Fishing news

Lake level: Full Clarity: Main lake clear, creeks stained Temperature: 60s

Bass fishing Bass fishing on Lanier is exceptional right now. The fish are both shallow and deep and feeding strong most days. Pick any of your favorite spring baits and you are likely to have a good day.

Let’s start in the morning with a chug bug or a small translucent Zara Spook. Any points that are in the wind will likely have fish on them. From the points you can take a fluke and work the points all the way down the banks into the pockets. A bank with a mixture of red clay and rocks or blow downs are holding fish. A Spro jerk bait is also drawing a lot of strikes but don’t work it like a jerk bait. A slow to medium retrieve is the best way to draw strikes right now. Work it on the blow throughs and sandy banks in the six to 10 feet of water.

A three-inch Keitech on a quarter ounce head worked slowly will catch some large fish, maybe not as many but some very good ones. A wacky rig is working well on the banks leading into the pockets as well as on the docks in less than 10 feet of water. One set up that is often overlooked is the Carolina Rig. Working this slowly on long points and humps that are less than 20 feet deep is a productive way to put fish in the boat.

Keep in mind right now there is a shad spawn going on and the bass are enjoying the easy eating. Check the blow throughs and rocky clay banks for the shad. Often it is just a simple matter of smelling them where they are spawning. The Keitech or a white spinnerbait with twin silver willow leaf blades are two great choices for these areas. Pick a bait and go catch em!

This report provided by Phil Johnson, 770 366-8845.

Crappie fishing

Crappie fishing is good. The hot bite target zone is 10 to 15 feet deep. The crappie are back on the docks and also can be found on open water brush piles and blow downs. Look for the stray fish they are typically larger than the schooling fish cast a jig to these fish. Try the slow retrieval method of a jig when fishing vertical. I always put out a crappie minnow with a BB sized sinker 12 to 16 inches above the hook. Right now I am setting the minnows around 10 feet deep. For best results use a live minnow. Look under docks that are in 20 to 40 feet of water near a main channel and have brush or structure use your electronic charts to locate these areas.

Remember, crappie love the shade so cast into the shadows of a dock. Try different jig colors and jig styles. They can be used for short casting, vertical jigging, trolling or dock shooting. When dock shooting the biggest fish are usually the first to hit. Let your jig sink and give it time to get down to the fish and retrieve your jig slowly. The most productive jig color combinations have been the translucent colors. Small dark ones are productive as well. I’m using ATX Company’s plastics that can now be purchased at Sherry’s Bait and BBQ. I use the k9 5-pound test high visibility yellow braid for my line (unless I am using a bobber) and a Piscifun reel on a ACC crappie Stix. I use Garmin Live Scope and the Navionics Boating app.

This report is provided by Captain Josh Thornton, 770 5306493.

By Pamela A. Keene

Additional state funding for the planned $155 million conference center and hotel at Lanier Islands was announced at the April meeting of the Lake Lanier Islands Development Authority. The Georgia General Assembly in this year's session approved and additional $21 million for the project.

When approved by the governor, that brings the total state funding for the project to $52 million.

The balance of financing will come from private sources.

The conference center and hotel is being built on the former footprint of the resort’s PineIsle Hotel, which was razed in 2008.

State monies will be disbursed through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. LLIDA oversees Lanier Islands. The resort is managed by Islands Management Co. LLC, a private leaseholder.

Projected completion date is late 2023 or early 2024.

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By Jane Harrison

The April Supreme Court ruling in the ACF water dispute between Florida and Georgia may help open future collaboration between the states … or it may not.

For more than five years, a painstakingly produced scientific plan to share the water has sat on governors’ desks. It appeared dog-eared and tab-marked on a special master’s bench. It spawned subpoenas, but not solutions. Now, with the seven-year lawsuit decided, some familiar with the Sustainable Water Management Plan are hopeful the “win-lose” mantra of litigation will fade into efforts to settle future water skirmishes outside the courtroom.

Court follower Lara Fowler, a Penn State lecturer in environmental law, sees the SWMP as a roadmap for future negotiation as a changing environment and human demand throw more challenges to balancing the precious resource. But, she pondered whether the battle-worn states would holster their litigation weapons and sit down at the table. “What happens next remains open,” she said.

With the case out of the way, the ACF Stakeholders hope states’ officials choose to take a hard look at the plan that 56 individuals from diverse water-related interests sweated over. In 2015, ACF Stakeholders approved, by consensus, a Sustainable Water Management Plan by the standard “Can you live with it?”

“Our (viewpoint) was one of negotiation. It is an anathema to the ‘I win, you lose’ contest” in court, said Gordon Rogers, longtime ACF Stakeholder and Flint Riverkeeper. He recalled the chill that enveloped the room at Unicoi State Park when stakeholders from Georgia, Florida and Alabama learned at a quarterly meeting that Florida was suing Georgia. “It was an ‘Oh my!’ moment” that galvanized their effort.

“There was a little bit of wreckage, maybe hurt feelings,” he surmised. But they emerged with the resolve, “Hey, we’ve got work to do!”

The non-profit group raised $1.7 million to produce a 138page main document supported by hundreds of pages of memos, charts and metrics presenting university-based research and details of water concerns up and down the river system tapped by Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The SWMP recommends conservation, tracking and reporting water use, improved water storage, better management particularly in drought years, and improved coordination between the states. Additionally, it suggests a feasibility study for increasing storage capacity of Lake Lanier and West Point Lake.

The Stakeholders’ plan to resolve the decades-long tri-state water wars began landing on the desks of governors and elected officials in 2015 even as litigation continued in federal court. Rogers recalled varied reactions, from mild hostility to officials “completely but politely ignoring us.” He said that with states hunkered down in litigation, officials “didn’t want a third party upsetting the apple cart.”

ACF Stakeholders Chairman Phil Clayton said the court’s dismissal of Florida’s lawsuit, which blamed Georgia’s water use for drying up oyster fisheries in Apalachicola, might shift focus back to the SWMP. “It took five years of deliberation, cooperation and a lot of science to develop a private attempt at what some federal agencies have been trying to do all along,” Clayton said. He and other ACF Stakeholders called the plan at least a start.

“The SWMP is a first big step in a collaborative cause. It’s not a panacea, but an excellent first step,” said Georgia Ackerman, ACF Stakeholder and Apalachicola Riverkeeper. “Now that the lawsuit is behind us, leaders can talk,” she said. She added that stakeholders wrestled through a lot of give and take to produce a plan they could agree upon. She admitted it wasn’t easy, but it was achievable. She urged states’ officials to follow their model.

Ackerman believes that the plan developed more than five years ago remains relevant. “If states’ leadership sat down and looked at it, they would want to see updates” due to fluctuating climate conditions and other developments, she said.

“Climate challenges – not legal challenges – should drive collaboration and equitable water management decisions,” said Chris Manganiello, Water Policy Director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. CRK helped develop the SWMP, which Manganiello described as a “technical solution formed from the groundup where a top-down solution has been lacking.”

ACF Stakeholders also recommends that states form a transboundary water management institution to help resolve conflicts, ease coordination, and collect data. Manganiello indicated the institution could facilitate an interstate compact to equitably divide the waters.

In the immediate aftermath of the court dismissal, states’ officials have not come running to the negotiation table. Nor have new governors asked for a copy of the SWMP. “As far as I know, they have not” reached out to ACF Stakeholders, said Chairman Clayton. Governors’ communication department officials did not respond to Lakeside News inquiries seeking governors’ comments about the ACF Stakeholders’ water sharing plan. “We’d love an opportunity to sit See ACF, page 47

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