News Release
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 | Largemouth Bass: Fair, casting Carolina-rigged worms and Hopkins, Berry or flexing spoons. |
| Trout: Good, trolling from 60 feet to surface with Doctor, Sutton, Bad Creek, Lucky Jak’s spoons or drift fishing 30 to 40 feet deep with large minnows. |
| Smallmouth Bass: Fair, casting brown hair jigs or drifting live bait on rocky points and rocky banks. |
| Crappie: Slow. Try using small minnows. |
| Catfish: Fair, using night crawlers or cut bait on bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try earthworms around banks and brush. |
Lake Keowee:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair, doodling plastic worms, also try jigging spoons in deeper water. |
| Crappie: Fair. Try small minnows and jigs in 10 to 15 feet of water around brush piles and bridge pilings. |
| Catfish: Fair, using nightcrawlers and cut bait on bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try red-worms around brush piles and around stumps. |
Lake Hartwell:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair, using buzzbaits and planer boards to get bait close to shore. Also try using spinnerbaits 20-30 deep. |
| Striped and Hybrid Bass: Fair, with live herring on down line, drifting and anchored. |
| Crappie: Fair, using medium minnows in about 10 feet of water. |
| Catfish: Good, using shrimp and chicken livers, cut herring, large shiners, and nightcrawlers on the bottom. |
| Bream: Good, using red worms around brush piles. |
Piedmont Area
Lake Russell:
| Largemouth Bass: Slow. Try worms, lizards and deep crank baits. Yellow Perch: Fair. Try fishing minnows deep. |
| Striped and Hybrid Bass: Fair. Try jigging bucktails. |
| White Bass: Poor. Try bucktails, spinners and live bait below dam. |
| Crappie: Fair. Try using minnows and jigs around brush piles and bridges. |
| Catfish: Fair, using cut bait on the bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try fishing deep with crickets or live worms. |
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. |
| 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, using large spinnerbaits and lures casting around deep points and drop-offs. |
| White Bass: Good, using small spinners and jigs. |
| Crappie: Good, jigs and minnows 15 to 20 feet over brush. |
| Catfish: Good, using nightcrawlers on the bottom. |
| Shellcrackers: Try using redworms and crickets on the bottom. |
| Bream: Slow. Try red-worms and nightcrawlers from the bank. |
Midlands Area
Lake Greenwood:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair. Try using crankbaits off main points or jigging around brush piles and deep holes and using crankbaits in mixed schools from mid-lake on down. |
| Stripers: Fair, using live bait, herring or shad 20 to 25 feet deep. |
| White Perch: Fair. Try fishing deep with minnows, spoons and earthworms. |
| Crappie: Good, using small minnows in 12 feet of water over brush. |
| Catfish: Fair, using cut bait and worms on the bottom. |
| Bream: Poor. Try using crickets and red worms. |
Lake Wateree:
| Largemouth Bass: Fair. Try using artificial worms and crankbaits. |
| Striped bass: Good. Try fishing with down-rods 14 feet deep with small shiners in 25-35 feet of water. |
| White Bass: Slow. Try trolling shad-like baits or same as striper fishing. |
| Crappie: Fair. Try using small minnows. |
| Catfish: Good, live shad, minnows or worms in the creeks. |
| Bream: Slow. Try crickets and worms deep. |
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 crank baits around rocks and structure, 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, Ice Flies and striper delights. |
| 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 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: Fair, 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: Slow. Try topwater lures. |
| Striped Bass: Slow. Try casting bucktails to schooling fish or fishing live small blueback herring, shad or shiners. |
| White Perch: Slow. Try jigging off the bottom with Hopkins spoons. |
| Crappie: Fair, Try using small and medium minnows over deep brush piles, bridge pilings and piers. |
| Catfish: Good, using cut shad off the bottom in deep water. |
| Bream and Shellcrackers: Bream: Slow. Try using worms near the bottom. |
Lake Moultrie:
| Largemouth Bass: Good. Try using or Carolina-rigged worms, spinnerbaits or Sammie lures. Also try using plastic worms and crankbaits. |
| Striped Bass: Good, trolling with artificial worms. |
| Crappie: Fair. Try using small to medium minnows and Beetlespins around fish attraction areas and brush piles. |
| Catfish: Good, using cut bait 20-35 deep. |
| Bream: Fair. Try using crickets, redworms, and small minnows, around manmade fish attractors. |
| Shellcrackers: Slow, try redworms 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
