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2B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, July 10,2019
LAKE LANIER FISHING REPORT
Biggest bass caught in deeper water
Lake Lanier’s water level
remains healthy at 1,071.22
or .22 feet above the normal
full pool of 1,071. Lake sur
face temperatures are in the
mid-80’s.
The main lake is clear.
Creeks are slightly stained.
North of the Dawsonville
Highway bridge, the water is
slightly stained to stained.
The Chattahoochee River
below Buford Dam is clear.
Check generation schedules before head
ing out to the river at 770-945-1466.
Bass fishing rates good to very good.
We have found some shallow fish in the
mornings around banks located close to
deeper water. Once the sun rises, we head
away from the banks.
Lake Lanier’s spotted bass are settling in
to their offshore haunts around brush locat
ed from 15-30 feet deep.
Start your day casting topwater plugs.
Keep one locked and loaded all day long.
Larger chugging or popping plugs have
been working best.
Cast a Saltwater Chug Bug or a larger
Pop-R to the attention of bass that are posi
tioned in the deeper brush. Some days we
have seen fish thrashing the surface, even
during the hottest part of the day so keep a
topwater plug on deck.
Running and gunning and hitting as
many brush piles as possible is the way to
go. My Lowrance Carbon 12 and 16 allow
me to quickly find these offshore honey
holes. If you set your Structure Scan down
at 60 feet, you can scan a 120-foot wide
patch.
For the most part, users should just trust
factory settings. Reducing
the width of your side
image will allow you to
see you more details.
Cast a larger topwater
plug over the brush before
moving in to dissect it with
your drop shot rig. Other
lures may work better
when casting to the brush.
The Spybait has been
producing some nice fish.
Cast your spy baits past the
brush and allow them to sink for 10 sec
onds. Then, simply reel this finesse lure
with a slow and steady retrieve.
These tiny lures catch big bass. I have
also been casting a SPRO Little John DD
and worked it through the brush to trigger
bites, even when the fish are inactive.
For the most part, the drop shot bite has
been the way to catch lots of bass. I have
been using a Lanier Baits Fruity Worm or
the smaller Runt and have had great suc
cess.
Dip your worms in chartreuse JJ’s
Magic to add some scent and color to your
lures. Look for fish in the brush with your
electronics, but drop down into the brush,
even if you do not see fish.
Night fishing has been decent. Either hit
the steeper rocky banks with a deep-diving
crank bait or large spinner bait or target the
same brush you have fished during the day.
A black-and-blue jig works very well in
the brush. Add rattles to your jig to attract
fish to your lure.
Striper fishing remains very good.
That being said, you must find the active
schools of stripers to enjoy success. Start
your trip in the back of a creek channel or
large ditch and follow the channel out until
you mark fish on your Lowrance units.
You should encounter stripers somewhere
along the way. Fish appear as arcs when
the boat is moving or wavy lines when
your boat is stationary.
Almost all of the stripers have moved
offshore in water deeper than the thermo-
cline (which is around 25 to 30 feet deep).
The majority of stripers will be from 35-70
feet deep close to the creek and river chan
nels. Set your Lowrance units on a split
screen of 2D and Structure Scan and you
will be able to see directly below the boat
and out to both sides. In this instance, set
the scan area at 200 feet which allows me
to scan a 400-foot wide path.
Stick with the same down line and spoon
techniques that have been working.
Purchase as many herring as you can keep
alive. The fishing can be fast and furious.
Set your down lines to just above or at the
level where you are marking fish. If your
herring are lively, it shouldn’t take long to
get a strike. Switch out herring every 10
minutes.
Ben Parker spoons have been triggering
lots of bites this week. Drop these spoons
to below the level where you see fish, then
reel them as fast as possible up through the
school. A high-seed reel is a welcome asset
when using the power reeling technique.
Power reeling will produce some arm
breaking strikes so make sure your drag is
set correctly. Use 20-pound Sunline
Monofilament. This line stretches and is
extremely strong, which is important when
a big striper hits your lure.
The night bite around dock lights has
slowed a little as the majority of stripers
remain deeper after dark. Your best bet
after dark is to anchor in a creek channel
and drop a Hydro Glow light below your
boat. I like to chum the area with some cut
bait. This will pull in stripers.
Crappie: Your best bet for crappie fish
ing is to fish after dark. Anchor under
bridges with at least 25 feet of water depth.
Put out lights which attract bait fish and the
predators that eat them. Drop crappie min
nows on down line (just a hook, bait and a
medium-sized split shot) or cast small
crappie jigs around the outer edges of your
lights
Bank fishing: My daughter used to get
bored with me while bass fishing but there
was one fish that would bite all day long
— Bream. The bream stay relatively shal
low during the summer and they can keep
kids entertained. All you need is a Zebco
33 and a hook, bobber and earth worm or
cricket. If you use crickets, then add a
small split shot about six inches above
your hook.
Bream can be found along the banks that
have laydown trees or rocks.
You can also throw out bread or cracker
crumbs to get these fish to come to your
location. Your kids may enjoy feeding the
bream as much as they do catching them.
This weekend will be busy on Lake Lanier
and these same techniques will work on
farm ponds, subdivision ponds and even in
local rivers and streams.
Eric Aldrich is an outdoor writer, marketing
specialist and bass angler. Reports are based
on personal experience and permission from
a close network of friends. Contact him at
esaldrich@yahoo.com or visit his website at
aldrichfishing.com.
ERIC ALDRICH
Columnist
Bob Christian Dawson County News
LiamTaylor takes the lead July 6 in his heat of the 25-ft. freestyle at the final tournament of the summer.
FROM 1B
Racers
over two days to accommo
date the size of the league
both days continued deep
into the afternoon as a dozen
teams descended on Ruby
Fulbright Natatorium.
“Some of these teams have
over 150 kids on their rosters,”
Head Coach Stephanie Morgan
said. “It makes it impossible to
do all in one day.”
Morgan also talked about
the effects of team size on
the scoring system and the
need to emphasize a different
mindset as the leader of a
smaller team.
“With all the kids on their
rosters, even if all of them fin
ish last, those team will still
have a scoring advantage,”
Morgan said. “But an athlete
is an athlete. Some of our kids
play other sports like soccer,
football, track and then sum
mer swim league, but none
swim year-round, and they
still come here and compete
at a high level.”
The younger swimmers
stood out in particular on
Saturday morning as Liam
Taylor captured a blue-rib
bon with a first-place heat
finish in the 8U 25-ft free
style and Micah Jones
wracked up the tournament’s
second-highest individual
point total from the 6U
bracket.
Kirby becomes the only
Racer in action July 12 at the
GRPA State Finals in Tifton.
FROM 1B
Dawson
Dead Week must be observed, as fol
lows: Schools are prohibited from par
ticipating in voluntary workouts, camps
and/or clinics, weight training or com
petitions during the week (Sunday
through Saturday) in which the Fourth
of July falls each year.”
This year “Dead Week” started June
30 and lasted through July 7, and the
stadium, fields, weight rooms and gym
nasiums of Dawson County High
School echoed with silence as athletes
and coaches enjoyed some well-
deserved time off before the official
start of the fall season.
According to their website the GHSA
traces its history back more than 100
years to 1904, when Dr. Joseph S.
Stewart founded an athletic organization
in Temple that, in 1908, became the
GHSA, which has since grown to cover
literary along with a wide-array of coed
sports throughout Georgia in keeping
with their mission statement:
“The objective of the GHSA organiza
tion shall be the promotion of education in
Georgia from a mental, physical, and moral
viewpoint, to standardize and encourage
participation in athletics, and to promote
sportsmanship and an appreciation for and
study of music, speech, and other fine arts
through Region and State competitions.”
The Dawson County Tigers football
team will be the first team back in
action as they begin conditioning for the
2019 campaign on July 25. The fall sea
son officially gets under way for foot
ball, volleyball, softball, cross-country
and cheerleading on July 30.
The Lady Tigers softball team will
open competition with the earliest com
petition start date of Aug. 3, followed
by the cheerleaders on Aug. 4, volley
ball and cross-country on Aug. 6 and,
finally, football opening their season
Aug. 17.
FROM 1B
NASCAR
the oncoming drivers and the result
ing carnage ultimately tallied 18 cars.
Six, including Chase Elliott whose
No. 9 Napa Chevy had been running
third, were unable to return.
Kurt Busch emerged as the leader
and with dark clouds moving over the
speedway, he indicated that he was
going to stay on the track for as long
as possible under the yellow flag. As
the skies continued to darken it
looked as if the strategy was going to
pay off until the one-lap to go signal
was given on lap 127.
Busch, followed by a small group
of drivers, immediately headed into
pit-row for fuel only to see the yellow
flag come back out less than half-a-
lap later as the cars entered the back-
stretch. Despite cutting the pit-stop as
short as possible, Busch re-entered
the track in tenth place where he ulti
mately finished as a moment later the
red-flag flew, and the race effectively
ended with Haley in the lead.
The chaotic finish was a dramatic
change from the beginning of the race
as it was immediately apparent that
the team tactics that proved so suc
cessful for Chevrolet and Team
Hendricks Motorsports at Talladega
would be on full display.
From the green flag, Logano held
his inside lane as team Ford filled in
behind him to push the Team Penske
No. 22 to the front of the line. The
strategy led to a Ford driver, primarily
Fogano, leading all but one lap of the
first stage of the race. The final lap
featured an amazing battle between
Team Penske and Roush Fenway
Racing as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. broke
formation to challenge for the stage
win but ultimately pushed Fogano to
the stage victory past Team Penske
teammate Kevin Harvick.
The concept of manufacturer coop
eration was introduced to NASCAR
by Toyota in 2016 to great effect as it
effectively smashed Chevrolet’s stran
glehold on the Manufacturer’s Cup.
Toyota won the Manufacturer’s Cup
again in 2017 before Ford beat them
at their own game to win last year.
Chevy used the tactic at this year’s
running of Talladega when, led by
Elliott the manufacturer swept the
top-three spots, and it appeared they
were in a good position to win with
the strategy again as the second stage
closed on a tightly disciplined column
of Chevy’s pulling away from the
pack to give Dillon the second stage
and Chevy returned the favor with a
1-4 sweep of their own.
Ultimately each driver is an indepen
dent entity with their own group of peo
ple that are counting on them to win,
and as each stage comes to a close, driv
ers will employ their own strategy if
they truly believe they have a shot at the
checkered flag, but the new tactics seem
to give team drivers the best chance of
having that shot as evidenced by
Hendricks Motorsports grabbing sec
ond and third place despite losing two
drivers to the “Big One.”
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series brings all of its thunder and,
hopefully, a lot less lightning to
Kentucky Speedway on July 13 for
the Quaker State 400 presented by
Walmart.
