It was 10 years ago that Lisa and I purchased our property on the lake as a 10-year anniversary gift and investment property. When we first looked at this property, it had been on the market but there we no takers after the 3-month listing. It needed a lot of work on the inside and the dock was on dry ground because the lake levels were down around 10-11 feet lower than full pool. Some of the shallower water property values around the lake were dropping because of the low lake levels. I myself was skeptical but we purchased the property with the understanding that it would be an investment. It seemed like just a few days after our closing, then came the rains. It rained and rained that first year and our dock never saw dry ground again for years. Since then, I’ve learned the lake levels always trend one way or another but we’re heading into a period that levels usually trend upward, and I would look for the lake to be on the rise over the next few months. When lake Levels rise, fish will forage the newly submerged shoreline on the warmer sunny days so hopefully it will be a good winter for the shallow meat-eaters.

This week I was able to get out a couple of days, but I had to alter the game plan due to the rise in lake levels over Christmas day and into Tuesday. The back of the creek looks like my Carmel Macchiato coffee right now and that definitely throws off the bite in the back of the creek. I cringe every time the water gets this discolored because ultimately, it’s just more silt coming into the creek and over time silt can turn a body of water into a marshy pit. Construction near the creek is a big culprit and a lot of the silt can come from washed out construction areas during heavy rains. It’s an ongoing problem on the lake but it’s hard to stop the runoff during very heavy rains. Usually when the water gets stained like this it’s hard to get the fish to bite. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that they just can’t see the bait or they just don’t want to bite. There are still fish in the area but for the most part they are rather inactive or disinterested in whatever I’m throwing. For that reason, I choose to find the cleaner water areas that don’t have the run-off that the back of the creek has.

I was able to get out mid-morning on Wednesday and I spent 4-5 hour in the creek. I checked the shallow shaky head bite and didn’t really like the way that was going, plus the sun was behind the clouds most of the day which kinda negates the shallow rock bite. Luckily, while trying to put a pattern together in the early afternoon I saw 2 loons hanging out in a cove about the size of a football field. I noticed that the loons had 3 gulls circling above and sometimes the gulls would dive bomb the water’s surface around the loons. I could see that the gulls were successful and coming away from their dive with a bait most times, so that told me that there was bait present around the loons. As I watched, I saw some big swirls and splashes that were not coming from the loons or the gulls, and I knew the bite was on back in the cove. I abandoned the shallow rocks and made my way to the cove, picking up the little 2.8 Keitech swimbait on a 1/4-ounce Greenfish “Bad Little Shad” Albino colored swimbait head. I had the bait tied onto 20lb Cast Co. braid and a 6-foot leader of 8lb fluorocarbon. I can cast the Cast Co. 20lb braid a mile even with the lighter finesse baits and the longer cast comes in handy when you want to cover a lot of area per cast. To be honest, the swimbait bite is a lot easier on my shoulder than jerking on the spoon all day in a ditch.

As I eased into the mouth of the cove, I started marking fish under the boat at 21 feet and I started making casts up shallower with the little swimbait. I could see swirls that the fish were making around the loons here and there and shortly after my little swimbait found the bottom on my first cast right down the middle of the cove, a nice 4lber found my little swimbait. The trick is to keep just a little tension on your line at all times because when these bass hit the little swimbait it can be very subtle, or very noticeable. It can feel like your retrieve just got a little heavier or it can feel like a very pronounced pop. After landing the 4lb fish I very quickly readied my bait for the next cast. I could see some larger fish coming up in the shallower areas along the shoreline and I thought that a few of the bigger ones could have been stripers or very large bass. I worked my way towards the back trying not to disturb the feeding bass and birds and for the next couple hours I caught fish in the cove just going back and forth from about 25 feet up to around 5 feet of depth. The loons were working bait very shallow, and the bass were right there with the loons, but it was hard to catch them very shallow with the swimbait. Most of the fish came from a depth of 10-20 feet with a mix of smaller fish here and there. I ended the day shortly after 3pm and headed for the dock. I caught around 8-10 fish total with a few nicer fish in the mix. Lots of fun in shallower water with the finesse tackle. Here’s a couple pictures from the afternoon fun.

Thursday morning, I wanted to get out a little earlier than the previous morning, so I left the house around 8am going right back out where I left off the afternoon before. I wondered if the group of fish I found the day before had spent the night in the cove or moved on from where I had left them. One thing that I think was very significant about this area is that the cove was very near deeper water. By deeper, I mean water in the 40–50-foot depth very near the mouth of the cove. I believe the fish moved back and forth from the deeper water to the shallower water depending on the conditions and to prove my theory I started marking fish in the 35–40-foot depth early in the morning and the fish were scattered, lying motionless on the bottom up to about 20 feet in depth. There was no bait or loons in the area and the fish were just shut down for the most part. I could bounce the little swimait off their head underneath the boat in the shallower areas and they would just swim away from the swimbait like it was an annoyance to them. Finally, after a dozen worthless casts my first taker of the morning popped the swimbait at around 20 feet in depth. It was a nice keeper in the 3lb range to kick off the morning. I saw a swirl on the surface not far from the boat and I threw the little swimbait right where the swirl appeared and let the swimbait sink. Nothing hit the swimbait and just as I was giving up on the cast very near the boat a bigger fish whacked the little swimbait on the retrieve. Best fish of the day came from the bass pictured below chasing down the swimbait very near the boat.

After just a few fish to show for the shallow bite, I elected to go back out and work on the deeper fish in the 30–40-foot depths and that’s where I found the most active fish. It wasn’t much in the deeper depths but every once in a while, just fan casting around the mouth of the cove in the 30-40 depths produced a good fish. The key to getting the fish to react was to drag the bait very very slowly. This is “Three Toed Sloth Season” which means to slow your presentation down, whatever that presentation might be. There may be a few exceptions in certain circumstances where a faster moving bait may create a reaction strike in certain areas but my focus was on the sure thing and there were enough fish around the area that I didn’t leave for the 4-5 hours I was out. It was in the sun, not much wind to fool with, and the occasional fish fell for the little swimbait on light tackle. What’s not to like about that? I ended my day in the early afternoon hours with 7-8 decent fish for the trip. Here’s a few more from my day.

The lake levels continue to rise, and we are sitting at 6.61 feet below full pool right now. The back of the creek is very stained and water temps are in the lower 50’s right now out in the creek. This time of year, it’s a good idea to watch your surroundings and if you see loons and gulls working around shallower areas there’s a good bet the bass could be working beneath and around them. It’s always worth a look.

Every once in a while, usually after a trip to the sauna very early in the morning, I make a biscuit run out in town. (Ha ha, like we live in the country…) One of the main reasons I make a biscuit run, besides the delicious biscuits that the various gas station deli’s offer, is the little tackle store on Buford Dam Road. The Buford Dam Bait and Tackle usually satisfies my craving for purchasing tackle and a nearby gas station satisfies my craving for a gas station biscuit and a can of Red Bull. All of which can be bad for me, but I pretty much live by the motto “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”. That’s probably how I came down with the Man Flu 10 days ago, out fishing in the cold rain….

This week my fishing report is pretty simple since I only fished one day, which was yesterday. I’m recovering from a nasty sinus infection and all the other stuff that comes with the debilitating Man Flu. I hadn’t been on the water for 10 days and yesterday I finally felt like fishing again. I gotta say that I’m truly blessed to be able to fish such an awesome fishery here at Lanier. The first place I went yesterday was the last place I fished before I got sick and it was like the fish were there waiting on my return. If you read my last report, I described a location I call “the Spa” and it was pretty much the last area I fished before coming down with the flu. The Spa is the first place I went yesterday, and I spent well over two hours fishing a ledge and a point that held some bigger fish. Now that I have sonar again, I was watching my sonar as I idled into the area that was around 40 feet deep and sure enough, right when I hit the sweet spot the graph started sounding suspended fish under the boat. I saw a small group of maybe a half dozen nice thick returns and I thought they might be stripers because the area I was idling over was actually the very end of a point in 35-40 feet of water. I had purchased a couple Flex-it spoons on my biscuit run and I had one tied on my big 7’6″ St. Croix MH Triumph and Penn Fierce 2500. Once I got past the fish I made a mental note of where the were and I dropped the trolling motor to target the marks I saw on the sonar. I got into position and made a long bombing cast with the Flex-it spoon out on the end of the point where I had marked the fish. I let the spoon flutter to the bottom in a controlled drop and when I saw the line go slack, I made my first long pull, making the spoon jump off the bottom and flutter back down. I was mildly surprised when I felt a quick pop on the spoon after just a couple of pulls, and I reeled down on a fighting fish. It was good sized, and I thought it might be a striper out of a small group sitting out on the end of the point. The fish ran towards the boat, and I got a quick glimpse when it got to the boat, it was a nice 4+ spot and probably my biggest of the day. The fish peeled some drag off that Penn reel and that stout St Croix Triumph rod man-handled the fish to the boat perfectly. Here’s a picture of the fish, my first fish in 10 days. It was a good one!

When I brought the fish in, I noticed on the sonar that several other fish came with it, so I quickly unbuttoned the first fish and dropped the spoon straight down under the boat. I watched the group that came with the caught fish chase the spoon down to the bottom, and as soon as I lifted the spoon, the rod loaded up with another fish, only this one was from a vertical presentation. I kinda figured out that these fish hadn’t been messed with much because they were not boat-shy at all and I spent the next 3 hours fishing a small stretch on ledge and a point. Every once in a while, I’d mark a small group of fish moving around under the boat and every once in a while, I’d catch one casting the spoon or throwing the shaky head in the same general area. I think all of my fish, with the exception of the last fish came from 30-40 deep water and the fish were generally oriented to the outer areas of a point. Here’s a few pictures of the bigger fish from the Spa yesterday.

I probably could have finished my day there at the Spa, but I wanted to run one more little stretch of secondary points in the creek that faced the southwest. There is a stretch of 3-4 points that are in the sun for most of the day and by mid-afternoon the fish are cruising these areas of shallower water, but very near deeper water. I ran the whole stretch of points in the last hour of my trip and in the last few minutes, probably my last cast on the last point I caught my last fish of the day, and it was a good one to end the day with. I caught it on my favorite shaky head rig.

I would say that 3 of my biggest fish, including the biggest yesterday came from the Flex-it spoon pictured above and the other two big ones came from throwing my shaky head rig into 30-40 depths out on the ends of points. Same with the spoon. Water temps were 52 in the morning and 54 in the afternoon. Water levels on the lake are dropping again and a little over 8 feet below full pool.

That’s what it all boiled down to this week. I can honestly say that about 95% of my fish came from an areas not much larger than a football field this week. It was just a matter of locating the school and figuring out what they wanted to eat. The menu this week consisted of a succulent little shiny silver spoon, a fat stubby looking worm crawling across the bottom and slathered in stink juice, or a delicious little Keitech Damiki rig, hopped across the bottom to mimic an unsuspecting little shad. That little triple threat buffet provided me with some well needed excitement for the week and I finally got a working sonar this week after going without sonar for a couple months. My week started on Tuesday, and I basically worked over a mega school all week.

If you’ve known me very long and had the pleasure of fishing with me for any length of time, you would probably know that I name different areas that I frequent in the creek. For example, there is a ditch called “Kenny Bunkport”, a name we gave to an upper-class area where the owners made sure we knew that the area was catch and release only. They were a bit snooty with their Polo shirts and sweaters draped over their shoulders like something out of the Hamptons and Lisa and I got a big kick out of that. There is also a magical place in the creek I call “The Horseshoe” because someone placed brush on a deep flat in a horseshoe shape and it is the perfect trap for bait drifting into the horseshoe when the wind is out of the east. There is another area of the creek I call “The Spa”. It’s always been a place where fish congregate in the winter, spending days unmolested by anglers and all it takes is a little wind out of the north or west to get the bait moving. The place is very unsuspecting and to this day I can’t figure out what the attraction is, but they congregate in this area every year in big numbers. It’s like they go there to chill, and you’d never know they were there unless you woke them up or you hit it when they were feeding. Sometimes it’s like raising the dead on a calm day, but once you start pulling schools off the bottom it’s on and fish start moving everywhere.

This week I hit the Spa for the first time this year and the fish were stacked in the area. I had the perfect west wind on Tuesday and as soon as I idled into the spa, I started marking bait and fish. The area is 30-40 foot deep flat close to a creek swing and not a lot of structure in the area, just a deep flat that holds fish. As soon as I marked a good group of fish under the boat, I laid my first waypoint down on my new Humminbird Helix and sat down on the waypoint with Spot Lock. I pulled out the 1/2-ounce silver War Eagle spoon and started fan casting. The first few casts were uneventful, and I started wondering if the fish were going hit the spoon. Not long after that I got my first fish and as I got the fish to the boat, I noticed on my graph that several other fish came with the caught fish. After dropping the first fish in the livewell I just dropped the spoon straight down under the boat to the bottom where a few of the fish from the group were still lingering. I immediately caught another from under the boat while jigging the spoon up and down on the bottom. I took care of that fish and made a long bomb cast with the spoon, letting it sink all the way to the bottom before starting long hops on the bottom with the spoon. Once again, I felt another fish pop the spoon on a controlled fall and I boated another. This went on for a good 2 hours and in that time period I caught and released well over 20 fish, most coming from the spoon and a couple from the Damiki. Here’s a few pictures from the Spa on Tuesday. These were all what I call the “Keto” bass because they are on a strict diet of little shad and smaller bluebacks drifting around over the deeper water.

On Wednesday a cold front had pushed through overnight, and it was very cold and windy in the morning. I made a quick circle through the creek but with post front conditions it was slow, and it didn’t take long till I was back at the house. I only took a couple pics on Wednesday after catching a handful of fish in a 2-hour trip. We also recorded the second episode of the Friday Fish Fry podcast and I put a link to the podcast below the pictures.

On Thursday I was back at it, mid-morning with spoon in hand and ready to do battle again at The Spa. The wind was back out of the west but not a lot of wind, just enough to keep the bait moving out on the flat. If the bait was there, the fish would be there. As it turned out the bait had moved and The Spa was just about empty. I did manage one bright spot when a beefy 3.5lber sucked in my little Damiki rig on a long cast, hoping it on the bottom. There are about 3 different ways I like to use the Damiki this time of year, first is vertical, straight down under the boat till it hits the bottom and then long, slow controlled pulls, up and down. Second is casting it in the center of a ditch and letting it sink to the bottom, followed by long slow pulls across the bottom with the rod tip down and no slack in the line, stopping it very frequently. The third is casting it, letting it sink to the bottom and then making small hops across the bottom with the rod tip up so the Damiki will jump up a foot or so. On Thursday the fish reacted better to the hopping method than the dragging method. The biggest problem was the lack of fish at the Spa, so I went with plan B and pulled out the trusty ole worm on the rocks. I shifted my focus and was on the hunt for the “Meat Eaters” that frequent the warm sunny rocks that are generally south facing and near deep water. That’s been the whole key this week, the fish I found were either “near deep water” or “in deep water”. On Thursday the meat eaters I found were cruising the steep rocky bluffs, in or near deep water, in the middle of the day. Here are a few pics from Thursday. The good part was that there were some beefy fish jerking on my rod on Thursday.

Before I get into yesterday, I gotta say that it was an awesome day and I knew it was going to be before I even got started. The clouds were going to be moving in and we were going to have a west wind to work with. One thing that was kinda problematic was that I was running low on my War Eagle spoon supply. It had dwindled down to a total of 3 half-ounce succulent chrome beauties and that was going to be a problem. We were expecting some cloud cover, and the spoon was probably going to be the ticket if the wind blew at the Spa. I got out about 8am and when I pulled into the Spa it was loaded with fish and bait. As I pulled up, I saw a large boil just to my left and within casting distance. I thought it may have been a striper, but I let the little spoon fly right into the center of the circle from the boil. I felt the spoon fall for about 2 seconds and then go slack. When it goes slack that quick over deep water it only means one thing, and it took this 63-year-old caffeine jacked up brain about a nano to set the hook on my first big fish of the morning. That was the kind of fun I was looking for, so I started making casts in the area for more fish. It didn’t take long, and I had another on the spoon, just making some fan casts in the general area of the fish that surfaced. The area I was in had some fallen timber on the bottom and I finally found the wood with the spoon, and I couldn’t get it out of the timber, so I had to break it off. Now I was down to only 2 spoons left and that’s when it hit me that I need to conserve the spoon, or I might be out by noon since it wasn’t even 9am. A lot of the fish that I was marking were in the 40+ foot range and typically I wouldn’t be using a shaky head this time of year for such a deep application, choosing to use a spoon or Damiki, but I had a ton of shaky head supplies so out of necessity I started throwing the worm into the deeper areas of the Spa. The wind had kicked up and I was able to Spot Lock and make very long casts downwind with the shaky head into 40+ feet of water. The wait for the worm to get to the bottom was pretty painful in the wind, but once I felt the worm hit the bottom it was a very slow crawl, and then about a 10-15 second stop, dead sticking it with slight pressure. I’d say that most of the time the fish would pick up the bait on the dead stick rather than moving it. The best part was that the fish were all over that worm down in that deep water like a rat on a Cheeto.

It was funny because I caught a lot of fish yesterday and at one point, I caught a fish that was so small it could barely get the worm in its mouth and then I followed it up on the very next cast in the very same place and snatched out a stud 4+ pounder. It was unpredictable but as the afternoon progressed the clouds moved in, and the west wind was picking up. I moved around the same area, the size of a football field and had a field day yesterday. Big fish, medium fish and small fish, off and on all day and with the worm in 40+ water. It was a blast and a great way to end the week. Water temps were in the upper 50’s and the water level is down a little over 8 and a half feet. Finding the bait is key right now because a lot of times the fish won’t be far away. This week the deep bite prevailed because the bait was prevalent and deep in the location I was targeting. Here’s some of the pictures from yesterday.