Jimbo's Lake Lanier Fishing Guide Service Report: 8/29/2012

Hello Everyone - Hope y'all are doing well and enjoying what is hopefully the last few weeks of the Cruiser wakes - LOL! It shouldn't be long until that traffic diminishes... We have had some average and above average days on the water over the last week or so. When the topwater/swimbait bite is there, we chase it and have caught some good ones doing that over the past few days. If the fish are not coming up, we have been using a 1/2 oz Fish Head Spin with a prototype trailer from the Davis Bait Company over the brush that has proven to work very well. More info on that as we get closer to launch. Stay tuned, you are going to like it! We have been dropping when the fish won't hit the moving stuff. We have had great success with a new color that Wackem will soon have out in stores - Bruised Tomato. The deep fish really seem to like this color and we have had some great success with it. I got my hands on a few this week and they were gone in about 15 minutes. I did manage to find a few more though. LOL. As far as locations, we have been working the 18-30 foot range with the top water and fish head spin, and the better dropshot fish seem to be in the 25-32 foot range for the most part, with some deeper around the timber lines. Some days the fish are in the brush, and some days just around it - look for the sunshine to dictate the position of the fish as usual. The higher and brighter the sun, the tighter to brush you should find them. Work with the Fish Head Spin in terms of the depth at which you present it. Some days, we have found they like it near the bottom, and on other days, it seems just a 10 count down or so works best. Work your topwater baits fast and sloppy to bring the fish up. Once they are up, have a big swimbait handy to throw into the wolf pack for a great chance at catching a big one!! In terms of the topwater, we have had our best success of late on either a Gunfish 95 or a Repo Man. For the swimbait, try a Bull Shad or a Farley Swim Bait. The First Annual Wackem College Open was held this past weekend out of Laurel Park. The guys from Wackem Crazy Bait did an outstanding job in putting this event together. It was very well ran and attended. A big congratulations to Bryant Corral and Alex Posey from Kennesaw State for bringing home the Gold with a little over 24 lbs for 2 days of competition. Also, congrats to Brad Rutherford and his team from Young Harris who came in a close second. Look for this event to be even bigger and better next year with even more national attention. Way to go Wackem!! I have Friday open this week if anyone would like to get out. Next week, I have Thursday morning Sept 6th, and all day Friday and Saturday, Sept 7th and 8th, available for trips. Give me a ring or drop me a note if you would like to go fish! 770-542-7764 For Fishing Reports on other lakes, make sure to check out: www.havefunfishing.com Thanks to all, and May God Bless! Jimbo

Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Fishing Report: 8/19/2012

Hello Friends and Sponsors- Thanks to everyone that visited our booth at the FLW Expo this past weekend. It was great to see y'all out there and I enjoyed speaking with each of you. Our booth stayed very busy with traffic, and I was able to get my sponsors products in the hands of 17 new customers that booked trips with me during the show. A big thanks to Davis Shaky Heads, Wackem Crazy Baits, Daniel Truitt Hand Painted Custom Baits, Sworming Hornet Lures, and JJ's Magic for their contributions and support this weekend. It was a team effort, and we had a blast together - what a fun show! Also, a special thanks to Mr. Will Hankins for all of his help at the Jimbo booth during the show - couldn't have done it without ya bud!! STAY TUNED FOR AN EMAIL ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE 1/2 DAY TRIP with JIMBO!! As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the pleasure of taking out 3 young men in the younger age bracket preparing for the National Guard Tournament in Wahoo/Little River that took place in conjunction with the FLW Cup. Matt Christopulos and Ryan Mikels both won their divisions in the 14 and under class on Friday, and then Matt went on to place 2nd in the finals on Saturday. He had a solid 4 lbs, 12 oz bag on Saturday, which is awesome for up there. During our time together, I found that Matt was very talented at skipping and pitching around docks, so that is the game-plan we prepared him for and he did very well. A big congratulations to Matt, Ryan, and all the youth that participated in this great tournament. Well done gentleman! Now onto fishing this week. It has been good for us out on the pond as the cooler weather seemed to help. The lake did not fish like August for us this week. We found a good topwater and big swimbait bite and stayed with it for some solid August sacks. We found often that the bigger, more active fish pulled shallower and were relating to brush in 20 feet or so (and even shallower) and would come up with a fury in wolf-packs similar to the May and June bite. Friday's bite was really good as we had action on almost every hole with some big ones caught, and some really big ones lost, LOL. The Sworming Hornet Dude also produced for us this week, as well as the drop-shot of course. The drop shot bite is getting tougher. Experiment with turning off your electronics once you have positioned over the fish. Also experiment more with casting your dropshot at known piles rather than sitting on top of the brush and dropping straight down. The fish often get very finicky in August, so remain stealthy in your approach. I even ran a spot-tail trip for a half day earlier this week after a morning of artificials, and surprisingly enough, the artificials out-performed the spot-tails. It seems the cloudy weather had the fish scattered out and tougher to target with the spot-tails. I have Wednesday AM, and full days on Thursday and Friday open this week if anyone would like to get out. The cooler weather is forecast to remain, so the fun-stuff bite should continue. Give me a call if you would like to get out and throw the fun stuff! 770-542-7764 For fishing reports on other Georgia Lakes, please check out: www.havefunfishing.com Finally, if you do not wish to receive my fishing reports via email in the future, please respond with "REMOVE" and I will take you off my distribution list. Thanks to all, and may God Bless - Jimbo

Jimbo's Lake Lanier Spotted Bass Guide Service Fishing Report: 8/8/2012

Hey Gang - I hope everyone is well and planning to come to the FLW Expo at the Gwinnett Center this weekend. It is going to be a fantastic show with many great vendors, guest speakers, and of course, the weigh-in show daily at 5 PM in the arena. The Expo goes from 10 AM to 5 PM daily Fri-Sun. Make sure to come by my booth located in the Hammond's Block of booths and say hello. I have several great promotions and giveaways in store for everyone, in addition to a few cool surprises! We are making the booth very fun this year, and as part of the many promotions we have going, I am giving away a free tackle pack, a $75 value, to each person that books a trip with me at the show. This tackle pack will include items from many of my great sponsors, to include: Wackem Crazy Baits, Sworming Hornet Lures, Daniel Truitt's Custom Painted Baits, Davis Shaky Heads, and JJ's Magic. This is a great tackle pack and comes in a very nice Jimbo's Insulated Tote, perfect for carrying your lunch to the lake. More to come tomorrow on the our promotions including some special stuff for the kids - stay tuned!! Over a 5 day period, I guided 3 of the competitors preparing for the National Guard Jr. World Championship being held in Little River and Wahoo Creek. I was able to work with each of them to come up with a pattern that allowed them to fish their strengths. I really enjoyed these days of working with these aspiring young anglers. I am honored that they chose me to assist them prepare for the biggest tournament of their life. I took the job seriously and spent alot of time in preparation for these trips. While the fishing in Wahoo and Little River was tough, we managed some good fish each day. We almost always had at least one LM over 3 each day, and on our best day last week, we had 20 fish and about an 11 pound sack, which is gold up there right now during the day. Out of respect for these young anglers, no pics of the competitors and their daily catches or any info on our techniques, but it is safe to say each one has their own pattern and a solid game-plan for their time in the boat. One of the contestant's uncles is pictured above (2nd from right) with a nice spot from up there last week. Also, a big thanks to Phil Johnson for running some trips up there for me as well. I had many calls, but elected to only help 3 total to prevent overlap of information and locations. I deferred to Phil on the remainder of the trips. Down-lake has been up and down over the last week. I have been out 4 of the past 5 days, and we have had some good days and mediocre days. Saturday was one of the good days, and James is pictured above with a couple from his bag that day. I had a mother/son trip today with Sharon and her son Landon who came from WVA to watch the Cup and attend the expo. With the Pro Tournament starting tomorrow, I am going to refrain from specifics for the time being. Given the rule changes this year, the FLW Pro's were not allowed to hire guides during the pre-practice period for the Cup. As a favor to one of my sponsors, I did spend a bunch of time on the phone with 2 of the anglers competing this year. I provided insight and direction on approaches, techniques, along with specific hole information. I hope the information proves helpful for them both. Good luck to all the competitors in the Cup - I wish everyone a successful and SAFE tournament. I hope to see you all at the Expo, and stay tuned for more information on the Jimbo booth coming tomorrow! May God Bless - Jimbo

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

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

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

Jimbo's Lake Lanier Guide Service Fishing Report: 6/17/2012

Hello Friends and Sponsors - No surprises in this report - as usual we chased the topwater and swimbait bite all week. My clients have had a ball with all the great action on top. When the wind was up in the mornings, we fished windblown rocky points and humps with a swimbait and a big spook for some big bites. If the wind calmed down through the day, we would look for areas with at least a ripple on the water to get bit. We experimented with smaller topwaters and swimbaits as the wind died down and kept our success rolling. A Gunfish as well as a Sammy were both successful when the wind laid. On Wednesday, I had out David and his father Lanier. Yes, his first name is Lanier. And rightly so. Step over Sid, Lanier is here! We had a really good day that day, including a fantastic double that David and I had over a hump - for reference his fish in the picture attached is a solid 2.75...I wish those hook-ups would have been reversed - both fish struck at the same time on casts 20 feet apart. It was awesome. We had several doubles throughout the week on the same lure, front runners, as well as two people hooking up at the same time. On Tuesday I had out Jim, who was in learning mode and a bit camera shy, so I had him snap a couple of my good ones from that day - they are pictured above right. A very fun day and I know Jim learned alot about fishing Lanier. On Thursday, I enjoyed a day with 2 gentleman from Kentucky who were here on vacation and staying on the lake. They had been coming here in past years without much success on the fishing front, so they decided to hire a guide. I was delighted to have not disappointed them! These guys had a great day with some nice doubles along with some great fish. They had a great time and are already looking forward to another trip on their return visit next year. Friday I was out with Scott. Scott had been with me before and wanted to get on some wolf-packs - and that is just what we did! We took the run and gun approach and it payed off in a very nice sack, some doubles, and of course, big fish topwater action. Thanks Scott - great day sir!! I have Tuesday this upcoming week available, and then the 28th and 29th open the following week. I also have July 5th available the first week of July, and then I have some more availability the second week of July. I have not ran a spot-tail trip yet this year given the strength of the topwater bite, but I will begin this week as I have 2 scheduled. This technique represents a great opportunity for kids as well as experienced or inexperienced anglers alike. Dropping spot tails into brush turns fishing into catching my friends. Give me a call to book your trip!! 770-542-7764 For fishing reports on other Georgia Lakes, make sure to check out: www.havefunfishing.com Thanks, and may God Bless - Jimbo