of on the lake first.

May also kicks off big time recreational boat traffic here on our lake. Saturdays can be very stressful fishing after lunch but as big as Lake Martin is you can usually find a quiet area to fish without too many boats being on top of you. Monday through Friday is your best fishing in May with Sunday being your second best and Saturdays being your last choice. However, we catch plenty of stripers on Saturday it’s just that by mid-morning it gets pretty tuff on us.

Also, over the years, we get more and more requests for dockside pickup in May. So, we have adjusted to fishing areas all over Lake Martin and have been successful at many areas of the lake in May, so take a chance this month and try some areas you normally overlook. I think you will be glad you did .