Afternoon action on Lake Lanier! 🎣 Once these stripers finally decided to eat, it turned into doubles, triples, and bent rods in a hurry.
Lake Lanier Striper Snipers are at it again!
I ran both a morning and an afternoon Lake Lanier striper fishing trip today, and although there were plenty of fish to be found, getting them to eat was a completely different story.
The biggest lesson from today was a simple one: Just because the fish aren’t biting right now doesn’t mean they won’t be biting an hour later.
Birthday Stripers for Return Client Mr. Robert
Birthday striper for Mr. Robert on Lake Lanier! 🎣 Always great having a return client back on the boat.
My morning trip was with return client Mr. Robert and his family as they celebrated his birthday.
Robert has been out fishing with me multiple times, so it was great having him back on the boat again, especially for a birthday trip.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Robert!
We found plenty of striped bass, but the fish were definitely more tight-lipped than they had been the day before.
That’s something I’ve noticed plenty of times while guiding on Lake Lanier. One day the stripers act like they’ll eat anything you put in front of them. The very next day, you can mark fish everywhere and struggle to convince them to eat a perfectly presented bait.
Today was one of those days.
We still managed to get several good fish to cooperate, but there were a whole lot more stripers underneath the boat than what ended up coming over the side.
If we had caught every fish we saw on the graph today, we would’ve needed a bigger boat.
Afternoon Trip With Return Client Pat and the Crew
Pat’s grandson with a nice Lake Lanier striper during the afternoon trip! 🎣 Once the fish finally turned on, the action picked up fast.
For the afternoon trip, I had another return client, Pat, along with his grandson, Pat’s friend, and his friend’s son.
Pat has also fished with me several times, and it’s always good getting repeat clients back on the boat.
Unfortunately, the fish started out acting about the same way they had that morning.
I found an area that was absolutely loaded with stripers. The graph looked exactly like something a striper fisherman wants to see, with fish stacked everywhere.
Plenty of Lake Lanier stripers on the graph — finding them wasn’t the problem today, getting them to eat was! 🎣
The problem?
They didn’t want to eat.
We worked hard on that school and managed to catch three fish, but with the number of fish showing on the electronics, I knew there should have been a lot more action.
Instead of sitting there all afternoon trying to force those fish to bite, I decided to leave them alone.
My thinking was simple: I’ll go look around, fish some other areas, and come back later.
Same Fish, Completely Different Attitude
We checked several more places around Lake Lanier without seeing anything that made me want to stay.
Eventually I decided to return to the area we had left earlier.
That turned out to be the right decision.
This time, the stripers were hungry.
I moved into a ditch and suddenly it was game on. We caught around nine or ten stripers, and for a while it seemed like every time we put the baits back down another rod was getting hit.
We had doubles.
We had triples.
The rods stayed bent, everybody stayed busy, and the biggest striper of the afternoon was around 14 pounds.
It was a complete turnaround from what we had experienced in the exact same general area earlier.
Lake Lanier Striper Fishing Tip of the Day
Today’s fishing tip is something worth remembering:
If you find a big school of stripers and they aren’t eating, don’t automatically assume you need to sit on them until they finally bite.
Sometimes the better move is to leave.
Give the fish a break. Check some different structure. Look at another ditch, hump, point, or river channel area and then come back later.
Stripers can change their attitude surprisingly fast.
The school that barely gave us three bites earlier in the afternoon turned into doubles and triples when we returned.
Sometimes you don’t need to find different fish.
You just need to come back to the same fish at the right time.
Current Lake Lanier Fishing Conditions
Water temperature today was pushing 87 degrees, and the water remains clear.
With the lake this warm, finding concentrations of fish is only half of the equation. Paying attention to their mood and being willing to move can make a huge difference.
Today was a perfect example.
The fish made us work for them early, but persistence — and knowing when to leave them alone — turned the afternoon into another great Lake Lanier striper trip.
It’s also always appreciated when clients like Robert and Pat keep coming back to fish with me year after year. Repeat clients are a big part of what makes guiding on Lake Lanier so enjoyable.
Lake Lanier Striper Snipers are at it again!
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