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.

Warm Temps Brought Them Shallow

2.3.20

Water temp 60 degrees

A fellow KA and I launched from the Keowee Town Ramp today at noon and fished for 4 hours.

We headed to Crow Creek and found fish waiting for us in 50’ of water, but after missing 2 on drops shots and then just watching them follow our baits up and down we decided to abandon the deep water bite and head to south facing docks that were absorbing the warm sun in coves off the main channel.

The bite started quickly as the first fish came aboard and was 17” long but with big shoulders.  Then a 15 and a half inch came to the boat.  Every boat dock had fish on them. They were positioned on the back float of the docks in shallow water.

We ended up with 8 spots and 1 largemouth.  All except the first 2 were buck bass measured between 12 and 14”.

All fish were caught on a Zman Hulastickz rigged on a 1/4 oz. jig head.  

The water temp was 60 degrees in Crow.

Needless to say it was a nice day on the lake with temps in the 70’s and wind was calm turning to windy. 

Had this little guy eat a dropshot and had a huge shad still in his throat.

These are the docks we were catching them on.

Looks Like A Pre Spawn Bite Now

1.12.20

Water temp was 64 degrees and sun was out.  Shallow bite was occurring

After the KA meeting Thursday I walked the leisure trail in Keowee Key.  There was a yellow Nitro in the cove fishing and I noticed that they were fishing very shallow and I watched them catch some nice bass very shallow.  I asked them what swimbait they were throwing and the one fellow said “that ain’t no swimbait that’s just a big minner”.  So today me and my friend concentrated on fishing shallow in Stamp Creek and Little River.

We fished from 9:30 to 3:30 and started in the back of Stamp Creek.  That was a mistake as the rain had blown out the area.  All it was good for was planting corn.  We came back out under the wooden bridge and started fishing rocky points.

Fish were on all of them.  We fished shallow rocky points from the wooden bridge to the 183 bridge and caught fish or had bites on all of them. Usually in less than 10 feet of water.  They were eating the Zman HulastickZ on a jig head and a drop shot with a morning dawn Roboworm cast to the shallow points.

We slid into a cove that is know to have spawners and got broken off and lost another nice fish on the roboworm in less than 5 feet of water.

So we started looking in spawning pockets.  We pulled into a pocket south of the 183 bridge and caught 3 nice spots in the 16-17” range off one dock.

Then as we worked out of the cove and threw a Pointer SP 78 at a shallow dock on a clay bank.  A largemouth ate the lure and as I was pulling it in a wolfpack was coming back to the boat of nice fat fish.

My friend dumped his dropshot in as he was netting my fish.  We get my fish in and he is hooked up on one of the wolfpack fish.  Turns out I net his fish with my fish still in the net.  My LM was 17.5”  His spot was 18” and had a big hump in it’s back.

Fished a point further south and caught a 18” spot on the hulastickZ in 40’ of water.  Hit the skimmer wall points and bagged two more fat spots.

One last one came on board in the cove to the south of the skimmer wall on the dropshot in 40’ of water.

We boated 14 spots and one LM  today only one was a small keeper.  The rest were from15"-18”.  

Some really nice pre spawn fish pulled up today.

Water temp was in the low 60’s everywhere we went.

Nice warm day with a slight west wind.

January Bite Hanging In There

1.8.20

Fished today with a fellow KA from 10-3. We met at the High Falls Ramp and were greeted with a brisk west wind and chilly 40 degree temp and clear skies. We idled out and fished the creek cut in front of the park but didn’t see or catch anything.  The water temp there was 58 degrees.

Wanting to check out some other creek cuts and work water in the 60’ range we headed over to the cove by the skimmer wall.  One came on board there on a dropshot but was too short to measure.

Headed to the hot hole and no fish were seen schooling or on the graph.  

Started heading north and fished the creek in front of War Path ramp.  Another non keeper came to the boat on the drop shot.

It was no 12:30 and it was time to head to Crow Creek. Pulled into the back of Crow and immediately started catching fish.  In the next couple of hours we caught 10 spots and the obligatory catfish.  Not slaying them but enough to keep us happy.

The two baits that were working was freestyling with a Damiki rig tipped with a Megabass Hazedong 3” shad and a Zman HulastickZ on a jighead shaking it under the boat.  All of these fish were in the 60’ zone.  The water temp up there was still 61 degrees.  Most fish were in the 14-15”  category and the biggest fish of 16” ate the Damiki rig. Only one fish was a non keeper at this stop.

Saw one other KA up there but he said he had zero luck. Seems that the fish are starting to scatter.  Just gotta keep looking.

End of the Year and New Year's Fish

Holiday season on Lake Keowee

The Christmas/New Year ended the year and started the new year right.

Hunter came in and we whacked them again on drop shots in Crow Creek.

Also caught 6 on a Duo Realis Spybait as the fish were chasing shad on top.

Doubled Up!

Then Nancy and I went out New Years day and caught our good luck spots.  We doubled up also with a spoon and a drop shot.  They were in 60 feet of water near the High Falls ramp.  The water temp was 60 degrees.



Looking forward to 2020 and discover some more bass secrets of Lake Keowe

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!