About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2018)
SPORTS Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com Unties gainesvilletimes.com Friday, December 21,2018 LRKE LANIER FISHING REPORT HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL I Lanierlandplay-in games Deep bite for bass still productive Swings in weather have had no impact BY ERIC ALDRICH For The Times Lake Lanier is presently at 1,070.32 feet, or .68 feet below the normal full pool of 1,071. Expect that to rise with this week’s rain inflow. Lake surface temperatures are right around 50 degrees. The main lake and lower lake creeks are clear in mouths, but expect some stained to muddy inflow in the backs. The upper lake and rivers are slightly stained, but expect the same muddy inflow to cloud things up after the rain. The Chattahoochee below Buford Dam is clear at the dam and muddy down past Highway 20. Check generation schedules before head ing out to the river below Buford Dam at 770-945-1466. Merry Christmas and Bass Wishes to our readers this Christmas! Count your blessings and I bet they will outweigh your troubles! Bass: The past weeks warmer weather did little to affect the deep bite. In fact, we seldom caught a bass shallower than 35 feet this week. That being said, we didn’t fish shallow because the deep bite has been so good. Quality electronics — like my Lowrance Carbon 12 and 16 with good mapping — are essential to find the sweet spots out deeper. The bass have been both in the deeper ditches and also stretched across deeper flats where bait is present. Find the bait and drop a spoon to any con centrations of fish you see. These schools of fish are often glued to the bottom, so drop on anything different that you see and the screen may light up with schooling fish. Our targeted depth has been 35 feet to as deep as 60 feet, with most of our bites occur ring from 45 to 55 feet deep. A drop-shot rig is a great second option for these deeper fish. Also try working a jig across flat bottoms as a backup to the spoon or drop-shot. My favorite lure to use is still the jig, and it has yielded the biggest bites. I have been stair stepping this crawfish imitator down the sides of ditches from 35 to 50 feet. Ledges, bluff walls and steeper rocky banks have also yielded some decent bites. Striper fishing remains decent to very good, and the guides have been catching them consistently on down lines from 40 to 60 feet deep. Not surprisingly, these are the same depths that the bass are being caught. That’s because it is the depth that most of the bait is located. A down line is basically a Carolina Rig or a small Gamakatsu Octopus or Circle hook and long leader attached to a swivel with a 1 to 2-ounce sinker attached to the main line. I also like to attach a small plastic bead between the sinker and the swivel to protect your lines. Herring and trout seem to be working the best, but I also suggest getting some medium to large sized shiners as an alternative if fish are present and you are not getting bites. Use your electronics, and explore areas in the middle lake areas. Keep moving until you see bait and stripers on the screen. There are also some very big spotted bass roaming around with the stripers. The second technique to consider while fishing down lines is a jigging spoon or a SPRO Bucktail. Watch your lure on your Lowrance Elec tronics, and keep it slightly above the level where you mark fish. Hop or jig these lures up and down, and you may get your arm broken as a big striper attacks your lures. Also keep an eye out for diving gulls and loons to give away the best locations. These birds, in addition to your quality electron ics, will help to unlock the secrets to the best areas. Trout Fishing has been good directly below Buford Dam with the clearer water, even during hard rains. That being said, expect the rivers and streams to be blow out and muddy or stained with this weekend’s rains. During high water periods use bright col ored spinners and flies for your best results. It is hard to beat the old reliable earthworm if you are fishing trout waters that allow live bait. Bank fishing: Fish in pounds, smaller lakes and on Lake Lanier often react to rain inflow because it washes bait and nutrients that attract minnows. Look around rain inflows and try bright lures that vibrate, like a Colorado Bladed Spinner Bait or a Rattle Trap. Live earthworms are also a great choice, but try fishing them on the bottom rather than under a bobber. Other bait like cut shiners or even chicken livers will attract a variety of fish to your lines. 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. I would love to hear from our readers so please email me at esaldrich@yahoo.com Remember to take a kid fishing. Jumping in the bracket Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Cherokee Bluff’s Jason Evrett attempts to rebound the ball while Chestatee’s Will Cantrell, right, and Cameron Gwyn look to make the block during the Lanierland tournament play-in game Thursday in Gainesville. Cherokee Bluff boys earn dominating win against Chestatee BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com Less than a year after leav ing Gainesville to coach boys basketball at first-year pro gram Cherokee Bluff, Bears coach Benjie Wood will get a shot at his old team. The Bears played a com plete game Wednesday night in its Lanierland play-in con test against Chestatee, over whelming the War Eagles 84-61 and earning a first- round meeting with No. 1 seed Gainesville in next week’s tournament. It’s a matchup that Wood said he’s particu larly looking forward to. “Oh yeah,” he said when asked if he was excited to play against his old team. “I love those guys. Coach Graham is like a brother to me. He was with me six years. ... I love those kids to death, and I know how good they are. We’re just hoping to come out and com pete and have a good time. I’ll hug them before the game and hug them after the game.” The contest will also be a reunion of sorts for Bears guard Griffin Neville, a for mer member of the Red Elephants who played under Wood at Gainesville before moving to Cherokee Bluff this ■ Please see BLUFF, 4B Cherokee Bluff’s Rolando Razo dribbles past Chestatee’s Cameron Gwyn on Thursday in Gainesville. HIGH SCHOOL SCOREBOARD Lakeview Academy girls earn 47-45 win Eliza Snyder had 20 points and four rebounds, Jackie Allen (four steals) chipped in another 10 points and the Lakeview Academy girls basketball team edged Paideia, 47-45, at the Providence Christmas Classic on Thursday. Also for the Lady Lions (9-2), Sadie Thrailkill had four points with 10 boards. Lakeview Acad emy plays either Lakeside or Memphis for the tournament championship at 7 p.m. today. EAST HALL GIRLS 62, WALTON (FLA.) 52: Ivey Shad- burn poured in a team-high 18 points, while two additional starters scored in the double digits to lift the Lady Vikings (4-8) to victory during the Beach Bash holiday tournament in Panama City Beach, Fla. Also chipping in, Maggie Griffin and Ashante Peoples had 10 points apiece, followed by Alexis Burce with eight and Jenny Lopez with six. East Hall plays Marianna (Fla.) at 4:30 p.m. today. Compiled by Diana Lewis High school scores can be reported by 10:30 p.m. each day by calling 770-718-3409 or email sports@gainesvilletimes. com COLLEGE BASKETBALL Crean thinking big as the first-year Bulldogs coach Associated Press Tom Crean can put a positive spin on pretty much any conversation. Sure, it’s been a bit of a culture shock to go from hoops-crazy Indiana to a state that treats the sport with a collective meh. But, without batting an eye, he’ll tell you that Georgia has everything it needs to become a basketball powerhouse. “Coaching is coaching,” Crean said. “I don’t view it as being different.” But Georgia’s resume is undeniable. The Bulldogs haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2002. The most significant highlight in the school’s largely forgettable basketball history came way back in 1983, when its first NCAA appear ance resulted in a run all the way to the Final Four (that was the year N.C. State beat heavily favored Houston in a memo rable title game, so Georgia’s participation is a mere footnote). No problem, in the World According to Crean. “There is tradition in basketball,” he insisted. “Have they won? Can they win? Did they have it rolling with people when they had it going? Because then you have a chance of getting it back. ” Obviously, they’re not back yet. The Bulldogs (6-4) were dealt an embar rassing 24-point loss by Georgia State, a far less prominent school from their own backyard. Last weekend, they squandered an 18-point lead at home against No. 18 Arizona State, denying Crean the first sig nature win of his new tenure. JOSHUA JONES I Associated Press Georgia coach Tom Crean yells out from the bench during a game against Oakland on Dec. 18 in Athens. “We just have to learn how to win,” Crean said, never straying too far from optimism. At 52, Crean is on a comeback in his own career. He started out at Marquette, restoring that program’s faded luster with players such as Dwyane Wade. He moved on to Indiana, one of the sport’s glamour jobs but severely tainted when he arrived in 2008. The Hoosiers were dealing with an NCAA scandal that cost Kelvin Sampson ■ Please see GEORGIA, 2B COLLEGE FOOTBALL Peach Bowl pleased with its matchup BY TIM TUCKER Atlanta Journal Constitution The Michigan Wolverines and Florida Gators are scheduled to arrive in Atlanta on Sunday to begin the buildup to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl six days later. It’s a pairing of top-10 teams that bowl officials are excited about -- but had no input into putting together. As part of its deal to become a rotating host of College Football Playoff semifinal games, the Peach Bowl ceded authority to determine its matchups to the CFP selec tion committee, even in seasons, such as this one, when the bowl doesn’t host a semifinal. “It’s one of the things I miss the most, frankly, doing the research on matchups,” said Peach Bowl Inc. president and CEO Gary Stokan. “But the trade-off is that we get two top- 10 teams pretty much on an annual basis and get to host a semifinal every third year. That is more than worth it.” Peach Bowl officials don’t even get advance notice of their matchup, finding out which teams will meet in their bowl when the playoff committee makes its annual “Selection Sunday” announce ments from Grapevine, Texas, on ESPN. ■ Please see PEACH, 3B
