Deep Bite is Really Good!

12.6.19

The little club tourney was held this past Friday.  While I filled the boat with dropshotting and jighead fish, my partner could't get a bite.  We fished on the south side of the lake.
Here is the write up:

Our outing today produced 29 legal bass, 3 shorts, 2 perch and a catfish. Of the 29 legal bass caught 2 teams caught 19 of them leaving 10 for the other 4 teams. Today the spoon bite failed, was it the overcast sky, did we need the sun for that bite to work? Did Mr. Deep struggle? The winning team of Mitch & Bruce caught 9 bass, had the winning team score of 81 1/4" plus Mitch's 19" to win the big bass pot - a clean sweep. They caught them all trolling in 30' to 50' depths. One team caught 10 bass on drop shot and if were not for the 3/2 rule would have won with 81 3/4". Team scores as follows:

• 1st place Bruce & Mitch with 81 1/4" (19", 16", 15 1/2", 15 1/2", 15 1/4"), also had 14 1/2", 14 1/4", 14 1/4", 13 3/4".
• 2nd place Mark & Walker with 65" (13 1/2", 15 3/4", 17 1/2", 18 1/4"), also had 3 shorts. 3 legal bass on spoons.
• 3rd place Charles & Gary with 62 1/2" (15 1/4", 15 1/4", 13 1/4" 18 3/4"), also 2 perch and a catfish. 3 on drop shot.
• 4th place Chandler & Jerry with 50 1/2" (17 1/2", 16 1/2", 16 1/2"), also had 16", 15 1/4", 15 1/4", 14" 13 1/4", 13", 13 1/2" on drop shots.
• 5th place Garrison & Tom with 15 1/4".
• 6th place Bart & Doug with 14 1/2".

The fish continued biting at the north end as I ventured out to Crow Creek on Sunday 12.8.19.  Cold east wind hit me as I drove up to Crow Creek to investigate cuts and creeks in the 60" range.

I wasn't disappointed as I boated 18 fish in 3 hours.

They also ate the dropshot with a Megabass Hazedong and I dragged/shook a 1/4 oz jighead with a Zman Hulastickz in The Deal on the bottom.

Water temp was 64 degrees up here and low 60's on the south end of the lake.   Gotta love this time of year!

Quick Successful 2 Hour Trip Pre Thanksgiving

Here is a write up for the Keowee Anglers.  Another good trip with Hunter!

11.27.19

My son came in to visit for Thanksgiving and we had a short time period to see if we could catch a few between noon til 2 PM before a the Thanksgiving activities began.

Headed to a creek channel in  Crow Creek that has been holding fish for a month.

We brought 10 to the boat with 9 being keepers.  Size was from 13” to the biggest at 16”.  Lost several others as they rocketed to the top.

We dropshotted and freestyled baits in 55’ of water.

We alternated through plastics that were tipped to the terminal tackle with Reins Bubble Shaker worms, Megabass Hazedong  and Zman Hulastickz.

I used the freestyle method which I learned about in the winter KA meeting that our speaker was a BFL tournament angler.

I caught 3 doing this and the biggest fish came on this method.

It’s basically dropping a freestyle jig head and doing nothing with it as you hold it above the suspended fish.

If you want to know more google “Paul Mueller Freestyle”.  

I would not have known about this technique if I didn’t attend the KA meeting.  Always good info given out.

Really fun when a new technique works.

What a club!

The water temp was 67 degrees and the air up there was high 50’s breezy and raw as fog was still hugging the water at times.

Ugh, Tought Foggy Monday, But one Nice Fish

11.28.19
I thought this tourney started out right.  Got lost in the fog getting to the blast off.
Then caught this very nice 19" spot on the drop shot.  Then.....crickets.
Caught 4 more dunks off a dock.  That is all folks!

Won another Bassin fools tourney

11.18.19

Here is a little write up of our recent tourney.  Caught fish in all ways, drop shot, worm, JT 95 caught the 17" one.  Just junk fishing.

It was a raw / wet / cold morning but 5 boats weathered the conditions. The 10 "Fools" ended up catching 31 legal bass and 10 shorts. Two teams caught limits. The team of Bart & Chandler won by catching their bass on worms & dropshot. The big bass pot was won by Larry with 17 1/4' just edging out Chandler who had a 17". The best 3 bass catch was a tie between Bart & Chandler at 47 1/4" each. There was  a variety of lures that caught fish with spoons catching about half of them and worms / dropshot / crankbaits catching the rest. The sad tale of today goes to Mitch who made a cast that just kept on going and going and going, another rod and reel lost.  What the heck it's just $$$$. Results by teams as follows:

• 1st place Bart & Bill with 79 1/2" (16", 16", 15 1/4", 15 1/4", 17"), also had 14", 14", 14", 15", 15". On worms & dropshot. 17" on JT95.
• 2nd place Dennis & Tom with 74 1/2" (15 1/4", 14 1/4", 15 1/2", 15", 14 1/2"), also had 13 1/2", 14", 14 1/2', 14" & 3 shorts. On spoons.
• 3rd place Mark & Gary with 58 1/2" (16 1/2", 14 1/2", 14 1/4", 13 1/4'), also had 12 1/4" and 2 shorts. On Spoons.
• 4th place Mitch & Garrison with 52 3/4" (13 1/4", 13 1/4", 14 1/4", 12'), plus a short. On crankbaits.
• 5th place Larry & Doug with 44 1/4" (17 1/4", 12 1/2", 14 1/2"), plus 3 shorts and 4 lost "lure with no hooks Larry?".

Congratulations to the winners. Next up area c on 11/25.

Hernando Lake Cold And Windy

11.13.19

Visited my bro after watching the space launch Monday.

We went over to Hernando Lake and were greeted with wind and cold (for Florida) weather.

We still managed to scrape up a few keeper fish on rattletraps.  And one fell for JT 95.

Not a bad little trip.

I Love The Fall

Fishing is hot right now.  Here is one of my posts to our local club.

11.5.19

Fished this morning with my KA derby partner from 8 to 11:30 AM.  We launched at Falls Creek ramp and fished north to the Jocassee Dam.

I punched in a lot of numbers to fish today in areas we have never been in.  The idea was to find some drop shot/spoon fish.  We never did find any large concentrations anywhere we looked.

The first ditch had lots of shad and one little spot came aboard after eating a Yahoo jig n shad.  We were looking in the 55’ of water column.

A couple of more stops yielded nothing.  In fact the depthfinder was clear in the majority of the areas we worked, no shad, no bass.

We finally headed up to the base of the dam and my partner caught his first fish on a drop shot that he had ever caught near the creek channel.  And it was a beautiful spot 19 1/2” with broad shoulders. 

He also caught another one in that area but it was only around 10”.  I spooned up a small one there also, but it wouldn’t measure.

We left wanting to look at one other cove above the 11 bridge and I connected with a 18” largemouth that was enticed by a Zman Hulastick in The Deal on a jig head in 30’ of water near some structure in a creek cut.

That was it for us today.  Few bites but a couple of quality fish.

The water was very clear, and the temp was down to 72 degrees.  Pretty calm conditions today and a little rain shower as we put in. Seemed like a good day to whack’em but quantity was not our strong suit today.

Dan with his first ever drop shot bass.  He is ruined.

Nice presfishing spot on top

Good largemouth on Zman Hulastickz in The Deal

Another prefishing spot on a hulastickz

This is fall as our hickory tree in the front yard is showing out

Hunter and Ben came over last weekend for a bass/golf tourney.  We really caught them dropshotting in Crow Creek.  Here is Ben with a long spot.

I then fished the Keowee Anglers tourney and my partner Dan and I won with 88" of 5 spotted bass.

We caught over twenty in one hole in Crooked Creek and then caught two nice topwater spots around noon on a submerged island north of highway 11 as Duke was pumping water up to Jocassee.  A great day which triggers my bass thumb rash!

Jocassee Dam Area

10.29

I fished today solo from the Jocassee Dam south to the Highway 11 bridge from 8:30 to 11:30 AM.

I haven’t been up there in a while and wanted to see if there was a schooling bite.  As I motored under the bridge I noticed that no water was moving, which seems to kill any schooling activity…and sure enough none was found.

I started at the base of the dam throwing small swimbaits and worms but no bites occurred.

Motored down to the main channel checking for a deeper bite and bumped into a school of bass that were in 55’ of water.  I managed a 15” spot and lost another of similar size at the boat on a drop shot with a Reins 4” bubble shaker in morning dawn.

Saw a lot of wood structure up the bank and started throwing the Evergreen DT95 near the bluffs with wood.  Caught two small largemouth that might have measured but wasn’t worth the effort to lay them on the board.

Headed back toward the highway 11 bridge fishing areas I have never fished, looking for rock and deepwater.

Stopped at a high spot near the river edge and started throwing the DT 95.  Landed three and missed another.  2 were 15” and one was 16”.  Expanding that are and looking deeper I came upon some unusual structure that had a drop from 40’ to 60’ and started dropshotting.  That worked well as 3 spots came to the boat.  One 13” and the others at 14”.  I dragged a Keitech swing impact swimbait on a jighead through the structure and caught a 17” fat spot.

Left those fish and finished at the bridge where I managed one baby spot on the JT 95.

It was flat calm up there today with extremely clear water.  Near the dam I could see bottom and my depthfinder was reading 15’.

The water temp at the dam was 72 and the temp was 74 at the bridge.

Continuing on the Theme of Big Fish

10.21-10.25

Fishing is still good even though it is still hot.  In a club tourney Monday my partner and I won a tournament on the South End of the lake.

I had a 19.25" spot for big fish on the JT 95.  I wrestled him out of a treetop.

As the wind picked up spinnerbaits were the ticket on the islands.

We won with 6 fish that measured 99.5"

I prefished with a Keowee Angler partner and taught him how to throw a bait caster and fish the Ned rig.

He managed 5 fish on the Ned Rig and I caught about 15 fish on a variety of baits.  But the bigger fish again came on the JT 95 out of tree tops.  I had a nice 18" LM and lost another nice one doing a similar deal.

I caught a bunch of spots on the Megabass Spark shad.  The water is still in the high seventies.

A Week of Big Fish It Was

10.15-10.18.2019

For me, this was a week of big fish as I caught 3 large fish of different species.

The first was this big brown trout caught on the Soque River in Georgia.  I have never caught a trout this large, although I don't fish for them ever, but have been around and caught my share in Alaska, Ohio and New York. This catch was made on Tuesday.




Thursday I went out looking for fish here at Lake Keowee for an upcoming tournament.  I caught my biggest spot since we have lived here for a year and a half.  It was 19" long and estimated weight of close to 4 lbs.  It ate a Zman Hula Stick near the skimmer wall.  I have caught some that long but this one was fat with shoulders.



Finally I went up to Lake Jocassee with a new fishing partner Jason and caught a smallmouth in the 6 pound category.  I've caught quite a few smallies in Ohio and Canada, but none this big.  She also bit the same hula stick that I had fished the day before.



Quite a few days for fishing!

Soque River Trip In Clarksville, GA What A Day!

10.15.19

Our family got Nancy and I a guided trout trip on the Soque River for our 40th wedding anny.

To say the trip was fantastic would be an understatement.

From the fish fry the night before at Patty and Willies home to the beauty of the river, the professionalism of the guide to the rain holding off, everything was great!

Pictures do more than my words, so here goes.



Thanks everybody!!

A Couple More Bit Near The Top

9.23.19

Fished a little club tourney today and won big fish pot with this nice one.  She ate a DT 95 on top.

Then I caught this one.  What a fatty!  She ate a Mega bass swim bait.


 

Water temp on the south end was 84 degrees as the heat is picking up again.

Good day on the water though.

Caught A Nice One On Top!

9.19.19

It has been very hot, but the morning brought a cool refreshing wind and lower water temps to the south end of Keowee. I wished I had brought a jacket.
But this girl kept me warm as she hit the Justine 95 and put up a good fight.
My partner and I landed 4 more, two on top, one on a spin bait and one on a jigging spoon.
Saw more fish deep on the depth finder, but couldn't get them to bite.
Water temp was 85 degrees on the south end.

Hot evening trip

9.10.19

Nancy and I went out for an evening trip and surprisingly put some fish in the boat. Starting under power lines near the boat ramp, Nancy spooned up a catfish in 55’ of water. The water temp was 92 degrees!

I caught a nice spot on a dropshot. But after seeing tons of fish on the depth finder and not being able to make them bite we headed to the hot hole. We caught 4 more spots their as they chased shad in 96 degree water. Nancy caught one on a whopper plopper . And I caught mine on a spin bait.

Surpringly good fishing on a hot September evening.

Champion still runs!

Fished solo this morning from 6:45-11 AM.

Targeted largemouth the for about 3 hours in the back of Little River and Stamp Creek.  Little River was 82 degree and 79 degrees in the back.  Stamp Creek was 82 degrees.

I had two rods on my deck, one with a Spro Spittin’ Shad and the other rigged with a Zoom Trick Worm fished weightless.

Fished for about an hour in Little River with nothing to show for the effort.  It just didn’t look “right”.  Lots of bubbles coming out of the muddy bottom and just kind of a dead feeling to it.

Pulled the trolling motor and headed to Stamp Creek stopping at the wooden bridge and fishing the bank back from there.

Quickly started getting brim bites so at least it seemed to have some fish living there.  After a couple of hours I had caught 2 13” largemouth on the trick worm.  Lost a nice one on the Spro bait in a downed pine tree.  The fish got tangled in the tree top and before I could get there it got off.

Decided to run down by the skimmer wall and see what was happening.  I caught 3 spots on a Megabass Spark Shad swimbait. One non keeper and a 13” and 14” spot.  Headed in to the cove by the skimmer wall to look for some drop shot fish, but didn’t see anything.

It was a very pleasant morning.  I only saw 2 PWC’s and a pontoon boat.  When I came back to the ramp I was still the only trailer there.  Nice to have the lake back.  Not a bad trip considering it is still August.

What a Spring Bite, But Starting to Slow and Change

4.23.19

water temps in the mid to high 60's

Slow posting due to our move and a huge rainstorm that has washed out the road to Lake Jocassee where we fished a couple of weeks ago.
We caught 13 and Nancy caught a nice small mouth.


She also caught her biggest spotted bass ever near the boat ramp at Keowee Town.



It has been a great spring bite..
Fished a ned rig only tournament and we had 97+ inches for 6 fish and finished 3rd.
We had a good bite in Little River.
 But this fish came from the south end on a Spark swimbait.  It measured 19.75 inches.



Yesterday though I caught 5 fish, but they weren't as big as the past few days.

We will see what the May bite brings.

Fishing Has Been Outstanding

4.1.2019

Fishing has been on fire here at Lake Keowee.
The ned rig/swimbait bite has been the ticket for me.
The water temp in the low to mid 60's has brought the bass to the shallows and they are hungry.
Seeing a lot of fish on the beds.

If you aren't catching over 15 fish in four hours it is an off day.
Sweet!

Fishing Has Been On The Good Side

3.15-3.22.19
Fishing has been good as Lake Keowee water temp has been in the low 60's south and mid 60's north.

Nancy put it on me with some real nice bass off wind blown rip rap on a Mega Bass Spark Shad.



I caught some nice fish on the same bait in a Bassin Fools tourney in which me and my partner scored 5 fish that measured 82"



I even made it down to Lake Lanier where the water was cooler but the fish were biting enough to make it interesting.  Again this nice fish was caught on the Spark Shad.



Starting to see fish on the beds as the wind and temp keeps going up and down.

Lake Keowee Big Girls Trying to Bite

3.4.19

Fished the Fools tourney today and while the fishing wasn't on fire but I caught this nice 18" spot and a 17" and another little guy on the ned rig.

Water temp was in the high 50's where the zone we fished was located.

Florida Trip

2.26-3.1 2019

Went down to Crystal River and fished with my bro in the lakes around his home.

Never got on big fish, but it was a bed fishing and some lily pad flipping affair.

Lake Panasofkee was a bust as we only caught 3 fish there.  But the water was beautiful.

Henderson was clear and pretty and the fish bit wacky worms, ned rig in the beds and flipped crawdads in the pads.

All I know was when I closed my eyes at night all I saw was clear water, hydrilla and fish swimming everywhere.

It Has Been A Slow Bite the Last Month

2.16.19

Fished with Hunter on a beautiful day and just like a few trips the past 30 days, caught some dinks and got enough bites to keep it interesting.
I can't find deep fish so it's been junk fishing time for my boat.
Ned rigs, shad raps and shaking a worm produces a few fish each trip but no size.
The water temp has ranged from the high 50's to low 60's.
Here are a couple of pics.

Drop Shot is Working a Little

1.16
Fished with Craig today.
Craig got his first fish ever on a jigging spoon and had two others get off.
I managed 2 nice spots drop shotting under the power lines in 60' of water.

Water temp was high 50's to low 60's.
Cold start to the day but it made it to 55 degrees.
Not bad for January.