I arrived in Georgia Monday, November 1, at about 6:30 in the morning knowing that “The Kid” and I had nothing to do that day but make sure everything was arranged for the next four days of fishing. The day turned out to be drop dead gorgeous, warm with a slight breeze, the leaves on the trees turning colors, a promising start to the next few days fishing.

We got everything done that had to be done including my getting a Georgia fishing license, checking the weather forecasts for the next few days and making sure that the directions for our various day trips were printed out and in hand. My son had arranged the next four days itinerary so that we could target specific species of fish and types of fishing that neither of us had any experience with or was different enough from what we were used to that it would in some way be new for both of us.

I believe this is important for any and all anglers to go out and try something out of their norm just to experience catching different species and being exposed to different methods that we may otherwise never experience. That to me is one of the beauties of angling. There are so many species of fish and ways to catch them, it will with luck, consume an entire lifetime to learn.

Our first trip was targeting stripers on Lake Lanier. My son arranged for arguably the best guide on the lake to take us out for 6 hours beginning at 7:00 am. Our guide was Shane Watson who earlier this year was inducted into the guide “Hall of Fame” and has been featured on numerous media outlets. Fishing a lake like Lanier, especially for the first time, we wanted the best guide available to exponentially increase our chances of catching our target species.

You have to keep in mind that Lake Lanier is somewhere around 38,500 surface acres and has about 700 miles of shoreline. This is not your local pond and neither of us had ever fished it for anything so to go rent a boat and go out cold just didn’t seem like the thing to do if we wanted to have a successful trip.

On to the day. I hardly slept anticipating the next morning and meeting Shane at the launch ramp. Unfortunately, I slept just long enough to miss seeing the cold front that blew in overnight and we woke up to heavy clouds, some drizzle and a brutally cold wind. Oh well, this is fishing and you take your best shot when you get the chance no matter the conditions.

Forget The Conditions, Let’s Fish!

We met Shane at the launch and he told us what were going to do was to look for fish busting the surface. He told us that he has seen as much as an acre of water exploding with stripers that can reach above thirty pounds. Now this sounds enormous but the truth is that one acre of water being busted by striper in a lake this size can be like looking for a needle in a hay-stack. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead and we were off checking his favorite spots for those fish. After about forty minutes of running and looking, it became painfully obvious that this day, the striper weren’t going to reveal themselves that easily.

Shane adjusted his plan, rigged up some live bait rigs with blue back herring and we started fishing windy points. On the first point our bait wasn’t out there more than a few minutes before one of the rods bowed over and the first fish of the day was hooked up. After a short but spirited fight, I pulled a two pound spotted bass aboard and we got the stink off of what could have been a skunk, especially in real rough conditions. No problem, neither my son or I have ever caught a Kentucky bass or spot as they are called. They are a good looking fish with distinctive markings and they put up a great fight on medium powered gear.

One more pass past the same spot and the other rod goes off. This time “The Kid” grabs the rod and after a longer fight that had his rod bowed almost double, he pulls in what would be the first and only striper of the day for us. Again, no worries, we caught one of our target species and having now landed two fish from one spot, we weren’t shivering near as much.

A few more passes failed to produce any more strikes and after a barge came through and ran over our area Shane decided to head to the next location.

We spent the next few hours running from spot to spot with the conditions getting worse as the day wore on but still managing, thanks to Shane to pick up a few fish as we went.

Double Spotted Bass

Time was staring to run out on us so Shane took us to one more spot. When we pulled in, he baited up the rigs. They hadn’t been in the water a minute when another boat came by, close by and hole jumped us. Immediately he decided it would be best for us to pull in the bait and get to the next point before the other boat did. We tolled over, shut down the motor and put out the live bait rigs one more time. Here again it only took between one and two minutes and one of the rods went off big time.

It was my turn so I grabbed it, set the hook, and the fight was on. I knew that this was a better fish immediately and was really enjoying the fight. The fish turned and my son grabbed the other rig to pick it up over my head and get it out of the way of my fish. As soon as he raised the rod a fish jumped all over his bait and almost smacked me in the head by pulling on the rod so hard. We had a double going! Both of these fish were full of fight and we had to land one at a time but as it turns out, both were well over 5 pounds. Now I didn’t know this but apparently the lake record is around 8 pounds so for us to double on this size spot is about as probable as getting hit by lightning. We took pictures, released the fish and headed back to the launch. It was a great day.

The bottom line was simple. Although we were there to catch stripers, when our guide saw that we just weren’t going to have much success, he changed tactics and target species so that we would still have a fishing experience that we would remember for a long time. This is exactly why you hire a guide and more importantly, hire the best guide you can. Shane Watson’s experience and time on the lake is the only reason we had the day we had, especially in downright nasty conditions. If you’re looking to try something different, hire the best guide you can on a lake you’ve never fished and just enjoy the ride! You won’t be sorry.

See ya on the water…