Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Courtesy of Tim Marchbanks

Hunter Marchbanks displays a 23.6-pound striper caught by Team Allee during the SBCC Hartwell striper tournament this past weekend. Despite record-low water levels and reduced access areas, anglers are having good success fishing the lake.

As promised last week, it’s time to go ‘round the horn again and check out the activity on our local lakes. The biggest news is the condition of Lake Hartwell. The current water level is somewhere in the 638 msl range, which is the same level as the end of the longest public ramps on Hartwell. True to their word, the Corps of Engineers has dumped rock gravel at the end of several ramps to keep them usable although as more traffic condenses on fewer ramps, the comings and goings can be treacherous. Martin Creek in Oconee and Green Pond and Hattons Ford (the old Waltrip’s Landing) in Anderson County are the three ramps on the South Carolina side where rock was added.

“The fishing on Hartwell has been great,” said Tim Marchbanks, owner of The Bait Shop (864-261-6008) on Hwy 24 in Townville. “We fished the big striper tournament this past weekend, and it was one of the best tournaments they’ve had. We caught some big fish and didn’t really have any water-level problems – pretty much stick to the main channel when moving up the lake, and if you see a stick up, give it a wide berth. I recommend having a four-wheel drive when putting in or taking out at the ramp.”

It also helps to pay attention. Mike Green of Huntersville, N.C. won the Striped Bass Conservation Coalition tournament last weekend with 78 pounds from a limit of four fish. “I found my spot by accident,” Green said. “I was running up the Seneca River, and I looked down and saw I was only in four feet of water out in the middle of the lake. I fished that unmarked hump both days of the tournament pulling live gizzard shad over it on planerboards and caught all four of my winning fish.”

The Fishing Hole’s Gerald Foster (864-654-9315) in Clemson echoed the sentiments on Hartwell.

“Largemouth are on a spring-like pattern,” he said. “A lot of the bass anglers are catching bass near the banks in shallow water throwing crankbaits. They’re also fishing stickups and structure that nobody ever knew existed before the water dropped, so in a lot of ways, it’s like fishing a whole different lake.”

Bassers on Lake Keowee are having good success even though they lost nearly eight feet of water over the last couple of weeks due to a planned outage at the Oconee Nuclear Power Plant that necessitated back-pumping water from Keowee into Jocassee to hold for storage.

“Our water levels are in a lot better shape than Hartwell,” said Chris Schuber, a bass guide on Lake Keowee. “There’s a good topwater bite early in the morning for spotted bass using Zara Spooks or any topwater bait with white on the underside. The largemouth bite is pretty good using a Lake Fork swim bait in the 25-foot depths as well as using a Lake Fork trick worm in watermelon seed around points and islands in 15 to 35 feet of water.”

The ‘Fishboy Adventures’ (864-888-7974) guide suggested trying the upper lake areas around Mile Creek, Camp Creek and Crow Creek. Schuber also indicated good launch sites available at South Cove and Lake Keowee Marina as well as the ramp at Gap Hill Landing.

As for the benefactor of that stored water that came out of Keowee and went into Jocassee, Alex Orr, manager of Jocassee Outdoor Center (864-944-9016), said all that water coming in has slowed the trout bite down for now, but he expects things to look up once the water settles.

“Our bass anglers have been doing pretty well up the rivers away from the incoming water,” Orr said. “The best results have come using a Fish Stalker green pumpkin worm on a Texas rig. Anglers are targeting brush or laydowns along the bank or any structure that’s within 25 feet of the bank.”

“Finding bass at Jocassee can be tough, but our average size largemouth is in the six- to seven-pound range, so when you find one, he’s a big one.”

Got outdoor news or photos to share? E-mail Phillip Gentry at pgentry6@bellsouth.net.