Late Fall Lanier Stripers:

[Clay Smith]

I’m going to be headed out on Lanier in a couple weeks and want to break out the fly rod. I have a buddy that bought a boat this summer (keeps it at Port Royale Marina) so both of us will be pretty fresh to Lanier.

I’m assuming we will cruise around and throw Creases and Clousers at whatever we see hitting on top but looking for any specific and additional guidance the experts here might be able to share.

Thanks,
Clay

[Zach Matthews]

Clay the best advice I can give is to bring a radio and listen in on what the other boats are doing. They usually have the fish pretty well located and you might learn where the crowd is by eavesdropping. 🙂

[Clay Smith]

That’s great advice and I’ll sure use that.

Any guidance on what size/color stuff I might want to have with me? I’m not tying yet and need to go buy something to chunk at them and don’t have the budget to purchase 2 of every color and size.

I was thinking blue & white streamers and crease flies in 2 & 2/0 but just not sure.

[Zach Matthews]

Tiny little gray over white clousers with pink gills. Like 3″ long max. No idea why but that’s the fly there. And also the other stuff because stripers are still stripers.

[Clay Smith]

Zero action on the lake Friday; based on the weather I wasn’t expecting much and that is absolutely what we got. But we had a blast just puttering around.

I did learn that getting 30′ of sinking line out of the water isn’t easy. I could get 20′ up with a couple of roll casts then false cast the other 10′ out and then shoot the entire head. Not sure if that is the right way to do it but it worked. I was only shooting probably 30′ of running line but still pleased with that for my first time on a boat.

Now I’m hoping it won’t be another year until I can get back on the water with a fly rod.

[Alan Corbin]

That’s how I do it in my kayak chasing stripers. Roll cast it to get the line and fly on top and then false cast to get the rest of the head out then let it rip. never chased them in fresh water lakes only the estuaries in spring. we use olive over white clousers with a touch of pink in them to match the sand eels. anything to match the forage, also have silversides and mackerel here in spring.
time on the water with friends beats work.

[Zach Matthews]

Yeah Alan’s right. Google something called the “water haul.” It’s a good technique for managing heavy sinking heads and setting yourself up for a big cast.

Lanier is just starting to happen right now. Word is if you circle Lake Lanier Island at dawn and look in all the coves for birds busting bait, you’ll find the school.

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