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Home › Waters › Georgia › Lake Lanier
Reservoir · North Georgia · Georgia

Lake Lanier Fishing Guides

Atlanta lake, serious fishery: one of the best striped bass waters in the South and the place that made the blueback-herring spotted bass what it is.

An angler on a dock beside a moored boat on a calm reservoir

Map of the Lake Lanier

60 numbered points: 47 access points, 11 outfitters, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 26, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (47)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (11)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 60 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Buford Dam
Corps of Engineers, Gwinnett/Forsyth County		Dam / hazard34.16014, -84.07425The dam at the lake's south end. Restricted areas above and below; the horn and siren mean generation is starting in the tailwater.
2USGS gauge - Lake Lanier at Buford Dam
Roster gauge coordinate		USGS gauge34.16272, -84.07553Lake elevation and Buford Dam outflow. The same release drives the Chattahoochee tailwater sheet downstream.
3Lanier Harbor
City of Buford - paved ramp		Access / boat ramp34.15212, -84.02539Ramp on the lake's south-east corner near Buford Dam.
4Lanier Park
COE, Gwinnett County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.15197, -84.05960Corps ramp just above the dam on the east side.
5Shoal Creek Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.15940, -84.00768Ramp and campground on the Shoal Creek arm.
6Big Creek
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.16630, -83.99321Ramp on the Big Creek arm, east side of the lower lake.
7Burton Mill
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.16745, -83.97627Ramp on the lower lake's east shore.
8Sawnee Campground
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.17671, -84.07463Ramp at the Corps campground on the west side above the dam.
9Flowery Branch Bay Park
City of Flowery Branch - no fee		Access / boat ramp34.18062, -83.93394Town park on Flowery Branch Bay. DNR lists no improved ramp here - a car-top and bank site.
10Van Pugh South
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.18432, -83.98728The southern of two Corps ramps on the Van Pugh peninsula.
11Van Pugh North
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.18639, -83.98008The northern Van Pugh ramp, 350 m from its twin.
12Little Ridge Park
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.19260, -84.08999Ramp on the west shore above Sawnee.
13Tidwell Park
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.19436, -84.06420Corps ramp on the west shore of the lower lake.
14Mary Alice Park
City of Cumming - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.19738, -84.09840City ramp and beach on the Cumming side.
15Shady Grove Park
Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.20246, -84.03584County ramp and campground on the Shady Grove peninsula.
16Bald Ridge Creek
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.20843, -84.08439Ramp and campground on the Bald Ridge Creek arm.
17Young Deer Park
Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.22146, -84.05785County ramp on the Young Deer Creek arm.
18Two Mile Creek Park
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.22206, -84.00023Ramp on the Two Mile Creek arm.
19Old Federal
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.22270, -83.95039Corps ramp and campground on the east shore.
20Bethel Park
YMCA - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.22708, -83.99152Ramp at the YMCA's Camp Bethel on the mid-lake east side.
21Old Federal Day Use
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.22771, -83.93604Day-use ramp and beach 1.3 km east of the Old Federal campground.
22Vanns Tavern
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.23489, -83.98220Corps ramp on the mid-lake west shore.
23Charleston Park
Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.24274, -84.04593County ramp on the Chestatee side of the mid-lake.
24Six Mile Creek Park
Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.24644, -84.04042County ramp on the Six Mile Creek arm.
25Balus Creek Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.25203, -83.91605Ramp on the Balus Creek arm near Gainesville.
26Mountain View Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.25573, -83.94433Corps ramp on the east shore below Gainesville.
27Long Hollow Park
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.28176, -83.97209Ramp on the upper west shore.
28Keith's Bridge
COE, Forsyth County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.28267, -83.94401Ramp at the Keith Bridge crossing of the Chestatee arm.
29River Forks
Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.28782, -83.90610County park and ramp at the forks of the Chattahoochee and Chestatee arms.
30Lanier Point Pk
City of Gainesville - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.29686, -83.87074City ramp on the Gainesville waterfront.
31Robinson Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.30342, -83.89723Ramp on the upper east shore above Gainesville.
32Little Hall Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.31050, -83.94228Corps ramp on the upper lake.
33Duckett Mill Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.30668, -83.93093Ramp and campground on the upper lake's east side.
34Simpson Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.31974, -83.89165Corps ramp above Gainesville.
35Holly Park
City of Gainesville - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.33368, -83.85344City ramp on the upper Chattahoochee arm.
36War Hill Park
Dawson County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.33412, -83.96285County ramp and campground on the Chestatee arm.
37Sardis Creek Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.33738, -83.88762Ramp on the Sardis Creek arm.
38Bolding Mill Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.33818, -83.95425Corps ramp and campground on the upper Chestatee arm.
39Clarks Bridge Park
City of Gainesville - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.35193, -83.79367Ramp at the Lake Lanier Olympic venue on the upper Chattahoochee arm.
40Thompson Bridge Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.35213, -83.84599Ramp at the GA 60 Thompson Bridge crossing.
41Thompson Creek Park
COE, Dawson County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.35208, -84.01959Ramp on the upper Chestatee's west side.
42Laurel Park
Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.35475, -83.81372County park and ramp on the upper Chattahoochee arm.
43Little River Park
COE, Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.35918, -83.82901Corps ramp on the Little River arm.
44Nix Bridge Park
COE, Dawson County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.36248, -83.98617Ramp at the Nix Bridge crossing of the Chestatee.
45Don Carter SP #2
Georgia State Parks - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.38320, -83.73786The southern of Don Carter State Park's two ramps, at the head of the Chattahoochee arm.
46Wahoo Creek Park
Hall County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.38710, -83.85986County ramp on the Wahoo Creek arm.
47Don Carter SP #1
Georgia State Parks - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.39079, -83.73886Don Carter State Park's main ramp, campground and beach - the uppermost developed access on the lake.
48Toto Creek Park
COE, Dawson County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.39495, -83.97992Ramp at the top of the Chestatee arm.
49Lula Bridge WMA South
COE / WMA - unimproved, no fee		Access / boat ramp34.41463, -83.70832Unimproved access at the very head of the Chattahoochee arm. DNR records no ramp surface - a car-top site.
50Habersham Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.19222, -84.10333Marina on the lower lake's west shore - slips and dry storage.
51Aquamarina Lazy Days
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.16742, -83.99902Marina on the lower lake - slips, fuel, service.
52Holiday Marina On Lake Lanier
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.17228, -84.00308One of the lake's largest marinas - slips, fuel, boat rental.
53Harbor Landing Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.17981, -84.02953Marina on the lower lake. DNR records no ramp here - slips only.
54Hideaway Bay Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.18331, -83.93876Marina on the Flowery Branch side of the lower lake.
55Bald Ridge Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.20891, -84.09934Marina on the Bald Ridge Creek arm - slips, fuel, rentals.
56Aqualand Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.20292, -83.97036Large marina on the mid-lake east side - slips, fuel, service.
57Sunrise Cove Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.23752, -83.93621Marina on the mid-lake east shore.
58Port Royale Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.25078, -83.95817Marina on the mid-lake west shore - slips, fuel, rentals.
59Gainesville Marina
Private marina		Outfitter / canoe rental34.31645, -83.87573Marina on the Gainesville waterfront, upper lake.
60Oakwood Bait and Tackle
Bait and tackle shop, Oakwood		Outfitter / canoe rental34.22116, -83.90815The only tackle shop a bounded search of the lake box could place. In town off Mundy Mill Road, about 5 km from the Flowery Branch arm.

Guides on the Lake Lanier

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Lake Lanier

Lanier is the busiest fishing lake in Georgia and one of the best striped bass fisheries in the South. The Corps of Engineers impounded the Chattahoochee at Buford Dam in the 1950s, and the lake now sits squarely inside metropolitan Atlanta weekend range. That explains both its popularity and the fact that almost all of the serious fishing on it happens before nine in the morning.

Two fisheries share the water. Stripers are stocked and grow to real size on a blueback herring forage base, and the guiding business on Lanier is largely built around them. Through the cold months they are shallow, aggressive and caught on planer boards and free lines with live bait; in summer they stack in the narrow band of deep water that is both cool and oxygenated, and downlining over open water becomes the only method that works. Those two versions of striper fishing have almost nothing in common except the fish.

The other fishery is spotted bass. Lanier is one of the lakes that made the blueback herring spot famous, and the fish here behave accordingly: relating to deep points, offshore brush and long clear main-lake structure, feeding well off the bank, and coming up on topwater over open water at first light in a way that still surprises visitors expecting a shoreline lake.

The gauge below reports surface elevation. Lanier is drawn down through late autumn and winter and refilled in spring, and a lake several feet under full pool pulls fish off boat docks and shoreline cover and out onto the first break. It also decides which ramps are usable, which matters on a lake where the ramp you want may be an hour from the water you want.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Lake Lanier.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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2. What you confirm

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Pool right now

1,062.70ft
  • 24 hours-0.07 ft → steady
  • For the dateA little below normal for the date

Reading taken 52 min ago at USGS 02334400, LAKE SIDNEY LANIER NEAR BUFORD, GA. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Lake Lanier.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Lake Lanier ft

Now: 1,062.70 ft pool elevation, read 6:15 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 02334400, LAKE SIDNEY LANIER NEAR BUFORD, GA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Corps of Engineers parks: ramps spaced all around the lake, most with parking and restrooms.
Van Pugh and Little Hall Park: south end access near the dam and the deep water.
Bolding Mill and War Hill Park: north end ramps near the Chestatee and Chattahoochee arms.
Laurel Park and Longwood Park: Gainesville-side access, convenient and busy.
Marinas at Aqualand, Lanier Islands and Habersham: fuel, slips and guide services.
Buford Dam Park: bank access below and beside the dam.
Note: recreational traffic is very heavy from spring to autumn. Fish early.

Seasons

Winter: the best striper months, fish shallow and catchable on boards and free lines.
Spring: bass spawn in the pockets, stripers follow herring, and the lake is at its most generous.
Summer: stripers deep on downlines, spotted bass on offshore structure, early starts essential.
Fall: schooling fish on the main lake and the most enjoyable topwater of the year.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lake Lanier?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Spotted Bass, Striped Bass on the Lake Lanier in Georgia.

Are there fishing guides on the Lake Lanier?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Lake Lanier. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Lake Lanier?

Corps of Engineers parks: ramps spaced all around the lake, most with parking and restrooms. Van Pugh and Little Hall Park: south end access near the dam and the deep water. Bolding Mill and War Hill Park: north end ramps near the Chestatee and Chattahoochee arms. Laurel Park and Longwood Park: Gainesville-side access, convenient and busy. Marinas at Aqualand, Lanier Islands and Habersham: fuel, slips and guide services. Buford Dam Park: bank access below and beside the dam. Note: recreational traffic is very heavy from spring to autumn. Fish early.

When is the best time to fish the Lake Lanier?

Winter: the best striper months, fish shallow and catchable on boards and free lines. Spring: bass spawn in the pockets, stripers follow herring, and the lake is at its most generous. Summer: stripers deep on downlines, spotted bass on offshore structure, early starts essential. Fall: schooling fish on the main lake and the most enjoyable topwater of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lake Lanier?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Georgia agency site: https://georgiawildlife.com/fishing-regulations