Biggun on Jocassee 4.16.21

 4.16.21

Headed to Jocassee as this year hasn't gotten off to a good start, too few fish, too many lost big fish.

Chucked the rat and s waver for about an hour in the 60 degree water.  Nothing to show for it and saw nothing chasing them.

Headed up to Howard Creek and just decided to slow down and throw the Hula Stick on a jig head.  Second cast yielded this biggun.

Scale didn't work unfortunately.

Continued with the worm and caught a few more. Lost a nice one in a tree top.

Very subtle bites.

Jocassee is a great place to unwind and fish.  So peaceful.

 3.7.21

Fishing has been very sporadic for me the last couple of weeks.  As they have pulled out of their winter ditch environment and started to scatter, I haven't been able to catch up to them.

I have only been able to catch 4-5 keepers in 4 hours of work.

I will catch one in 6' of water then one in 50' of water.

There are fish pushing shad in the back Little Crow Creek but I can only catch one or two as they are moving fast!

The water temps are basically in the mid 50's.

Well, maybe next year I can solve the late winter/early spring bite!

First Trip on 2021

 1.4.21

Nancy and I ventured out of the Falls Creek landing this afternoon from 1-4:15
We found a decent bite as we managed to boat 10 keeper bass.  
The water temp south of the Rt. 11 bridge was 61 and north of the bridge it dropped to 59 degrees.  The water continues to be extremely clear. There was a little breeze but the further north ventured the lake was pretty flat.
Scouting and fishing areas we haven’t fished before, we started off a little slow.  We planned on fishing and catching/not catching one and move on.
The first stop was a long cove south of the ramp and we bagged one keeper on the jig rig with a hulastickz in 45 feet of water.
Easing into Cedar Creek and graphing we found a “hole” with trash in the bottom of it.  Caught our biggest of the day there on the jig rig measuring a little over 17” in 50’ of water.  Eased over to a creek bluff and nailed 3 more in the 14” size range.  Again, all on the jig rig.
Headed north above the bridge to a long point as Duke was really pulling water upstream today.
Found a bunch of active fish in 25’ to 35’ of water and they ate drop shots tipped with a Hazedong shad and a  morning dawn roboworm.  These fish were smaller though as they measured in the 12-13” range.  
Pulled off that point and eased into a nearby creek side scanning for brush piles.  Found one and threw a Yamamoto Twin Tail cinnamon pepper hula grub in it and caught a nice 16” largemouth.
At the last stop, we hit a steep rocky bluff and one more spot was caught on the hula grub.
It was a nice day to scout new areas as there was very little boat traffic.

Last Days of Fall, and The Fish Are Tight On The Bottom

 12.22.20

Fished solo today from 11 to 2:45.  The weather was great with the temps nearing 60 degrees and decreasing winds as the day went on.  I haven’t been to Crow Creek for a few weeks so I decided to concentrate there.  The water temp is still in the 64-degree range.  The water is extremely clear.

Hit a couple of laydown trees with a jig with a hula grub with no success near the Keowee Town Ramp, then fished the rest of the day in the Crow Creek area from Little Crow back.

Fishing was slow but due to the low wind I could really work over the creek bottoms and ditch cuts very methodically.  Fishing mainly in water from 50’ to 65’ deep with a jig rig and drop shots I managed 7 spots with the five best measuring 80”.  

I could mark fish but I don’t think I caught any that I could “see” on the graph, the fish that bit was in the cover at the very bottom of the structure mentioned. 

The bite was so light I can’t even describe how I would know I was bit, other than “something feels different”.  

The jig rig was tipped with a HulastickZ in The Deal color.  I did manage 2 on a drop shot.  One was on a morning dawn Roboworm.  The other was on a Megabass Hazedong shad.

No topwater action occurred.  The past few trips I have managed to catch fish on top, but not today.

The last drop of the day yielded an 18” spot.  And it was time to go!

Some Days Are OK, Some Days Are Tough

End of April 2020

The bite keeps slowing down, but the offshore bite can be ok one day and not so much others.

I've moved to throw hard plastics with the Gunfish working best.  JT is also working.

If the wind is blowing a white jerkbait is working also.

I also throw a Mikey Jr. over downed trees and it caught me this nice Largemouth yesterday.

It got back in the tree 3 times but I managed to bring it in after a crazy fight.

Looking forward to a solid offshore bite to continue.

Jerkbait Bite Starting?

2.22.20

Nancy and I got out for a quick afternoon trip on Keowee.

In the Crow Creek mouth we managed 4 spots and on catfish.

The cool thing is that I caught 3 spots on a ghost white Bass Pro shop jerk bait on offshore humps.

Maybe it's time for this bite to get going!

Water temperature was in the high 60's.

Up The Seneca River

4.17.20

Nancy and I fished Keowee today.  The guv opened the boat ramps today.

We fished down around the skimmer wall with only one little guy to our credit.

Headed up to Crow Creek and it got better real fast.

Caught fish on wind blown banks and points.  One point at the intersection of Crow and the Seneca river yielded 2 nice 3 pound spots on the hulastick.

We went up to a sandy pocket by Falls Creek Ramp to eat lunch and I saw a tree in the water I had never fished.  I threw Mikey Jr. over it and kablam a largemouth inhaled it.  A great fight ensued but we finally got her to the boat with only one hook keeping her buttoned up.

It was 21.5" long and 4.35 lbs.



We ended up with 16 fish but you had to work at it.

Down Lake Hartwell Trip due to Chinese Flu

4.6.20

Nancy and I went down to Hartwell since the guv closed all the boat ramps due to the virus.
The Corps of Engineers told the state to go F themselves and kept their ramps open.
We put in at Hatton Ford.
We fished Weldon Island out front off the ramp and up the Tugaloo.
Caught some fish on the ned rig around the islands and I caught this good spot on a JT 95 on a road bed at the island.



We then headed up the Tugaloo and put together a pattern of hitting rocky knobs and casting a Bill Norman crank bait in chartreuse shad and the ned rig.

Caught a bunch of 2 lb fish.

Pretty good day for not being on Hartwell in about 20 years.

First Jocassee Trip This Year and It Was Memorable

3.25.20

Nancy and I headed to Jo and fished from around 9 to 2.

The water temp was in the high 50's.

It was a beautiful day on the pond and we caught ten with a lot of quality.

I caught my third best LM ever with this beauty that ate a june bug TRD in about 3 feet of water up Whitewater.

We also scored on a very nice spot and Nancy caught a big largemouth on the TRD
'


A I write this they have shut down all the public ramps in SC.  This could be the first and only trip to this marvelous fishery.

Nice Big Spot Out of a Loon Free For All!

3.19.2020

Fished from 8-12 this morn with my KA for the upcoming tourney. 
We fished from the Keowee Town Landing to the back of Crow Creek. 
The skies were foggy and the water temp in the mid sixties and flat calm. 
We worked the kinks out if our lines and practiced fishing the Ned rig near the ramp. We caught 2 there near the ramp. Both were around 14”. And the first one had “derp” lips again. 

We started fished up crow creek and landed a couple more on the Ned rig and a hulastick. They were on gently sloping bank near trees. 

As we were running up the creek a flotilla of loons were working bait. We eased in the middle of them and started casting a Ned rig and swimming it through the turmoil. 
We picked up one 19.5” spot and a 18” spot doing this. The 18” was my KA partner’s PB. 
We fished long points and cuts towards the back of Crow Creek and caught more in the 13-15” range. 
We hit a slightly sloping clay bank and my partner caught his first whopper plopper spotted bass. A solid 17” fish
All in all a good morning. We counted 15 fish landed and missed several more.  All on soft plastics except the WP fish. 
What didn’t work. JT 95 topwater.

Headed Up The River For The First Time Since Fall

3.15.2020

Solo trip today from noon til 5. 
Fished the river from Keowee town ramp to the Jocassee dam. 

It started raining when I splashed the boat so I hung around the ramp til the rain decided to leave. No bites near the ramp. 

Headed north and caught a mag spot that measured 19” at my first stop where crow creek enters the river. JT 95 was the ticket. 



Continued up the river to the island in front of High Falls ramp and caught 6 there. One on a shad rap in a tree top. All others on a hulastick in the deal color. All these fish were in the 13-15” range. They had shad pinned to a wind blown bank. 

Continued above rt 11 and caught my second biggest fish a plump 17” spot on the hulastick on a long tapered point near deep water. 

Went further up the river and caught a 15” spot on the hula stick off a shady dock near a rocky point. 

They were pulling the water hard up to Jocassee so I came back down and hit another dock near Keowee town and bagged another 15” spot on the hulastick. 

Water temp below 11 was 64 degrees. Above was 58 ish. 

Clear skies slight breeze. 

What didn’t work was jerkbait and lobbing big swimbaits over downed trees.

Little Slower. Patience Is Good.

3.4.20

Fished the first Keowee Angler tournament of the year.

Overcast day with temps around 60.  Water temp the same or a little higher.

We fished the back of Crow Creek and after chasing some schooling fish concentrated on throwing the Hulastikz on the bank and dragging it out.

I caught largemouth and spots doing that and my partner finally scored his two fish late and we ended up with 75.75 inches.  No whoppers but 12 came to the boat including 4 non keepers.

Coming back to Keowee Town ramp I saw some fish schooling.  Dropped my partner off and headed back out to see if I can get some topwater spots.

Scored on 2 and this big spot that really ate the JT95 way down in her gills.  Manage to get her off and she swam away but it was a bloody mess.



The fish are starting to school.  Should be fun for a few weeks now.

After Last Week's Warm Temps, Snowstorm, Flood They Are Still Trying To Hit The Bank

2/12

Fished solo today from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM.  Put in at High Falls ramp and fished from the skimmer wall to the 130 bridge.  The water has some color to it, don’t know what else to call it, but very fishable.

Due to the cloudy water I concentrated on shallow fishing.  The water temp was in the 59 degree range.  There was a slight breeze but later it slicked off.

A good shallow water bite is out there.  And I caught them on a variety of baits.  I only caught one fish in water deeper than 10’.  Lobbing a texas rigged dropshot with a zoom trick worm worked well around docks in shallow pockets.  I caught five this way and 2 on consecutive casts to the same dock. They were nice fish with the smallest being 15 1/2” up to 18”.

In between pockets I threw a Bill Norman deep little N in chartreuse blue  on rocks and had a really nice Largemouth in the 4 lb. category get off as I tried to net it.

I also caught a 16” spot on a tokyo rig with a Zoom Z Craw Jr. in some planted brush in a shallow pocket.

Hit the rip rap at the 130 bridge to finish the day and caught a small keeper spot on the crankbait and another 15 1/2” spot on a Keitech swimbait.  

Couldn’t get bit on a jerkbait.

So 8 fish got in the boat and missed a few others.  The quality is really picking up.