2B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, July 31,2019
LAKE LANIER FISHING REPORT
Cooler air has made the bass bite better
'The bass after dark will actively feed when the sun goes
down. Try casting a deep diving SPRO Little John DD 90
around brush on the points and humps. These crankbaits
will run as deep as 25-feet deep. Other lures like a black
spinner bait or a jig are also good choices to cast in these
same areas.'
Lake Lanier’s water level
is just above full pool at
1,071.17 or .17 feet above
the normal full pool of
1,071. Lake surface temper
atures dropped slightly with
the cooler air temperatures
and are in the mid 80’s.
Main lake is clear and the
creeks are slightly stained.
The water in the rivers is
slightly stained.
The Chattahoochee River
below Buford Dam is clear, but it will
muddy up quickly in the event of heavy
thunderstorms. Check generation sched
ules before heading out to the river at
770-945-1466.
Bass fishing took a slight turn for the
better with the cooler air temperatures fol
lowing the tropical front that blew through
earlier this week. That being said, you may
still have to work to catch a limit of bass.
The majority of Lake Lanier’s spotted bass
population is relating to deeper water.
The spotted bass are relating to the
thermocline at 27-feet deep. Plan to uti
lize your Lowrance Electronics and keep
moving until you located active fish.
These fish will appear as long, wavy
lines when to boat is standing still. They
can also appear as arcs when your boat is
moving. Plan on cycling through your
waypoints as you look for fish around
brush, rocks and offshore timberlines.
The bass will feed better during power
generation down lake, while windy con
ditions may be more important up the
lake. Locate the offshore brush and tim
ber from 20-40 feet deep. The topwater
action has been a little slow but you
should still plan on casting a Salt Water
Chug Bug or Gunfish over the best tar
gets before moving in to
exploit it with a drop shot,
Ned Rig and even a jig.
We have also been
fishing the shallow water
in the backs of the creeks
and in the rivers to catch
largemouth bass. Start
out casting a buzz bait or
Whopper Plopper early
in the day. As the sun
rises, switch over to a Jig
and target banks that have
deep water or channels swings close to
the bank. Largemouth bass feed on
bream in the summer time and it may
surprise you how well these fish will be
biting.
Try getting out after dark to enjoy
some decent fishing for spotted bass.
The bass after dark will actively feed
when the sun goes down. Try casting a
deep diving SPRO Little John DD 90
around brush on the points and humps.
These crankbaits will run as deep as
25-feet deep. Other lures like a black
spinner bait or a jig are also good choic
es to cast in these same areas.
Striper fishing remains very good and
this is that time of year when the new
reports start to sound the same as the pre
vious week’s reports. The stripers are
deeper than the thermocline, which is set
up at 27-feet deep. You can actually see a
definitive line on your Lowrance Fish
Finders where water density changes,
and also where the plankton and bait
relate to this level where the hotter sur
face layer meets the colder bottom layers.
My Carbon 12 and 16-inch units make
finding these deeper schools of stripers
much easier. You may still have to search
around to find stripers because these fish
are always on the move as they chase the
fast-moving blueback herring. Try troll
ing a large SPRO Bucktail with a Big
Bites Suicide Shad trailer as you search
for the deeper schools.
These stripers have set up from 35 to
40-feet on down the bottom.
Follow the drains and smaller creek
channels out into deeper water and you
should locate the arcs and wavery lines
that indicate stripers. Make sure you have
plenty of herring and that your bait tanks
are set up correctly to keep your baits live
ly for a day of fishing. Your local tackle
stores can help you to make sure you have
the correct setup to keep your baits lively.
Drop your herring with heavy two-
ounce weights so as to get your baits
down quickly through the hot upper
layer of water into the cool lower layer
where they will stay lively. Switch out
your baits every 10 minutes. Before you
retrieve your herring, make sure to drop
them down to the bottom and then
power reel them back to the surface to
trigger reaction strikes.
While fishing down lines, also try
power reeling spoons or SPRO Buck
Tails up through the schools for some
arm breaking strikes. A Pen Parker or
Fake Forks spoon mimics herring or giz
zard shad and stripers can’t resist striking
these lures as they speed past their heads.
Crappie: Set out Hydro Glow Fights
around the bridges after dark. Use store
bought crappie minnows, medium shin
ers or better yet, native spot tail min
nows on down lines and place them
down 15-feet deep. Adjust the depths of
your lines until you start getting bites.
Bank fishing: The bream was many
anglers first introduction to the sport of
fishing. These smaller, hard-fighting pan
fish are still a great way to get kids
“hooked” into the sport. These fish are
easy to target and a bunch of fun. All you
need is a can full of worms, a hook and a
bobber and you are ready to go catching.
Bream inhabit shallow water close to the
bank on Fake Fanier, farm and subdivision
ponds and even in small creeks and rivers.
Thread a worm onto a small Aberdeen
Style hook with a bobber set a couple of
feet above your bait and you are ready to
go. Cast to objects like rocks, trees or docks
in shallow water. If bream are present, it
should not take long to catch one.
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
FROM 1B
NASCAR
cut into Joey Fogano’s points
lead, and seven-time Cup Series
champion Jimmie Johnson grab
bing a valuable stage two victo
ry to pull within twelve points
of the final playoff spot.
Johnson, who finished fif
teenth, remains just outside the
playoff picture in 17th place
and is still looking for his first
win of the year, announced
after the race that Cliff Daniels
would be taking over as the
crew chief for No. 48. Daniels
was instrumental in Johnson’s
2016 Cup Series championship
and the team hopes to recapture
that spark before the end of the
regular season.
Hendricks Motorsport team
mate Chase Elliott, who secured
his spot in the postseason with a
win at Talladega, continued his
summer woes with a pair of acci
dents over the weekend and a last
place finish to continue a seven
week stretch that can only be
described as terrible as he has
wracked up 3 DNFs and finished
20th or worse in five races.
“It’s been a rough month, lit
tle over a month now. It’s just
an unfortunate rough patch,”
Elliott said. “I think we were
running in the top-10 there
when we crashed. I feel like we
were finally getting our car
going. I thought we were doing
a good job of it. I don’t really
know what to do about that, but
just move on.”
Elliott will look to reset his
season at the site of his first cup
series victory when the
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series goes Bowling at the
Glen on Sunday, Aug. 4 at
Watkins Glen International for
the second road course race of
the season.
FROM 1B
Band
include some Imagine
Dragons, since that was
the theme, but it became
too much.”
Much like any sports
team, the marching band
has been challenged by
attrition due to graduation
and the lack of experi
ence in this year’s version
of the group is evident in
the large contingent of
eighth-grade musicians.
“We graduated some
really good kids last
year,” Arnold said. “Over
a third of the band is from
the eighth grade. Which
is good, but it slows the
process.”
For the 75 members of
the band, the last two
weeks has involved
repeating the same series
of steps over and over
again as each section
learned their place on the
field and how to move
from formation to forma
tion in rhythm to the
music. All while playing
the music to which they
marched.
“It’s a challenge,”
Arnold said. “After a cou
ple of years, they know
the system, and we really
rely on them to teach the
new people.”
When football season
comes to an end the band
retires from the field but
continues to perform in a
series of winter and
spring concerts.
“It’s a year-long com
mitment,” Arnold said.
“Marching band leads to
the concert program
which allows us to pro
duce better musicians,
which leads to a better
product on the field.”
Fooking ahead to the
2019 season and beyond,
Arnold expressed excite
ment about the young
nature of this year’s pro
gram and the increase in
participation he has seen
over the last few seasons
in Dawson County, and
he was confident in his
ability to expand the band
to fill the confines of
Tiger Stadium in the near
future.
“If you look at the size
of our stage, 120-yards by
53-yards, we have a big
stage to fill,” Arnold said.
“With a few more classes
like we had this year, 30
to 40 kids at a time, we
can easily grow to 120 to
'If you look at the size of our stage,
120-yards by 53-yards, we have a big
stage to fill. With a few more classes
like we had this year, 30 to 40 kids at a
time, we can easily grow to 120 to 125
in the next few years.'
Chuck Arnold
DCHS band directgor
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The flag line of the DCHS Marching Band lines up
July 25 as they prepare to rehearse the upcoming
fall show "Dragons and Legends."
Photos by Bob Christian Dawson County News
Trombones move and play in unison as the DCHS Marching Band rehearses
July 25 at Tiger Stadium.
125 in the next few years.” for their first half-time Habersham Central in the
The DCHS Marching performance on Aug. 23 opening game of the 2019
Band will take the field when the Tigers take on football season.
SAVE THE DATE!
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