I’ll bet you’re wondering about that catchy title, but that’s about what it boiled down to this week. I did incorporate more Livescope to locate fish, mainly when using the crankbait, and I found it to be pretty amazing watching the fish react to the crankbait as it got close to them. Earlier this week, I was watching my crankbait swim along using Livescope, and as the crankbait swam along, fish started coming up off the bottom, one right after another, in a straight line towards the crankbait. It was almost like watching a hatching of termites as they all leave the ground nest; the fish were appearing from the same little area on the bottom and swimming up to check out the crankbait. Inevitably, as the group of bass spectators gathered around the crankbait, one from the group would break camp, as if to say, “I’m your Huckleberry,” and attack the crankbait. I caught a lot of Huckleberries this week, and the crankbait prevailed again as my favorite bait for the week.

Last week I had an old friend in my boat, and we were reminiscing about growing up in the Midwest and fishing farm ponds as a kid. My old friend Greg’s dad used to take him fishing as a kid just like my dad used to take me fishing as a kid. I told Greg that the most important thing I learned from those fishing trips was patience. My dad would have me sitting on the bank of the pond watching our catfish rods and just waiting for a catfish to take the bait. If I got up and wandered around, my dad would reel in the fish, and I would miss out, so I always stayed pretty close to those rods and waited. I learned to be patient on those pond dykes as a kid and it still helps today.

I had Lisa out with me last week and I wanted her to catch a fish or two on the crankbait I’ve been using so I gave her the rod and bait I had been using to catch my crankbait fish. I grabbed another rod and tied the exact same bait on the same leader and main line. Everything we had was exactly the same. We started out beating some rocky bank in the creek that had wind blowing on it, and I knew there would probably be some fish on it. Within a 100 yard stretch I had put 3 solid fish in the boat and Lisa still hadn’t had a sniff. We moved to a different area, and I boated a couple more fish and still nothing for Lisa, so I started trying to figure out the difference in what I was doing and what she was doing. It was obvious that there was a difference after I had a half dozen fish in the boat and Lisa had none. One thing that stood out was her retrieve was much more deliberate and at a quicker pace. Generally, when Lisa and I are using crankbaits, we’re trying to make contact or stay in contact with the bottom as long as possible, but as we get into late spring the shad spawn begins, and the bass start thinking about chasing shad. Crankbaits that are more shallow divers and bare a shad pattern are more successful this time of year and just swimming the crankbait with a slow retrieve just below the surface often triggers a strike. I showed Lisa the slower speed and explained to her that the bait just needed a slow retrieve with the rod tip down. It didn’t take long after Lisa made the adjustment, she started catching more fish and put 3 in the boat shortly afterwards. It just took a little patience with that slower speed to get the fish to react.

The bite had just about everything to do with the speed of the crankbait for me this week but I gotta brag on the gear I used to make it a fun week of cranking. First, Jeff Nail and St Croix hooked me up with a sweet 7’3″ mxf Black Bass spinning rod for helping represent St Croix at a Scheel’s event at Lake Lanier Islands this past winter. I put one of my Shimano Stradic 2500’s on the rod and loaded it with 20lb Cast Co. braid. Casting distance is very important to me and hands down; Cast Co. braid is the best on the market when it comes to casting distance. For my leader I’m using about 8-10 feet of 8lb Seaguar Invizx and tying the two together with my Cast Away knot. My crankbait of choice for the last few weeks has been the Rapala DT-8 in green gizzard shad and it’s been my best percentage bait for a while.

I’ve found a little bit of topwater here and there, but it’s mainly been a “right place right time” event with the topwater. Yesterday I was able to call more fish up to the surface than in previous days so maybe that’s a good sign for days to come with the topwater bite. I did also get on a little tear with a jerkbait earlier in the week but my “cast to catch” percentage was low with that bait so I gravitated back to the DT-8 which yielded a higher percentage.

Closing in on the weeks end, I was down to 2 baits; it was the little chrome Azuma Zdog walking bait for my starting bait and after a cast or two I would go to work with the crankbait. If there was no wind in the area I was fishing, I’d usually go right to the crankbait and forego topwater all together. The Livescope came into play all week as I used it to locate fish and then I’d usually turn the transducer away from the fish after I made my cast. If the fish were up in the water column and there was wind, I would go with the topwater, and if the fish were down in the water column, I would go with the crankbait. After a few topwater casts, whether I caught a fish or not, I’d switch over to the crankbait and start casting around fish. The technique with the crankbait was pretty simple, I could cast the crankbait about 120-130 feet on average and my Livescope is set to 100 feet looking forward, so my cast covers everything inside the Livescope screen on the retrieve. If there’s at least 5-10 fish inside the screen and I run my crankbait through them, more than likely one of those fish is going to chase it down and strike at it. Speed was the most important part and most of the time the DT-8 was only 4-6 feet below the surface on the retrieve and that put it right in the zone over the deeper brush. The retrieve kinda reminds me of the spybait retrieve, once you get locked into the right speed and start catching more fish, you gain more confidence in the process.

Location for throwing the crankbait this week was pretty forgiving and I focused on a lot of brush out on the ends of points and I was just blind casting around points and rocky areas most of the time. A lot of my fish this week came from at least 15 feet of water and the deepest crankbait fish I caught this week was from 32 feet of water. It didn’t really matter to the fish. If the fish was suspended and there was a group, one was probably going to go after it no matter what depth it was. Once again, the key was the speed.

That’s about all I did this week which gave me the best results. The lake is about a foot above full pool and the surface temps are in the mid to low 70’s right now. He’s a few pics from my week.

This week was about as short as it gets for me. Yesterday was the only day that I got an early start and stayed out till mid-afternoon this week. I fished a few hours earlier in the week, but I really didn’t get a handle on things until today. The way my morning started this morning was with some topwater at dawn after seeing a few surfacing fish on a point in the creek. They were shallow and chasing bluebacks on the surface, so I tied on the Spro Epop in the emerald color, and it didn’t take long till a fish came completely out of the water, blowing up on the popper. It was my first topwater fish for 2025 and it was on the emerald color. It reminded me of catching fish in late March years ago on the old emerald popper. I generally use the popper if I see surfacing fish but it’s also a good idea to start throwing it around those shallow pockets very early in the morning right now. Yesterday I found that the fish were actively feeding on top for about the first hour of sunrise. The popper bite will improve over the next couple months but it’s a good idea to have it tied on and ready.

The second bait I used with success yesterday was the Damiki Keitech swimbait over brush and on points. I like the little Damiki rig when it’s flat in the early morning hours because I’ve found over the years that the bass can react to smaller baits in flat conditions, better than larger baits. Basically, it’s easier to fool them with the little 2.8 Keitech on a 1/4-ounce Damiki head, whether it’s over brush or just blind casting a point early in the morning. If you’re using Livescope, it’s just as easy as locating fish in the tops of the timber or brushpiles, and making a cast just beyond the target area, counting to ten and a slow retrieve back to the boat. I can also cast to single fish or small wolf packs with the little swimbait using Livescope and it kinda reminds me of sight fishing redfish in the marshes of Louisiana. You can also use the little Keitech around docks with great success right now and yesterday I caught fish with the keitech around docks, points and over brush.

Next came my meat and potatoes bait yesterday, the shaky head. I used this the most yesterday and it produced some very nice fish, first while running a stretch of deeper docks and then I started hitting the deeper, shady rock bluffs. If you’re not scoping docks, right now you just have to assume there are fish under every dock….and there could be right now. Right now, my favorite place to look for bigger fish with the worm would have to be a deep, dark shady rock bluff with a blowdown or sunken wood on the bottom. The sundrenched rock bluffs are a good option right now, but I prefer the deep, dark shady areas for bigger fish right now. Really, you can’t go wrong throwing a shaky head worm around rocks and docks right now, especially in those mid-morning hours when you’re waiting for that wind to kick up. Yesterday I caught the most fish on the shaky head.

Late yesterday morning the wind started to blow out of the SW, and it started a pretty good ripple in the creek so I noticed the wind blowing right into a couple rocking points and I wanted to see if the crankbait bite was still an option, so I picked up the cranking rod and started making bomb casts with the crankbait across points. The DT10 runs at about 10 feet in depth but most of my casts started at close to 10 feet and I don’t think I caught a fish on the crankbait yesterday while it was making contact with the bottom. I ran a long stretch of rip rap in the creek and found a couple of smaller fish willing to eat the crankbait, but I just wasn’t feeling it with the crankbait. The wind was really starting to pick up and I had another fun bait in mind, but the crankbait is definitely still in play right now. It won’t be long till we can put away the red cranks and pull out the shad pattern crankbaits. We’re going to be approaching the shad spawn very soon and a shad pattern crankbait that dives between 5-10 feet will be the ticket for some nice bass prior to, and during the shad spawn.

If it’s spring and the wind is blowing, you’d better have a spinnerbait on the deck. Yesterday in the early afternoon the wind picked up and it provided me with plenty of options for my 3/4-ounce SpotSticker Baits Mini Me. Right now, I don’t use a trailer for the bait, and it does just fine without one. It’s pretty simple with the spinnerbaits right now. Just find a wind point and start chunking it around. I like to spot lock up wind and make my casts downwind for the extra distance on the cast. I follow it up with a 10-15 count depending on the depth I’m fishing. If I’m fishing shallow, I like to keep it just above the bottom and for deeper applications like over brush, I’ll give it a 10 count just to get it down below the surface a bit. Yesterday I caught some nice ones with the spinnerbait out on windy points, but I broke it off in the top of a brushpile after success on a few points. I don’t like to use Livescope for the spinnerbait because I like the surprise I get from the fish slamming the bait unexpectedly. After I broke off the spinnerbait, I decided to pull out one of my all time spring bait favorites, but the spinnerbait on windy points is a must right now in the afternoons.

The last bait I used yesterday was the Zman Jackhammer chatterbait. Man, I gotta tell you guys, I love me some chatterbait in the spring. If nothing else, I love the way my rod unloads and reloads when they hit the chatterbait. The heck with Livescope! Give me the thrill of not knowing exactly when it’s going to happen and when it does happen, it can be extreme. Once I broke off that spinnerbait yesterday afternoon, I didn’t skip a beat and hit a rock point with wind on it. On my first cast I felt the chatterbait unload and reload, and I knew a fish had swirled on it. My very next cast produced another swirl so I knew there was interest. I worked my way down the side of the point and made casts across the point; on my 4th cast, I felt the bait totally unload and then reload, doubling over with a fighting fish on the end. That’s such a great feeling when fishing points out in the wind. Years ago when I first started using the Jackhammer, I mainly used it around docks and in the shallows in the spring but over the years I’ve broadened my usage of the chatterbait to include rocks, docks, points and random bank beating. Basically, I’ll use it anywhere, anytime the wind is blowing and it’s sunny out. One of the biggest attractions using the chatterbait is that chrome flash from the blade in the afternoon sun. That flash is a fish magnet and one of the main reasons I have success with it. Another successful area I like to use the chatterbait is the shade patches around docks in the afternoons. There’s just something about running that chatterbait through a shade patch down the side of a dock and feeling a fish slam it in the dark shadow. I finished my afternoon yesterday about 4pm and the last 2 hours were spent throwing the chatterbait in the wind and popping the occasional bass. I think the chatterbait provided the most fun for me yesterday and the wind was instrumental in my success. I used a pearl paddletail fluke jr. for a trailer on the chatterbait and it provided a great ending for my week.

Right now the lake is holding steady at just above full pool and the corps is only moving water a few hours a day. Water temps are still a little on the low side for this time of year but the lake is warming and approaching 60 degrees right now. Above are 6 baits that I use this time of year with great success on Lanier. I could rattle off another 4-5 baits that I would use in addition to these six but these are 6 of my favorites and the ones I used with success yesterday. Here’s a few more fish from my week.

It’s been a few years, but I probably wouldn’t have the experience and knowledge with the spoon during the winter months if not for a Friday evening on the way back down lake after a day of pre-fishing for a tournament the following morning. It was getting close to sunset, and I was passing the mouth of 6-mile creek, on my way back to Bald Ridge when I just happened to see a large flock of gulls circling and diving in a small cove in the Shady Grove area. I saw a few loons working below the gulls and I turned the boat towards the action. At the same time a center console boat was coming from the opposite direction and heading straight for the birds. We both pulled up just short of the action at the same time and we were both on the bow of the boats in no time making casts into the area. I was throwing a pearl white Sebile and immediately hooked up with a striper. At the same time, I could see the guy in the center console very near me was hooked up too, only his fish was a big spot. We both made casts again after releasing our fish and I immediately hooked up with another striper while the guy in the striper boat brought another huge bass to his boat. After seeing that, I asked the guy what he was using and he showed me a little white War Eagle spoon. I generally used my smaller spoons for vertical fishing but after seeing him bring in two 4-5lb spots casting the spoon, I tied one on and sure enough, the stripers had no interest in the spoon but the bass were crushing it.

The next morning my buddy Matt and I entered a UGA tournament and won it with just shy of 20lbs and just about every fish we weighed that day came from casting the spoon in various ditches. We had 2 fish that were over 5lbs, and the rest were decent fish also. That winter the bass were just crushing the spoon in the center of the ditches, but the bite was much better when casting the spoon, rather than working it vertically. That’s probably the best day I’ve had casting the spoon in the winter and to win a tournament with 2 five-pound studs was just icing on the cake.

This week started on Sunday afternoon after church service. About the whole time I was sitting in church I was thinking about ditch fishing and the spoon. A friend of mine asked if I would mind saving him some fish for a family meal and I told him I would. His family loves fish but he’s doesn’t fish so every once in a while, he’ll contact me and ask for some fish. I’ve got no problem saving him some fish and helping to feed a family is worth saving a few bass for table fare. He usually brings me a 12 pack of beer which I don’t drink but I take it out to the country and give the beer to a friend who does drink beer and has a private lake filled with crappie and bass, so I exchange the beer for crappie and bass fishing in his lake. It’s a good trade and I usually load the freezer with crappie and bass filets from the lake.

I knew exactly where I was going to go on Sunday afternoon after doing some scouting on Thanksgiving afternoon while giving the grandkids a joyride in the boat. We stopped in the middle of a ditch and on the first drop, the bottom came alive, and we were in business. Two of my grandkids got to reel in a bass from the ditch and then we left them biting because it was just too cold to have the kids out in the wind. That ditch was loaded with fish as it is just about every year around this time and sometimes, I just have to drop my spoon on faith because the fish are usually so stuck to the bottom, I can’t pick them up on sonar or Livescope. I’ve written about this before but when using the spoon, Livescope is helpful to locating the moving fish but the ones that are resting on the bottom are very hard to see. I just know from fishing Lanier for the past 20+ years that the fish will be there and you can just about cast your spoon in any direction, letting the spoon flutter down to the bottom and usually the fish will come alive and pull off the bottom to investigate the spoon. Sometimes they hit the spoon before it gets to the bottom and sometimes it takes a few hops on the bottom to get the fish to react. Once I get a group up and swimming around, chances are, more groups are going to start moving around, thinking something is happening. Depending on the size of the group in the ditch, it can provide fun for hours or it can only last a few minutes before the group scatters. Releasing the caught fish back into the ditch will generally shut the bite down after the third or fourth fish, so I usually keep the fish in the livewell until I get ready to leave the area or I get 5-10 in the livewell. When I release the fish, I usually idle away from the ditch before releasing my catch if I want to continue to fish the area. I don’t recommend keeping the fish in the livewell for an extended period of time unless of course, you know what you’re doing, you’re a tournament angler or a fishing guide trying to put that five bass picture together. (I always get a chuckle out of that one).

Back to Sunday afternoon. I’d like to be able to tell you that there are certain things that I look for when looking for a productive ditch, and there are but for the past week, the two most productive ditches for me were in areas that are nothing special, just flat mud bottom with very little structure. One would be classified as a ditch but the other is just basically a swing in a creek channel. In both cases there is bait, clouds of bait just drifting through the areas. Massive clouds of threadfin shad moving around, not being influenced by the wind but just kinda hanging around the area. The bass in the first ditch were everywhere on Sunday and there was some bigger fished mixed in this year. I think the average size is up this year and I think the average size bass being caught around the lake is up this year too. I probably caught close to 30 fish on Sunday afternoon and provided table fare for a friend. Think of that beer as a big bag of crappie filets for a fish fry.

I fished again on Monday for a couple hours in the warmest part of the day generally cycling through four different ditches that have produced, and I had a pretty good run. I skipped Tuesday and shot back out on Wednesday for a couple hours in the warmest part of the day. On Thursday I fished with my friend Curtis, from church, who also lives on the lake and is a pilot for Delta. He has a pretty busy schedule, but he managed to jump in the boat with me on his way back home after flying back from Denver. He said it was actually warmer in Denver than here. We got into fish right away in the early afternoon and Curtis put 2 nice fish in the boat on his first 3 casts to start us off. I think one of which may have been his pb at a little shy of 5lbs. We brought a couple doubles to the boat and fished for a couple hours, bouncing back and for between 2 ditches, before calling it a day.

Yesterday I got out again from noon till 3 or so and caught a lot of fish but I could tell that things were slowing down a bit in the ditches for the spoon bite. The fish Have been looking at the spoon all week and the size of the bass certainly decreased yesterday. The biggest key this week was the bait and matching the hatch with the 1/2-ounce War Eagle spoon. Early in the week, it was all about the white spoon but by Wednesday they really reacted to the chrome spoon much better. When I came off the water yesterday afternoon the water temp was down to 55 and dropping. It was 58 at the beginning of the week. The lake is down a little over 4 feet and dropping, exposing some pretty interesting shoreline and bass hideouts when the lake is at full pool. Here’s a few of the memorable fish from my week.