A number of 5- and 6-pound spotted bass are caught from Lanier every year. The lake record is 8 pounds, 1 ounce. The lake is named after Southern poet Sidney Lanier. The 37,500-acre impoundment was created by damming the Chattahoochee River. Lanier’s deep, clear waters, combined with plenty of submerged standing timber, has created ideal spotted bass habitat. The lake has a recently enacted 14-inch minimum size length regulation governing both spotted and largemouth bass.
At the March Wal-Mart FLW tournament, the water temperature should be at least 60 degrees, and that is an ideal temperature for spotted bass to be in a heavy pre-spawn feed. Casting a jig with a crawdad-type trailer to planted brush piles, docks, and natural stumps in 5-25 feet of water should be a productive pattern.
Casting a medium-diving crankbait along points is also a favorite way to catch spotted bass. Lanier’s numerous islands and irregular shoreline creates dozens and dozens of points that can hold a school of bass.
Many of the competitors will ignore the plentiful spots on the lower end of Lanier and instead stake their chances of winning on the largemouth located in the lake’s two major tributaries – the Chattahoochee and Chestatee rivers.
While not as numerous, the largemouth grow bigger on average than the spotted bass. “There will be some big largemouth caught,” Wal-Mart FLW competitor Tony Couch of Buckhead, Georgia, predicted. “It will be won with largemouth.”
In March, the water in the rivers will be warmer than the lower end of the lake. Largemouth bass will be moving shallow into shoreline cover. Casting a spinnerbait or pitching a jig will be a strong river pattern. Unlike near the dam, the rivers will have plenty of colored water. So, anglers will be using heavy line.
A crankbait pattern can also work in the rivers. Bumping stumps situated on clay banks with a medium-diving crankbait can produce some hefty largemouth that are ready to spawn.
Depending on how well the bass are biting, some anglers will probably try to capitalize on both largemouth and spotted bass. The plan will involve running to the lower end of Lanier to catch a limit of smaller spotted bass and then heading up the river to catch a kicker largemouth or two.