Lake temperatures are in the mid-80s and Lake Lanier is up a little over a foot below full pool at 1,069.7. Lake Lanier is clear on main lake and stained in the creeks.

The Chattahoochee River is clear. Check generation schedules before heading out to the river at 770-945-1466. Right now, sunrise happens at around 7:10 AM and sunset is around 8:00 PM.

Bass: I felt something different earlier this week while running down the lake at around 60 miles per hour: it was cool outside.I actually had to put on my windbreaker and that was a welcome change from this hot summer weather we have been having.
You can bet the bass are feeling this same change and they will be feeding heavily as fall approaches.

There seems to be a little more schooling activity and you can get a limit quickly when they show themselves. These spots are appearing on the surface, but they seem to come up and down very quickly.

Sometimes you can chase them, but I have had the best luck with watching where a school surfaces more than one time in the same area, then we stay there and wait for them to come back up.

I have been casting either a SPRO Dawg 100 or a BBZ1 4 inch Floating Shad and V-wake these through the schools that you see on the surface.

The cooler weather will open up many opportunities for bass anglers. Other lures have started to work well as the bass are a little shallower this week.

Try a medium or deep diving crank bait and try to make contact with the bottom. When a crank bait deflects off an object that will often trigger a strike.

Cast fish head spins and rooster tails around any schooling or suspended bass. Drop shot Rigs and Jigs with twin tail trailers are both great techniques to try. Target docks or rock and clay banks.

Any areas with sunken brush piles are also worth a try. The bass have been hitting in anywhere from 5-to 25-feet this week.

Once you get a strike off a certain area target that same depth range to get more strikes. Live native spot tails or medium shiners will work well for catching bass. Hook these on a down line or try a drop shot set up and hook the minnow through the lips.

Make sure to use circle hooks to prevent the bass from being hooked too deep.

Stripers: I spoke with my buddy Shane and he says the striper fishing has been consistently good and some days have been awesome.

This week they have caught 30-40 fish a couple of days and on others they have caught less than 10, but that’s still a pretty darn good fishing day in my books.

The lead core bite has been very good and bigger fish are being caught by trolling big buck tail jigs at nine colors at around 3 miles per hour. Make sure to tip your buck tails with some type of trailer like a Hyper Tail, Basstrix or even a live blueback herring to increase your catching.

Down lining live bluebacks has still been very productive. A down line rig is almost the same as a Carolina Rig. Use a heavy main line like 20-pound Sunline monofilament and slide a one-ounce sinker and a bead over the main line and tie it to a quality swivel.

Use as long of a fluorocarbon leader as possible and down size to a 10-12 pound test fluorocarbon rigged with a Gamakatsu Circle Hook.

I like to nose hook my bluebacks, but sometimes hooking them through the back will work too.

Crappie fishing remains just OK, but the fishing can be very good for anglers that are adept at catching deeper fish. Target brush at around 25 feet by using Micro Spoons, crappie Jigs and live minnows.

Try tipping your jigs with a live crappie or spot tail minnow. The bridges are holding some fish and they will bite best after dark.

Place floating lights or Hydro Glow lights around bridge pilings, then check you electronics to determine the best depth to fish. Down lined crappie minnows are hard to beat for fishing around the bridges.

Trout fishing remains good and the trout are biting. The Chattahoochee River below Buford Dam is a great fishery. The Department of Natural Resources stocks thousands of trout in the river several times a year.

This river is called a “put and take” fishery and the trout stocking is designed to allow anglers to keep a limit of fish for the table.

Rooster Tails, Yo-Suri Minnows or BBZ1 Shad Baby Shads have all been working well, especially early in the morning. Trout have also been biting live earthworms and Berkley Power Nuggets where live bait fishing is permitted. Fly fishing has been good both on the river and up in the mountain streams.

Bank fishing should be picking up as the cooler weather will bring fish in shallower. Try using a live minnow fished below a slip bobber and set your bobber stop at around 10-to 15-feet deep.

You can check in with just about any local tackle store to purchase these bobbers, and they should be able to tell you how to rig them. Cast these live minnows around points or deep banks and make sure to secure your rods. Stripers, bass, crappie and other species will eat live minnows.

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 or visit my website at aldrichfishing.com. Remember to take a kid fishing!