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!

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!!