July 2019 Lake Lanier Striper Fishing Report
July striper fishing on Lanier means huge schools of fish in deep water on the south end of the lake. These fish will be found from Brown’s Bridge to the dam in deep drainages, creek and river channels in 40 to 60 feet of water early in the day to 80 to 100 feet later in the afternoon. Trolling with lead core or Cannon downriggers and a 1- to 1 1/2-oz. Capt. Mack’s Chipmunk Jig with your favorite trailer or a herring trailer is a great way to look for these schools and be fishing while you are looking. Make sure you are using your side imaging on your Humminbird graph because this makes your search pattern coverage much greater. With lead core line, we will be best pulling at 2.5 to 3 mph with six to eight colors out and 40 to 60 feet behind a downrigger ball that is set 25 to 40 feet down. Once you find a school of fish, downlines will be the go-to live-bait technique. Your setup should be a 1.5- to 2-oz. lead, 6 to 8 feet of 10- to 12-lb. fluorocarbon leader with a No. 1 Gamakatsu Circle or Octopus hook. This setup will get your fragile bait down through the hot water fast and allow him to swim around without dragging around an oversized hook and heavy leader. The best baits will be herring, but small to medium gizzard shad will get the attention of some larger fish. Make sure you keep a Parker spoon or a 2-oz. Capt. Mack’s Chipmunk with a trailer tied on that you can drop down through these schools and power reel these baits up through the school of striped bass. Vary your retrieve speed when power reeling, but when you think you’re reeling fast enough, know that you probably aren’t. The stripers at Lanier will be moving a lot looking for suspended bait pods this month, so be ready to cover a lot of water, as well. Give me a call at 678-300-4865 to get out there, and catch them up