Striped bass attack baits with vigor, they fight hard, and there’s always the potential to catch a true giant fish when pulling lures or live bait in waters where stripers live. That’s particularly true right now at Lake Lanier.
While this article is about catching stripers on Lanier in March, much of what you find here applies in one way or another to stripers in all Georgia lakes, and to some extent in all months.
There is always a way to catch a striper at Lanier, but there is not a better time of the year to catch a striper at Lanier than the month of March. The Lanier Striper Experience —for the past eight years. March is his favorite month, but he is even more specific. When asked to divide March into thirds and pick the best and worst thirds, he didn’t pause, think or stutter.
“All other things being equal, the last 10 days of March are better than the middle 10 days, and the middle days are better than the first 10 days of March,” he said.
Then he quickly added that any day in March was better than most days in most other months. His message was clear—March is a good time to go striper fishing at Lanier.
We know to go in March, with every new March day likely being better than the day before, all things being equal. Next question is where to go.
The best bad answer is that there will be stripers caught from the dam all the way to Lula up the Chattahoochee and up the Chestatee. In other words… in the lake. Bad answer. Good answers are:
• Flat and Balus creeks: We fished from the “No Skiing” buoy into the backs of both creeks to the point that the downrods were bouncing at 12 feet deep. These two creeks are sort of like the Walmart and Home Depot of Lanier striper fishing. There is always some decent fishing there, and you can learn much about what stripers around the lake are likely doing simply by watching these fish.
• The red river marker pole No. 30 just upstream from Browns Bridge is one of many points on Lanier where deep water comes shallow fast. Good points are near a major channel, in this case, the Chattahoochee River channel.
• The flats off main channels up both the Chattahoochee and Chestatee rivers are good in March.
Many Lanier stripers are going to run up the rivers in March and April, and fishermen are going up there after them. Fishermen can get crowded in those tighter waters up to the rivers. River current sweeping lines and boats add to the opportunity for fishermen to run afoul of one another. Ron said he tends to stay out of that potential springtime fracas up the rivers as much as he can.
Onlineatherns.com is a comprehensive guide on the area and we’re happy to share this content from their incredible resource: http://onlineathens.com/sports-outdoors/2016-03-17/its-prime-time-catch-big-lake-lanier-striped-bass#
Author: millie
Front Desk Manager