News Release
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 | Largemouth Bass: Fair, casting Carolina-rigged worms, and jerk baits with slow retrieve. Some catches with deep jigging. |
| Trout: Good, trolling from near surface to 40 feet with Badcreek spoons, Sutton, Doctor and Apex spoons. Also try drifting large minnows from surface to 40 feet of water. |
| Smallmouth Bass: Fair. Casting Yozuri plugs deep around rocky points. |
| Crappie: Slow. Try small minnows and jigs around brush piles. |
| Catfish: Poor. Try nightcrawlers or cut bait on bottom. |
| Bream: Poor. Try redworms deep around banks and brush. Bream fishing expected to pick up with warmer spring weather. |
Lake Keowee:
| Largemouth Bass: Good, fishing with medium to jumbo minnows on bottom and free lining 50 to 60 feet deep. Also doodling with drop-shot rigs in 30 to 70 feet of water. |
| Crappie: Fair, using small minnows and jigs in 20-25 feet of water around brush piles and bridge pilings. |
| Catfish: Good, using minnows, nightcrawlers and cut bait on the bottom. Catfish being caught in baskets. |
| Bream: Slow. Try using redworms and crickets around brush piles, stumps and bridge pilings. |
Lake Hartwell:
| Largemouth Bass: Good. Try casting spinner baits and crankbaits off points and jigs around structure. Good catches with live large minnows. |
| Striped and Hybrid Bass: Good, trolling umbrella rigs at 30 to 35 feet, also free-lining live herring and large minnows and jigging in about 38 feet of water. |
| Crappie: Good. Try umbrella crappie rigs, also using small minnows and small crappie jigs over brush and structure. |
| Catfish: Good, using cut herring, large shiners, nightcrawlers, shrimp and chicken livers on the bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try using redworms and crickets under boat docks and bridges. |
Piedmont Area
Lake Russell:
| Largemouth Bass: Good, jigging spoons and deep-running crankbaits in river and creek channels. |
| Yellow Perch: Good, fishing deep with medium minnows and jigging spoons. |
| Striped and Hybrid Bass: Good, using with bucktails, cut and live herring and jigs below the dam when water is running. |
| White Bass: Very Good, using bucktails, spinners and live bait below the dam when water is running. |
| Crappie: Excellent, using minnows and jigs around brush piles and bridge pilings. Catches better in cold weather. |
| Catfish: Fair, using cut bait and nightcrawlers on the bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try using crickets and earthworms around bridge pilings. |
Lake Thurmond:
| Largemouth Bass: Good. Try casting plastic worms, deep-running Rebels, ShadRaps, Yozuri plugs and Challenger plugs. |
| Striped and Hybrid Bass: Good, using Little Cleos, Berry Spoons, glass-shad plastic lures, 3/4 ounce yellow and white RoadRunners with bucktails, KastMasters and Hopkin’s spoons. Also, try large minnows. |
| Crappie: Good, using small minnows and jigs around deep brush tops. Larger fish being caught. |
| Catfish: Good, using cut bait and nightcrawlers fishing on the bottom. |
| Bream and Shellcrackers: Slow. Try using earthworms deep around brush-tops. |
Lake Wylie:
| Largemouth Bass: Good, casting bass jigs and medium-running crankbaits along points close to the bottom. |
| Striped Bass: Good, using spoons and bucktails behind Lake Wylie dam. |
| White Bass: Good, below the dam casting smaller bucktails and spoons. |
| Crappie: Excellent, using small minnows and jigs around docks, piers and brush tops in 20 to 30 feet of water. |
| Catfish: Good, fishing on the bottom with a variety of baits. |
| Shellcrackers: Slow. Try using redworms and crickets on the bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try using earthworms and crickets around the banks. |
Midlands Area
Lake Greenwood:
| Largemouth Bass: Good, casting pig-n-jigs and crankbaits to structure in shallow water, fished slowly. |
| Stripers: Good, behind the dam using Bombers, Charlie plugs, and Flukes. Also good catches in lower lake with bucktails and berry spoons. Good catches around bird activity over the water. |
| White Bass and White Perch: Good, Try casting and jigging Berry Spoons. Fish are schooling well. |
| Crappie: Good, using small to medium minnows and mini jigs over brush in the lake. Good catches below the dam using minnows. |
| Catfish: Slow. Try using redworms in 6 to 8 feet of water. |
| Bream: Slow. Try using redworms along shoreline and docks. |
Lake Wateree:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair, casting pig-n-jigs around piers, fished slowly. |
| Striped Bass: Good, using live shad in 10 to 15 feet around river channel. Schooling activity is slow. |
| White Bass: Slow. Trolling with shad like lure and jigging spoons. |
| White Perch: Good, casting and jigging Twister-tail crappie, grubs and live minnows. |
| Crappie: Good, fishing minnows 15 to 18 feet deep or using Wow grubs or Slider grubs trolled slowly and deep around mouths of creeks and in the river channel. Fish appear to be suspended in the water column around 15 - 18 feet deep. |
| Catfish: Good, using earthworms, nightcrawlers, shrimp, small pieces of cut bait and live shad near bottom in river channel. |
| Bream: Slow. Try worms fished around piers with brush. |
Lake Murray:
| Largemouth Bass: On the edge of flooded grass and broom straw, try Texas and Carolina rig finesse baits with a shaky jig head. Bass are hitting spinner baits in the shallows and pig and jig around brush at 8 to 12 feet. |
| Striped Bass: Good catches in backs of creeks, free lining herring and using plainer boards. In schools, cast double rigged buck tails and Ice Flies. |
| Crappie: Good, using jigs and small tuffies trolling the creek runs, at 4 to 15 feet, and in the upper part of the lake around the confluence of the little and big Saluda rivers and up to Camp Barstow. Try medium minnows around brush piles, docks and around bridge pilings, at 6 to 25 feet. |
| White Perch: Good, jigging Flex-it spoons down 30 to 60 feet and and using small tuffies and red worms. |
| Catfish: Fair, using cut herring and nightcrawlers on bottom. |
| Bream: Fair. Fish with redworms, small nightcrawlers and crickets in 3 to 12 feet of water. |
| Shellcrackers: Good, using redworms and small nightcrawlers in 4 to 15 feet around a flooded grass edge, rocks, stumps and other structure. |
Santee Cooper System
Lake Marion:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair, using artificial worms, Carolina rigs and bucktails fishing along the banks and points. |
| Striped Bass: Slow, using live shiners with down rods in 25 feet of water. |
| White Perch: Slow. Try jigging off the bottom with Hopkins spoons. |
| Crappie: Good. Try using small and medium minnows over deep brush piles, bridge pilings and piers. |
| Catfish: Excellent, using cut shad and herring off the bottom in deep water. |
| Bream and Shellcrackers: Fair. Try using redworms and crickets in 4 to 8 feet of water. |
Lake Moultrie:
| Largemouth Bass: Poor. Try casting spinnerbaits, plastic worms and lizards along docks and structure. |
| Striped Bass: Fair, trolling with Stretch-25s. Good catches fishing with live menhaden 40 ft. deep around the power plant and the Pinopolis Dam. Stripers are schooling. |
| Crappie: Fair to Good, using small to medium minnows and Beetlespins around fish attraction areas and brush piles. |
| Catfish: Good, using cut herring, menhaden (which are schooling), 25 to 50 feet deep near the bottom along dike edges. |
| Bream: Good, using crickets around fish attraction areas and crappie beds. |
| Shellcrackers: Slow. Try redworms and green worms along the banks along river runs and points. |
REPORTERS: The S.C. Department of Natural Resources appreciates the
cooperation of fishing trend reporters for South Carolina's major lakes:
Jocassee - Jocassee Outdoor
Center; Keowee - Fishing Hole; Hartwell - Lake Hartwell Fishing and
Marine; Russell - Tony's Bait and
Tackle; Thurmond - Bladon's; Wylie - Catawba Tackle; Greenwood -
Sportsman's Friend; Wateree -
Wateree Marina; Murray -
Dooley's Sport Shop, Lake World; Marion -
Randolph's Landing; and
Moultrie - Atkins Boat Landing.
For South Carolina freshwater fish regulations:
http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/regs/pdf/freshfishing.pdf
