A beautiful 19 lb 11 oz Lake Lanier striper — the biggest fish of the trip! 🎣
September started off with another great day of striper fishing on Lake Lanier, but this trip was a perfect example of why locating fish is only half the battle. Sometimes you can have an entire screen full of stripers underneath the boat and still have to figure out exactly what it takes to make them bite.
I had some of my subscribers aboard for this trip, and we started the morning finding a pretty good concentration of fish around the humps. The water temperature was 85.5 degrees, and as the sun continued to climb, the morning structure bite began changing.
Instead of staying put and hoping something happened, we went searching.
We checked several ditches around the humps, looked along different pieces of structure and checked the river channel. There were scattered fish here and there, but nothing that made me want to stop and spend much time on them.
Eventually we moved into an area that was essentially open water. I found a group of approximately 10 to 12 stripers and decided to Spot-Lock on them.
Before long, those 10 or 12 fish turned into a completely different picture.
The sonar screen absolutely filled up with stripers.
Having that many fish underneath the boat is exciting, but there was still one major problem: they weren’t interested in eating.
Making the Adjustments
Small adjustments made the difference when these Lake Lanier stripers didn’t want to cooperate.
This is where small changes can completely change a fishing trip.
I added split shots to my free lines and belly-hooked the blueback herring. That changed the presentation and started producing a few bites.
Then I began working a spoon through the fish and picked up a couple more.
That activity seemed to be exactly what the school needed.
Suddenly the fish became aggressive.
One rod went down, followed by another, and then another. What had been a group of extremely reluctant stripers turned into one of those hectic bites where everybody on the boat has something happening at the same time.
By the time everything settled down, we had caught around 20 stripers.
The biggest fish of the trip weighed an impressive 19 pounds, 11 ounces.
Captain’s Tip: Match Your Hook Size to Your Live Bait
Match the hook to the bait—not just the size of the fish you’re trying to catch.
Something I hear surprisingly often from anglers who fish with me is:
“I thought you would be using a bigger hook.”
When fishing live bait, bigger hooks aren’t necessarily better.
The goal is to allow your bait to behave as naturally as possible.
A blueback herring needs to be able to swim freely. Putting an oversized hook in a relatively small herring adds unnecessary weight, causes the bait to tire faster and changes the way it moves through the water.
That’s important because stripers are predators that naturally want to chase their prey.
When I’m fishing blueback herring, one of my preferred hooks is a Gamakatsu Big River Bait size 4. With a more traditional hook design, I will normally use approximately a size 2.
It’s also important to understand hook terminology. A size 2 hook and a 2/0 hook are not remotely the same size.
Once I move to larger gizzard shad, I increase hook size accordingly. Depending on the size and profile of the bait, I may use approximately a 2/0 on a smaller gizzard shad, 4/0 on a medium bait and 5/0 on a large gizzard.
The important principle isn’t memorizing one specific hook size.
It’s matching the hook to the bait you’re fishing.
Combine an appropriately sized hook with a long leader, and your live bait can move naturally and stay lively longer. That natural movement can make a tremendous difference, especially when you’re dealing with pressured or finicky stripers.
Teaching the Pattern, Not Just Catching the Fish
There’s nothing better than watching the pattern come together and seeing my subscribers put it into action. 🎣
One of the things I enjoy about taking my subscribers fishing is being able to explain what I’m doing throughout the trip.
When the fish move, I want them to understand why we’re moving.
When the fish are underneath the boat but won’t bite, I want them to see the adjustments I make.
And when one small change suddenly turns a reluctant school into an aggressive feeding school, that’s information they can take with them and apply on their own boats later.
These subscribers definitely put that information to work today.
Approximately 20 stripers, plenty of hectic action and a 19 lb 11 oz Lake Lanier striper to top it all off.
I’d say they brought the pain. 🎣🔥
Lake Lanier Striper Snipers are at it again!
#LakeLanierStriperSnipers #LakeLanierFishing #StriperFishing #LakeLanierFishingGuide #StripedBass #FishingReport #BrooktonBaitAndTackle