Lake level is 1071.68’ with water temps in the high 80s and clear water conditions on the south end of the lake up thru the middle of the lake. July striper fishing on Lanier means huge schools of fish in deep water on the south end of the lake (below GA Hwy 369, Brown’s Bridge). These fish will be found from 369 to the dam in deep drainages, creek channels, and the river channel in 35-65 feet of water early in the day out to 80-100 feet of water later in the afternoon. Trolling with lead core or Cannon downriggers and a 1-1.5 oz Capt Mack’s Chipmunk jig with your favorite plastic trailer or even a live herring as a 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 Explore or Apex graph because this makes your search pattern coverage 100s of feet wide vs 20-30’ using down imaging only. Lead core will be best pulled at 2.5-3 mph with 6-8 colors out or 40-60’ behind your downrigger ball that is set 25-40’ down. Once you find a school of fish downlines will be the go to live bait technique. Your setup should be a 1.25 or 1.75 oz Striper Tackle Pro Pencil Swivel Sinker, 6-8’ of 10-12# fluorocarbon leader, finishing with a #1 Gamakatsu Circle or Octopus hook. This setup will get your fragile bait down thru the hot water fast and allow it 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. These schools are moving around in these areas and not necessarily staying under the boat, so move your boat around in these areas with your down lines set at 25-35 feet down with your Minn Kota Instinct trolling motor pulling the boat around at .7-.9 mph. A great way to spread your baits out to cover a larger area is to keep utilizing your Capt Mack’s Perfect Planer boards by attaching your down line to the board and make what we call a downer board. Same technique as last month, but now the bait is hanging more vertically under the board versus being behind the board and only down 5-8 feet. This will also make it easy to run six to eight down lines versus the standard four that most folks fish. Lots of days more bait in the water means more fish in the boat. Make sure you keep a Striper Tackle Boss Hawg Spoon or 2oz Capt Mack’s Chipmunk with trailer tied on that you can drop down thru these schools and power reel these baits up thru the fish after you stop on top of them. Vary your retrieve speed, but when you think you’re reeling fast enough know that you probably aren’t. The stripers will be moving a lot looking for suspended bait pods this month, so be ready to cover a lot of water.
Jesus said in John I AM seven times to reveal his divine nature of who he is. Him saying I AM is a reference back to God talking with Moses in the desert when Moses asks God who should he say has told him the message, or on whose authority he is talking from and God tells him to tell them I AM sent him. In John 10:7-9, Jesus says “, I AM the door of the sheep….If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…” He is telling us that trusting in him, as the sheep completely trust the shepherd, is the only way to God’s grace of eternal life and that by stepping thru the door of opportunity that he is we can receive that eternal life.
Get out there and catch em up!
Call us today at 678-300-4865 or visit our online booking page to book your Striper Experience!