** Archived Article - please check for current information. **

November 13, 2006

Freshwater Fishing Trends

Mountains Area - Piedmont Area - Midlands Area - Santee Cooper System

Mountains Area
Lake Jocassee:

• Largemouth Bass: Good, casting Carolina-rigged worms, Gary Yamamoto sinkos in morning and late evening.
• Trout: Fair, try drifting large minnows from surface to 100 to 115 feet and trolling with minnows. Night fishing is fair with minnows. Fish at 80 to 115 feet with nightcrawlers and at 100 to 115 feet with Sutton, Doctor and Apex spoons.
• Smallmouth Bass: Good. Casting minnows around rocky points.
• Crappie: Poor. Try small minnows and jigs around brush piles.
• Catfish: Good. Try nightcrawlers or cut bait on bottom. Bream: Excellent, fishing with redworms, popping bugs and crickets around banks and brush.

Lake Keowee:

• Largemouth: Fair, try using jigging spoons, doodling with drop-shot rigs in 30 to 40 feet of water. Bass are hitting topwater plugs in schools.
• Crappie: Fair, fishing with minnows at night and jigs in 10 to 15 feet of water around brush piles and bridge pilings, best under bridges with lights early in the day and night.
• Catfish: Good, basket fishing for catfish still productive. Use minnows, nightcrawlers and cut bait on the bottom.
• Bream: Good, using redworms and crickets around brush piles, stumps and bridge pilings.

Lake Hartwell:

• Largemouth Bass: Fair, try white flukes and topwater flukes in morning and evenings and using 8 to 10 inch blue worms at night and live large minnows. Casting spinnerbaits and crankbaits off points and jigs around structure.
• Striped and Hybrid Bass: Fair, schooling early morning and evening. Catches around the dam with live herring at 40 to 60 feet. Fair at daybreak on cut bait on points or breaks. Trolling umbrella rigs, free-lining live herring and large minnows and jigging in about 38 feet of water. Use blue umbrella lures when trolling.
• Crappie: Fair, some catches at 25 to 30 feet with small to medium minnows. Also, try using mini-umbrella rigs.
• Catfish: Fair, using cut herring, large shiners, nightcrawlers, shrimp and chicken livers on the bottom.
• Bream: Fair. Try using redworms and crickets under boat docks and bridges and brush piles.

Piedmont Area
Lake Russell:

• Largemouth Bass: Fair, shallow running crankbaits.
• Yellow Perch: Fair, try fishing deep with medium minnows, worms and jigging spoons. Also use worms and lizards.
• Striped and Hybrid Bass: Fair, using bucktails, cut and live herring and jigs below the dam when water is running.
• White Bass: Fair, using bucktails, spinners and live bait below the dam when water is running.
• Crappie: Good, using minnows and jigs around brush piles and bridge pilings at 10 to 12 feet. Better at night.
• Catfish: Good, using cut bait and nightcrawlers on the bottom and around the riprap at bridges.
• Bream: Good, fishing with crickets and earthworms around bridge pilings and structure.

Lake Thurmond:

• Largemouth Bass: Fair, casting Rattletraps, CountDown lures, deep-running Rebels, ShadRaps, plastic worms, Yozuri plugs and Challenger plugs.
• Striped and Hybrid Bass: Fair, using Sidewinder spoons, medium and large minnows and 1/3 and 2/5 ounce Cleos. Also, Berry spoons, KastMasters and Hopkins spoons.
• Crappie: Fair, mostly using small minnows and greenish mini-jigs and Wobbly-eye jigs around deep brush tops.
• Catfish: Fair, using cut bait and nightcrawlers fishing on the bottom, particularly around structures like riprap and bridge pilings.
• Bream and Shellcrackers: Fair, using earthworms and crickets around banks and brush along the bottom as well.

Lake Wylie:

• Largemouth Bass: Good, casting spinnerbaits and medium-running crankbaits along points close to the bottom. Also topwater baits good in morning and late afternoon.
• Striped Bass: Good, using spoons and bucktails behind Lake Wylie dam.
• White Bass: Good, below the dam casting smaller bucktails and spoons.
• Crappie: Good, using small minnows and jigs around docks, piers and brush tops in 10 to 15 feet of water.
• Catfish: Good, fishing on the bottom with a variety of baits.
• Shellcrackers: Good, using redworms and crickets on the bottom.
• Bream: Good, using earthworms and crickets around the banks.

Midlands Area
Lake Greenwood:

• Largemouth Bass: Good, try plastic worms and crankbaits off points in 6 to 10 feet water.
• Stripers: Good, catches behind the dam using Bombers, Charlie plugs, and flukes. Also in lower lake with bucktails and Berry spoons.
• White Bass and White Perch: Good, try casting and Beetle Spins and Panther Martins in school areas. Schooling activity reported over the lake.
• Crappie: Good, best catches at night. Use small to medium minnows, mini jigs and Slider jigs around brush in 12 to 15 feet of water.
• Catfish: Good, try using redworms in 6 to 8 feet of water.
• Bream: Fair, with redworms and crickets along shoreline structure and docks in 4 to 6 feet of water.

Lake Wateree:

• Largemouth Bass: Good, best caught with shad-like lures on points. Some schooling activity reported.
• Striped Bass: Good, Some schooling activity early morning and late afternoon. Best on lower part of lake fish deep live shad.
• White Bass: Slow. White Perch: Good, casting and jigging Twister-tail grubs and live minnows.
• Crappie: Good, best fishing with jigging around brush piles. Also in shallow water in the creeks, along edge of old river channel and trolling Wow grubs, Sliders and live bait.
• Catfish: Good, using earthworms, nightcrawlers, shrimp, small pieces of cut bait and live shad.
• Bream and Shellcrackers: Good, using crickets, worms and artificial lures fished around piers, structure and brush.

Lake Murray:

• Largemouth Bass:  Good, fishing Flukes off of points and using top-water lures early in the morning and floating worms and jerk baits along banks. Try Texas rigging Finesse Worms with a shaky jig head and Pig and Jig in 8 to 15 feet of water, around structure.
• Striped Bass: Good, using live bait on down-rods and free-lining at depths of 40 to 70 feet. Fish are schooling very early and periodically throughout the day. Lots of schooling activity from Shull island to the Lake Murray Dam. Good catches in schools casting Ice Flies and with top-water plugs, like pencil poppers and striper delights.
• Crappie: Good, using jigs and small tuffies trolling the creek runs and in the upper part of the lake around the confluence of the little and big Saluda rivers. Try medium minnows around brush piles, docks and around bridge pilings, at 12 to 18 feet depths.
• White Perch: Good, using redworms and small tuffies, jigging Flex-it spoons down 20 to 30 feet and casting little cleos.
• Catfish: Fair, using cut herring and nightcrawlers on bottom.
• Bream: Good. Fish with redworms, baby nightcrawlers and crickets in 6 to 15 feet of water.
• Shellcrackers: Good, using redworms and baby nightcrawlers in 6 to 20 feet of water around rocks, stumps and other structure.

Santee Cooper System            
Lake Marion:

• Largemouth Bass: Fair, using Carolina rigs, artificial worms and live shiners, fishing along drops and creek banks, especially in morning.
• Striped Bass: Good. Schooling started. Fairly well with live bait, bucktail shiners in riverbed off dam or drifting along the dam.
• White Perch: Slow. Try jigging off bottom with Hopkins spoons and with smaller nightcrawlers on sand points. Use nightcrawlers at sunrise and sunset.
• Crappie: Good, using small and medium minnows over deep brush piles, bridge pilings and piers. Best fishing in the morning and evening.
• Catfish: Good, use cut shad, herring and live shiners off bottom drifting in deep water and at night in shallow water.
• Bream and Shellcrackers: Good, using redworms, crickets and waxworms in 4 to 6 feet of water and fishing shallow.

Lake Moultrie:

• Largemouth Bass: Slow, cast spinnerbaits, plastic worms and lizards along docks and structure. Also cast Rattletraps and Rapala lures around Pinopolis Point and Old Hatchery.
• Striped Bass: Fair, casting and trolling. Some schooling reported. 
• Crappie: Good, using crickets and small to medium minnows around fish attraction areas and brush piles. Some crappie being caught on the bed with minnows and jigs.
• Catfish: Excellent, 9 to 15 feet deep using cut herring, stink bait, chicken livers and shiners 9 to 20 feet deep near the bottom dike edges and around the dam.
• Bream: Excellent, try using crickets and redworms, nightcrawlers around fish attraction areas and banks.
• Shellcrackers: Good. Try using crickets and redworms along the banks in river runs and along points, possibly in canals.

REPORTERS: The S.C. Department of Natural Resources appreciates the cooperation of fishing trend reporters for South Carolina's major lakes: Jocassee - Jocassee Outdoor Center; Keowee - Fishing Hole; Hartwell - Lake Hartwell Fishing and Marine; Russell - Tony's Bait and Tackle; Thurmond - Bladon's; Wylie - Catawba Tackle; Greenwood - Sportsman's Friend; Wateree - Wateree Marina; Murray - Dooley's Sport Shop, Lake World; Marion - Randolph's Landing; and Moultrie - Atkins Boat Landing.

For South Carolina freshwater fish regulations: http://www.dnr.sc.gov/regs/pdf/freshfishing.pdf