Saturday, July 28, 2012

Jimbo's Lake Lanier Fishing Guide Report: 7/28/2012

Hey Everyone - I was on trips all week this week and it has been good out there. We have had success on both artificials and crack this week. (Crack = Spot tails!) The crack is easy and fun - drop them on fish and they eat them! 'Nuff said on that end. For the artificial bite, our best presentations have been topwater, drop shot, and the Fish Head Spin. Our best artificial fish through the week came on the FHS. We worked all three presentations around humps and deeper points in the lake. Many of the bigger fish are out in the 30 feet and deeper range. Although, on the days we had a good predominant wind, the leeward side of humps were holding some big fish shallow. I caught the one I am pictured with above on a FHS in about 12 feet of water. You could also get bit on the FHS by running the bait above and around the deeper brush in the 25 feet + range. It was fun to see the topwater bite return strong this week. Often, our best topwater times were dead in the heat of the day with very little wind. A gunfish seemed to be our best bait - working the bait very fast was the key to enticing strikes. Of course the drop shot was productive as well. We worked a variety of Wackem Hand-pours out deep for some good fish. Many of the better fish were just relating to breaks/drops in the 30 foot range and beyond. They did not seem to be in brush for the most part. Our best Wackem offerings were LJ's Passion, LJ's Obsession, as well as the cotton candy colors. I wanted to give a quick shout out to one of my good customers and friends, Ed Hall. Strangely enough, I saw Ed in the airport yesterday here in Indianapolis as I stepped off my plane. I flew up for the Brickyard 400 on Sunday. He runs Kinetic Motorsports, a race team based in Gainesville and was in Indy to run the Grand Am Continental Tire Series race being held here at the track yesterday. His drivers finished 7th and 10th in the race and had a shot to win in the rain-marred event. Congrats to Ed on a great race and good to see you buddy. I am looking forward to the Sprint Cup race tomorrow. I am back in town next week and will be out on trips most of the week. I still have Tuesday, July 31 open, but then I am booked up through Saturday. I can do August 6,7, and 8th for trips as well, then I will be at the FLW Expo the remainder of that week. I have a booth in the Hammond's block, and I have many exciting promotions occurring in conjunction with the event. Stay tuned for more info and keep a watch on my Facebook Fan Page as well as my website for more information. My Facebook Fan page is "Jimbo's Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service". Make sure to check it out and become a fan for daily updates from the water and on my FLW Expo promotions. These updates also appear real-time on the home page of my website. One last note on booking, my September is filling up fast as I have nearly 2 weeks of the month fully booked already. I still have some dates open at the front and back end of the month, so give me a ring or drop me a line if you would like to get out. Should be some great schooling starting then... For fishing reports on other Georgia Lakes, make sure to check out: www.havefunfishing.com Thanks to all and May God Bless - Jimbo

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Jimbo's Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service Fishing Report: 7/14/2012

Hey Everyone - It was great to be back on the water again this week after being sick for so long. Man that stunk! The water temps have cooled slightly and the water has also came up an inch or so with all the rain and cloudy weather this week. We had a good bite all week on a number of different techniques. When the sun is out, a Fish Head Spin over the the brush has worked well. When it has been overcast, the Sworming Hornet Dude has been the ticket over the brush. We caught some very nice fish this week on the Dude as you can see from the pic above top right - the Dude is still hanging from her face! We have also caught some nice fish on a jig around sharp, rocky drops this week. When I was out with Stanley on Thursday, he got on a great bite with his newly acquired Bull Shad, not to mention the rod and reel he bought to throw it! He caught several nice fish on the Bull Shad, often on the first cast after we pulled up on a spot. Of course we fished the drop shot a bunch this week as well. It was not as effective in the cloudy weather. We caught plenty of fish up to 3.5 lbs on it from 20 to 40 feet, but never found a school of grown'uns willing to play. As the water continues to heat up, look for the spots to get tighter and tighter to the brush, especially on sunny days. Look for the bigger fish to be relating to drops and ledges in the 30-45 feet range. These fish will not necessarily be around cover or in great numbers - you may just see 3-5 fish on your graph on a drop off on the back side of a hump or on a flat spot at the end of a point near a break. Reading and understanding your electronics is always important, but it is especially critical this time of year. I am dialed into the Lowrance HDS electronics with Structure Scan and can help you read/understand what you are seeing in order to help you maximize your catch. Also, we went shallow this week a couple of mornings after the rains came through. We found some active fish up shallow that we caught on top-water plugs, which was a bunch of fun. Stanley from trip on Thursday was the king of that action! Way to go Stanley!! I have not ran any spot tail trips yet this summer (just one demonstration) but I have one coming up this week. I understand they are chomping those little critters and that some big stringers have been caught this week on them. I look forward to having some fun with the "crack" this week as well. I don't have any dates open this coming week, but I do have some dates open the week of July 23rd. Give me a call if you would like to work on reading your electronics, drop-shotting, or the Fish Head Spin/Lil' Dude - this is a good time to be focusing on all the above!! It is also a great time to have fun with the spot tails. If you have never spot tail fished, this is the time. It turns fishing into catching!! My forecast for the FLW Cup is that it will be won on one of the above techniques. (not the spot tails though!) For fishing reports on other Georgia Lakes, please visit the site of my good friend Ken Sturdivant: www.havefunfishing.com Thanks to all and May God Bless - Jimbo

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Jimbo's Lake Lanier Guide Service Fishing Report: 7/4/2012

Hello Friends and Sponsors - Happy Independence Day!! A BIG thank you to all of our service men and women who fight to keep our country free!! Let's all remember them today as we celebrate this country's Independence and remain cognizant of what it took to get here. A lot of selfless sacrifice is the bottom line. Thank you! It has been a little while since my last report. My apologies! I was very busy with trips through last week and then I got a nasty para flu virus this week that I am still fighting. (Got it from my kids - thanks girls!! LOL) Thanks to Phil Johnson for covering my guide trips this week - he did a great job with my customers and I certainly appreciate his support. Today, I finally feel well enough to get out a report and share some of the awesome pictures of the fish my customers have been catching out on Lanier! We have stayed with the topwater and swimbait bite as long as it would last. When its on, we have been using: spooks, gunfish, chug bugs, poppers, Farley Baits, Sebiles, and the Bull Shad. Often, we are placing a front runner on our topwater rig. The topwater is still there, but the bite has transitioned where that is not the best bite going every day. Some days it still is, however, on other days it has been something different. In addition to the topwater, we have been doing well on: drop-shotting Wackem Hand Pours and minnow imitations, the Sworming Hornet Little Dude tipped with a Fluke Jr., a PB&J jig tipped with a twin-tail trailer, as well as a 3/16 Davis Shakey Head tipped with a variety of different soft plastics. We have fished very shallow to very deep water each day and caught fish everywhere in between. When we are fishing brush, we have focused on the 15-30 foot range, but I sense things are changing and feel some of the big girls may be getting out even deeper. While there are a great many fun stories to tell regarding all the pictures attached, I am only going to highlight one as my energy levels are starting to wane again already as I type. Young Noah P and his father, Steve, have been out with me a couple of times already with more to come. Noah is an aspiring young angler with an extremely supportive father who is committed to getting his son up to speed in the sport of bass fishing. Noah is a quick study, and during our trip last week, we focused on the drop shot. Noah picked it up quickly, and I do mean quickly, as he caught a fish on his first drop! After that, he went on to catch several more and really cement the technique in his arsenal. Reports from Steve indicate that he has also been able to apply the technique to recent trips on his own and has done well. Congratulations Noah - great work brother! I am already looking forward to our next trip! You can see pictures of Noah on the BHFP 742012 slide attached. I still have some dates open next week - Wed, Thur, and Fri - July 11, 12, and 13th. Give me a call or drop me a note if you would like to get out there and have some fun! I am also running spot-tail trips as well if anyone is interested in learning/enjoying that technique. In addition, I would like to note that I have been promoted to a National Monthly Contributor for the Coastal Angler Magazine. My articles, which always focus on some aspect of Lake Lanier, will now be published nationally (530,000 copies) around the country. Make sure to check out the publication and my July submission online at: http://coastalanglermag.com/blog/category/fishing/ Enjoy and thanks to John!! I have also added some great new sponsors in the recent weeks and months and I want to take a moment to recognize the new additions as well as all of my existing sponsors and partners. The current list is below - please check out their websites as I have hot-linked all of their sites to the listings below. Thank you to all of these great people and companies for your support!! I am working to get my website updated with all this information very soon! For fishing reports on other GA Lakes, please check out: www.havefunfishing.com Thanks to all - enjoy the holiday and be safe!! God Bless - Jimbo -- Jim "JIMBO" Mathley Spotted Bass Fishing Guide - Lake Lanier jim@laniermapped.com Mobile - 770-542-7764 www.jimboonlanier.com Proudly Sponored By: St. Croix - Best Rods on Earth Lowrance Sworming Hornet Lures (The Original Fish Head Spin) Wackem Crazy Baits Seaguar - Always the Best Solar Bat Sunglasses JJ's Magic Attractant Hammond's Fishing Line and Lure Davis Bait Company LanierMAPPED.com