Shane Watson Guide Service Report, 7-07-10 thru 7-20-10. The striper fishing remains strong most days on Lake Lanier. Our boats have been out everyday on both morning and afternoon trips. Freshly changed, quality live bluebacks on a downline are working best. Fish your bluebacks 30 to 40 feet deep over a 35 to 80 foot bottom in the mouths of creeks and just off the main channel. There are fish starting to show...

Since my last report we’ve had all of our boats out on guide trips everyday. We’ve caught stripers up to 35 pounds on downlined bluebacks fished 25 to 40 feet deep over a 35 to 70 foot bottom just off points and humps. Some of our boats are still catching a few fish early on a freeline, on a Spro Dawg, a Super Spook, and on a Redfin and then switching over to a downline. On my boat we have started...

The striper fishing was very good last week and over Memorial weekend. We’ve had our boats out on morning and afternoon guide trips daily and the north and southend are about equal. Downlined and power reeled bluebacks fished 20 to 25 feet deep over a 30 to 35 foot bottom has worked best. After the sun gets up high, move out over a 70 to 80 foot bottom. Fish your downlines on or just off points for best...

The last couple of days, the topwater bite has been strong on Lake Lanier. It is so great to see big stripers and spots blowing up on a surface lure and on a freeline. I spent most of last week rigging my new Sea Chaser boat and got back on the water on Friday. We spent a couple of days out over the main channel freelining and caught some nice fish, but there just wasn’t enough out there yet. The last...

Jerk Baits for Big Stripers The stripers have been on fire the last couple of days. Our boats have caught stripers up to 30 pounds this week on Spro McStick Jerk Baits in spooky shad pattern and on freelined bluebacks. Fish points in the middle to the rear of just about any creek. The north and southend are equal right now. The water temps that I saw today were 50-53 degrees. The store is getting in a shipment...

The stripers have been up boiling on the surface most every morning since my last report. We’ve caught all of our fish on freelined medium shiners, white Fat Albert grubs on a leadhead, and on white bucktails with a white hyper striper tail. These fish have been boiling on the surface and sub-surface about a foot under the water. Sometimes you will see a big visible swirl, sometimes it will be a slight...

We’ve had some great jig fishing at times. We’ve also had some great freelining when the fish have been active and up in the water column. These patterns have worked best early morning and late afternoon before the passing of a cold front. After a front passes or if the fish are down, shad body umbrella rigs are your best bet. There a lot of birds mid-lake and south, some on the main lake and some in the...

The stripers are moving back in the creeks as wintertime is here. We’ve had our boats out on trips everyday of the Thanksgiving week, scattered from down south to up north. Freelined and downlined trout and bluebacks produced best. Look for the seagulls diving and you will sometimes see the stripers busting on top. White bucktails and freelines will produce best when the stripers are on the surface. Capt....

Shane Watson Guide Service Report (10-20-09). Since my last report, we’ve seen great topwater at times with big schools of stripers on the surface and the numbers of fish we’ve caught on a Sebile and on freelines have been very good when they have been up. Somedays, they have not schooled on top at all and we have had to downline bluebacks 50 feet deep or troll leadcore out over the channel to catch...

Nothing much has changed on the stripers. We’ve had our guides out on trips everyday since my last report. Downline bluebacks fished 30-40 feet deep over 50-100 foot bottom are producing well. Capt. Mack’s white foil, 1 oz. bucktails, tipped with a live blueback or a Shadalicious are also working well. Fish your jigs 8 to 9 colors out at 3.0 mph in the mouths of mid-lake and southend creeks, also...