Jimbo's Lake Lanier Fishing Guide Report: 3/24/2013

Hey Everyone - Sorry for the long delay since my last report. Lots of reasons for it but no excuses, I should be better about it. I was sick as a dog with the flu for 3 weeks or so and only made it out on a few trips during that period. Also, my youngest daughter had emergency ear surgery last week. She is good now, thank God, and I am feeling human again. Lastly, the weather has been terrible as you all know. I have postponed many of my trips just to ensure we go at a time that my clients are ensured an enjoyable, comfortable trip. So, with that said, let me catch you up on fishing and other interesting stuff. Allow me to begin by announcing an exciting new sponsorship. I recently accepted a "full ride" sponsorship with Shimano and G-Loomis through the Don Coffey company. I look forward to repping these outstanding products as well as others to come in the near future through the Don Coffey relationship. Safe to say my customers will be fishing with the best as many new NRX and GLX rods recently made their way to my door - LOL. I do want to send a big "Thank You" to Randy and his crew with St. Croix. I have enjoyed my time with them and I appreciated the opportunity to be involved with such a classy bunch of people. All the best to them. Finally, onto fishing! We have been working a couple of different productive patterns of late. One is the classic winter "ditch" pattern that I have spoken about in recent posts. That bite is still there and we are catching some solid fish running this pattern. Most of the time, we have used the Fish Head Spin on these fish and they have been in the 10-25 ft range for the most part. A shaky head tipped with a craw immitation has been my second choice for these fish when they are not as active. On sunny days, these fish have been pulling to the docks and can be caught on worms, jigs, and a even ajerkbait on some days. Just depends on their mood. Don't be afraid to fish the very backs of these ditches in the early mornings for some big bites at daylight. The FHS and jerkbait have been our main weapons in this scenario. Also, we have been working rocky main lake points and pockets with a jerkbait and crankbait when the wind is up for some good bites. When no wind, the worm and jig can produce as well. Most of the jerkbait and crankbait fish are in 15 feet or less. The worm and jig fish are often a bit deeper. This may be a repeat for some of you, but going back a couple of weeks, I am happy to report my customer (and now good friend) Ron Clark and I WON the Hammond's Winter Trail Classic Tournament! Ron and I weighed 18.90 pounds and anchored our sack with a 7.88 largemouth that I was fortunate enough to catch right away that Saturday morning. In fact, other than a small upgrade later in the day, Ron and I caught everything we weighed on our first stop. We had a limit at 7:38 AM. I found this area, which was in the back of a small ditch/pocket, while out scouting on Friday. Upon inspection, the graph was loaded with fish, and a couple of bites gave me confidence to come back to that area to start the day on Saturday. When we got in there first thing Saturday, it was on! Ron and I had a blast and really ended out season on a high note. In addition to winning the Classic, we also posted some very good results in the other tournaments in the series. Out of the four regular season tournaments we fished in the Winter Trail, we had 3 top ten finishes including a 2nd, and a 6th place cash. I did some calculating, and had it not been for the deer hunting incident with my Chevy on the morning of the second Hammond's Tournament, we would have contended for the points championship as well. Congrats to Steve Gerbig and Matt Springer for bringing that home this year - well done guys. Well, if the forecast holds, we are finally in for some spring-like weather in the week ahead. I have Friday and Saturday open this coming week, so give me a ring and let's go enjoy some warm weather and fun fishing! Call me now to reserve your spring trip! 770-542-7764 Thanks to all, and May God Bless! Jimbo For Reports on other Georgia Lakes, please make sure to visit: www.havefunfishing.com