GANGGREEN

Good luck, I think I'll be out there too. Hopefully the launch I use will be easy enough to find a spot this afternoon. As for 16-20 pounds today, yeah, someone will find a pig and lots of 2 pound Spots will be caught. There was a tournament here last year around this time and a guy got a 10 pound largemouth. I don't think I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but I was fishing on Keowee about a week or so ago, caught a 10.25" Crappie and had a giant Largemouth inhale it. He wasn't hooked, but he had the Crappie entirely in his mouth/throat and I almost slid him into my net. It would have been my personal best by a LONG shot and was well, WELL over 10 pounds (maybe 12, 13 or 14, I'm just not sure). Not many Largemouth in the lake (relative to Spots), but there are some big ones. I'm going with a friend and while I hope/expect to catch some bass today, we'll be concentrating on finding a few reliable spots for Crappie, so I don't have any preconceived notions about how it will go. Nights have been cold here and the water temps (away from the hot hole) have been cool, so a few degrees of warming today might make a world of difference.

You see those and have to realize that the odds of catching one of those super giants is about the same as winning multi-millions in the lottery. Those are just genetic abnormalities and they have to be one in 10 million or maybe one in 50 million. Still, I'd love to catch one of those abnormalities.

I always tend to be on the conservative side of harvest regulations. I'd rather be too restrictive than to end up learning a lesson years later when your fish populations are hurting or gone. That said, I think they can take a whole lot of harvest. I've spent the first 55 years of my life in northern PA and ice fishing central NY, so I know all about the guys who really target them and harvest up to and including the legal limit at every opportunity. The last two years, I've spent my winters in the southeast and you truly wouldn't believe how large the harvest of Crappie is on these lakes. Up north there's at least some catch and release ethic on panfish, bass, etc., but down here there's very little of that. Almost everyone who's targeting Crappie is doing so to kill and eat them. And they do it quite effectively all winter and all spring long (and maybe to a slightly lesser degree all summer and all fall). I don't really know what the harvest is on these lakes, but it has to be many, many dozens of tons each year and the Crappie populations on most of the lakes seems pretty strong. Crappie populations on my home lake down here are much smaller, but that's probably more a reflection of the invasive Spotted bass than it is of angler harvest. Who knows, as I said, I'm much more conservative in nature and would think that most people should be satisfied with a daily limit of 6 or 8 per day, and certainly ought to be OK with 10 or 15 per day. I guess the question becomes, what percentage of the harvest would be eliminated by going from 20 to 10 per day or from 50 per day to 20 per day?

The lake that I live on in the winter/spring is like that (where this big fish was caught). The local fishermen, even the serious ones suggest that Crappie are occasionally caught as incidental to bass and you aren't going to catch them by pursuing them intentionally, but I just don't buy it. There are Crappie in the lake and some big ones and a smart fisherman should be able to figure out their daily and seasonal patterns and catch them more predictably than that. The first year that we were here, I literally caught a few and most of them were accidental, but so far this winter I've had slightly better luck and have caught at least a few each time out when really looking for them. Eventually I hope to get to the point where I really could go out and catch 4 or 5 for dinner almost at will, but we'll see. There are better lakes down here where you can go out and catch numbers of them if you know what you're doing and you really try, but I tend to stick to the "home lake" for whatever reason.

I've fished them both and both are rewarding to fish. I think Hartwell is an easier lake to fish, in fact much easier at times. Jocassee probably isn't, but it's considered a trophy lake, has trout in it and is truly one of the prettiest lakes on the planet, so well worth fishing, at least once. I'm not trying to discourage you from fishing Keowee at all because I like Keowee a lot (landed here as a retirement location for a reason), just pointing out that there are lots of other options, although you're right, some of them involve a drive. My situation when I'm up north is that the nearest lake to my home (at least the nearest lake that's even worth considering) is an hour away and the nearest "good lake" is 1.5-2 hours away, BUT, within 3 hours I have a LOT of really good options and a little bit further than that and there are a few more really, really great options as well. To me, being down here and having 3 good lakes all within 30 minutes or so is just unbelievable. I should also mention that I don't think Keowee is quite as tough as some people claim. I almost never get blanked on the lake and I have enough really, really good days to prevent any real frustration when you do have the tough ones. And, I live and fish here during the wintertime which many people would consider to be the toughest time to catch them. Fortunately I'm also here in the springtime when it can be fairly easy. I'm taking two buddies out on Thursday and given that they don't fish a lot from a boat (almost never, they're almost exclusively fly fishermen), I'd really like them to catch some fish. I also think that they'd like to take some home and given that Spotted bass are invasives here and the DNR encourages you to harvest them, I don't have a problem with that. They want to fish for Crappie and Spots and I'm going to go out this morning and do some scouting and pre-fishing for them, so hopefully it's rewarding today too.

We all like what we like, but I had dinner a few years back and my wife invited a friend of hers. We had walleye and a few white bass fillets and she was thrilled and appreciative of the meal, but when asked, she said that she preferred the white bass to the walleye. Personally I prefer walleye to white bass, but like white bass well too. We invited my brother and his wife to dinner last year and because the DNR here encourages the eating of invasive Spotted bass from the lake we live on, we had Crappie and Spotted bass for dinner. I preferred the Crappie, but my wife, my brother and his wife all either preferred the Spotted bass or said that it was a wash and they couldn't tell the difference. Like I said, we all like what we like.

I think I recall that you live up around Pickens somewhere? Hartwell is definitely not "hours away", nor is Jocassee, though I get your point with Russell, Greenwood, etc. etc.. It's why I fish Keowee the most, simply because I live here, but there are LOTS of good choices within an hour and a half for me (I'm on the western side of Keowee).

Yeah, I've spent the first 50-something years of my life fishing up north all year, so it's either ice fishing at this time of year, no fishing at all or really toughing it out to catch a few fish somewhere that might have open water in a mild winter. We're down south for 5 months or so each year now and it's a whole different ballgame. A lot of the locals don't fish at this time of year a lot because "it's winter", but even a relatively harsh winter down here still amounts to 50 degree temps or better on the lake that I was fishing (water temp was 57 when I caught this one) and they do have a much longer growing season obviously, although they're still far more dormant in the winter than the summertime, even in the south. Believe me though, I dearly love being able to go out in a sweatshirt or light jacket in January and have a much better than average chance to catch something and a decent chance to catch something really good. I wouldn't have traded all of the years that I lived up north because I was blessed with some fabulous fisheries up there too, but I'm happy with my best of both worlds snowbird lifestyle that I've had these last two years.

Oddly, my biggest was probably close to that for years, but I also caught a 14" and a 15.5" crappie earlier this week, so maybe I'm starting to key in on them.

The truth is that I never really expected to catch one quite this big, though I've caught a number that were probably in the 1.5-2 pound range, but now that I've caught this one, my goal is now to catch a 3-pounder. Who knows whether I'll be able to or not. Yeah, I know that many state records are over 4 pounds, but when I netted this fish and brought it in the boat, I was truly flabbergasted at how big it really was.

No. I like Crappie, but truthfully, I release 90% of them and I never keep the big ones. Aside from the fact that they're the more efficient and effective breeders, the big ones simply don't taste as well as a 10" crappie, I don't care what anyone says.

I figured that a personal best probably justified its own thread. I got a 17", 2.8 pound Black crappie this afternoon. d**n fine fish. I've caught a reasonable number of "good ones" of multiple species over the years, but I'm pretty jazzed about this fish.

Hee hee hee....I tend to not burn spots, but you should know that a lot of tournament anglers refer to Keowee as "Lake Keepaway", because it can be tough at times (and silly easy at others). Hartwell is pretty routinely accepted to be an easier lake to fish for bass and various other species. I suspect many/most of the other lakes in the area (Greenwood, Russell, Carters (Georgia)) might also be considered easier lakes to catch fish in, although I don't have experience with them. Jocassee's another lake that's ridiculously clear (far cleaner than Keowee), very deep and very tough to fish at times, but there are some big ones in there. I live near the lake and fish Keowee FAR more frequently than the others even though I suspect I'd catch more fish on average by fishing the others. Keowee's beautiful and I'm anxious to learn her secrets. Although you don't see the really big Spots that you might see on Lanier or a few of the other lakes, Keowee coughs up plenty of 19-20" spots routinely, so it's not as if it's a minnow factory or something. There are big (although less plentiful) Crappie and the occasional slob Largemouth (I had one on the other day that would have curled ANY bass angler's hair on Keowee. I haven't been here much longer than you, but you'll figure it out and decide at some point whether you prefer to spend your time here or on one or several of the other lakes and rivers. Having too many good spots to fish has never been something that's bothered me. In the summertime I have the option of any of the Finger Lakes, Lake Erie, Chautauqua, Oneida, Kinzua or a bunch of other smaller but very productive lakes and I still haven't entirely gotten used to having too many good choices.

I went to a lake that's known for a limited Crappie population, but some real slobs the other day. Only took 3 Crappie, but two of them were big (14" and 15.5"). Really hoping to take a 17-18" Black crappie there one of these days, but who knows if I ever will. Far better places to fish for numbers, but not for the big ones. You have to be willing to fish for hours with only one or two bites though. I don't eat a lot of freshwater fish anymore, but I did bring these ones home to fillet them. Typically I'd hope for a bunch of smaller ones rather than a few large breeders, but on this lake it's sometimes hard to find smaller Crappie and I know that there are plenty of big ones for breeding purposes. I don't think it's a lack of breeders that are hurting the population, I suspect its the influx of other invasive species.

I got out for the first time of the year on Keowee yesterday. I got 4 or 5 Spots, 3 Crappie (including two "good ones") and had a GIANT largemouth take a 10.25" Crappie in his mouth. She was reluctant to drop it and I almost slid her into my net before she coughed it up. I won't say how big I think she was, but it was a giant. For what it's worth, Keowee doesn't fish very good for Crappie and there are far better lakes in the area if you want to catch a mess of them, but they do run big on Keowee. My boat's rigged, the weather's been adequate and I'll start hitting the lake a lot more now for the next couple of months. I've spent most of my winter fly-fishing for trout, so haven't had much opportunity yet. Keowee's allure is its beauty, not the actual fishing. There are lakes nearby where you can catch more, lakes where you can catch bigger ones, etc., but Keowee is a darn nice lake in general.

I appreciate the info here. I tried to purchase a BFS rig a year or two ago and had a hard time finding a rod. Got a nice reel that I think I'll like, but I ordered the Shimano Sensilite and it was on back-order forever and then my order just got cancelled. I kind of forgot about the BFS thing for a while, but I need to find a rod and use it some. I live on a clear-water Spotted bass lake and I think it'd be just the thing for some winter fishing.

Nice. I started fishing Keowee for the first time last winter at this time. There's a learning curve for sure because I've done most of my bass fishing on the Finger Lakes or other northern waters, but they aren't THAT hard to figure out and Spots are cool because they're aggressive and they school. We've been down on the lake now for almost a month, but I haven't put the boat on Keowee yet, just too many other things to do this winter. I like to fly fish too, so that bites into my time on the lakes.

I live seasonally (snowbird) in Oconee County, SC on Lake Keowee (well, not technically on Lake Keowee, but only a block away and with lake access).

Welcome. I'm in Seneca, SC seasonally (snowbird) near/on Lake Keowee, but I have a son who lives in South Charleston and works on Kiawah Island.

Not related to fishing at all, but I used to watch a TV show that was streamed which was called the Samurai Gourmet. My son and I loved it and my wife thought it was the dumbest thing ever. It was just a semi-reality show of a recently retired Japanese guy that wandered around town and would stop at local eateries for lunch or a beer. Funny....

Seems like a lot of folks like the watermelon better than green pumpkin in clear water and that's not been my experience. I have caught hundreds upon hundreds of bass (including lots of 4-5 pounders) in very, very clear water (Finger Lakes, Thousand Islands, etc. etc.) on green pumpkin and it seems that every time I switch to watermelon or any other variation of a darker greenish color that my catch rate drops. Who knows, may be a confidence factor or just a perception rather than reality. I did recently start fishing a new lake(s) a lot and of course the locals here have their own favorite colors that typically don't match the colors that I'm used to from up north, so I tend to concentrate a lot less on color these days than I used to, but almost all of my soft plastics (and even most of my hard baits) are in combinations of a couple of looks, either green pumpin'ish colors, shad colors, etc..

Since I retired, I've been doing a lot more fly fishing than I used to. Admittedly, I've also been doing a lot more traditional fishing as well. I mostly fly fish for trout, but fishing for bluegills on popping bugs is a blast.

MicroMunch, yeah, that's the guy. Didn't realize that he had passed away, that's a shame.

I do admit to being somewhat disturbed by the idea of purchasing Chinese fishing tackle, not because of the quality, but because of the politics. I simply couldn't justify $300-600 for a "budget" starter BFS combo though given that I'm not sure I'll even enjoy the technique. Even if I DO enjoy it immensely, I currently carry as many as 15 rods in my boat and I don't believe any of the combos ran me more than $200 or so and I feel like my present gear is definitely adequate. I even looked at what the minimum cost would be for an inexpensive but quality setup and it looked like a Curado BFS reel on a Dobyn's light action casting rod would run close to $350, but after investigating, I found that the Dobyn's rods are also made in China. I have no problem with the quality of some Chinese goods and I have no problem with the Chinese people, but I surely wish we had American/Japanese/European options as well (especially American).

There used to be a guy on the NY Bass Forums who made little finesse jigs and sold them. I think his name was Earthworm. Does anyone remember him? He used to make a small (maybe 1/16 ounce) ballhead with a spider/hula style skirt on it and they were great. I don't believe I have any more of them and wouldn't mind looking into it for my new BFS rig. I like those Keitech mono spin jigs and I've used their 3/32 ounce heads a LOT for small 2" grubs or swimbait trailers, but I almost wish they offered 1/8 ounce too to accomodate the added bulk of the trailer, which will slow the fall even more.