Lake Lanier - The Crankbait Period
Every spring as the trees start to come back to life, the geese begin to return, and the surface temperature of the water rises above 50 degrees and the air temp climbs into the 60s and above, Lake Lanier has about a two-week period when the diving crankbait is the best lure to catch spotted bass. The reason is that the warming waters start to draw the bass away from their deeper winter homes towards the flowering warming shorelines.
In the beginning of this annual process, most bass tend to hold and feed suspended away from the banks of the lake in 8 to 12 feet of water. Therefore, for anglers to be successful, it is necessary to have a lure pass through this magic depth zone at a very slow pace, but with enough action to attract the bass curiosity and appetite. This is accomplished by utilizing diving crankbaits in 1/4 to 3/4 ounce sizes with enough of a diving lip to easily take the lure to the desired depth and provide the proper strike inducing wiggle. In the clearer waters, color never seems to make much of a difference, but when fishing stained or slightly muddy water, brighter chartreuse or white crankbaits tend to be more productive. The most important ingredient is always the speed of the retrieve!
Most anglers seem to think that the more casts they make the better their chances, but during Lanier’s prime crankbait period, that is certainly not the case. It is imperative that one finds the “happy medium” to be successful. The retrieve must be just fast enough to allow the crankbait to dive and wiggle, but not one bit more than that. Only the trial of success or failure will show a fisherman when he has achieved the proper speed.
Best places to cast are usually points and coves above Browns Bridge in the beginning of this period, but within a week, it won’t matter which end of the lake one chooses. Red clay banks seem to have more bass than rocky or sandy ones.
It is best to use spinning tackle with 8 - 10 pound test line to be more efficient and allow the lure to go deep enough to attract and reach the bass. Smaller diameter lines will let the lure go even deeper, but one is more at risk of losing fish and lures with the lighter lines and their ability to easily break.
If an angler casts directly at the bank, finds the right speed of retrieve, and diligently works the proper locations, he can expect to catch 12 to 28 spotted bass and a few other species of fish in an 8-hour period each day for the next couple of weeks. As soon as the surface temperature all over the lake reaches 60 degrees, however, one can put the crankbaits away and learn a new method for the next part of the spring season, but I will save that one for another article