Lake Lanier fishing guide Joey McBride took the month of November and half of December off, but despite cold winter temperatures he found the fishing hot as July when he started back.

“A lot of people are catching a lot of fish. I’ve been catching some good stripers and some really good spots (spotted bass),” said McBride, who operates Tight Line Charters on the Georgia lake.

“We’ve been catching the stripers halfway in the backs of creeks up to the middle of the creeks, mostly on blueback herring. That is the trick this time of year.”

He said he is mostly fishing downlines, but also keeps out a few flatlines baited with live bluebacks, too.

“Most are fishing downlines from 20 to 30 feet and I’ve been keeping mine about 30 feet. On the flatlines you’ll just hit once in a while out of the blue,” he said. Good catches are coming in the main creeks, he noted – Six Mile Creek, Bald Creek, Shoal Creek and Big Creek, and Flat Creek up the lake. “Flat Creek always has fish in it.”

Some of the guides have been getting good results, he said, on umbrella rigs, running white one-ounce jigs with chartreuse trailers.

“When you see the stripers breaking, throw Redfins and Chugbugs. On the Redfin the only color we can get hit on is the hot pink color. Don’t ask me why, but you can throw green, blue, and everything else, and they will hit the pink one.”

McBride said boats are averaging anywhere from two to about 15 stripers a day and most fish are averaging from 4 to 12 pounds.

“Some days are slow and we are not catching a ton of big fish, but every once in a while you’ll get one over 15 pounds.”

Bass fishing, he noted, has been “pretty darned good.”

“We’ve been using a drop-shot rig and a jigging spoon and wearing them out. We’ve been concentrating on fish deeper than 25 feet because the big, football-sized fish are coming from water 25-30 feet deep.”

Top spoons for the deep spots, he said, are the Flexit Spoon and the Tungsten spoons.

“The tungsten spoons are the same weight as the Flexit Spoon but they are about 25 percent smaller because tungsten is heavier. The spots really like the tungsten spoon. I buy the Bass Pro Shop Brand,” he said. “We use silver for the spots. If you want to catch perch, use the gold spoons.”

As for the drop-shot rig, McBride suggests locating fish around deep brush. “If they are in the 20-foot range around brush they will eat it,” he said.

McBride fishes a little green watermelon-colored finesse worm with no tail about 18-24 inches above the weight, either a ¼-ounce or 3/8-ounce weight.

“You hook it on a drop-shot rig and you wouldn’t think it would catch a thing, but they will pop it. You want a rod with a real light action tip so you can make that worm dance,” he said.

“If you are marking the fish and are having trouble getting them to bite, try a 4 – 6 inch blue back. It works every time!”

You can check out McBride’s guide service at www.lanierguidefishing.com. To book a fishing trip, call him at 678-618-8729.