Howdy guys and gals!
With the Classic coming to my home state and my girlfriends home town again, I have some useful tips for anyone who will be in Anderson/Clemson area this coming week.
I recently fished Lake Hartwell last weekend with my girlfriends father for just about the entire day roughly 10 hours. Just thought I would throw in some helpful information and reward those prudent enough to read this post.
First off if you dont have any, get a few cranks in Pro Blue. They were nailing Herring colored baits all day. I started with Chrome/Blue Arashi 1/2 oz Vibe(Rat-l-trap) to locate fish, best luck when ripping it through grass near a good current off a bank. They are sitting around 20 ft deep in the mornings until about 10am. Then slowly rising up to around 2-7ft deep as the day goes on. At that time I started using an Arashi 5 silent on some flats up past Clemsux(GO *****) and got a lot of hits. Though I would recommend slowing it down and kinda popping it in bursts once they hit it as I am sure with how cold it is I was reeling too fast. My best technique is hands down soft jerkbaits. Listen carefully, White Pearl Zoom Super fluke with a RED THIN WIRE 4/0. I saw the buggers chase the sucker to the boat with my weighted flutter hook enough to tick me off and change the hook as initially it was too difficult to let the fluke sink to depth with how fast my gfs old man was trolling. Then past 2pm or so, slow and deep pulls on a bass colored Chug Bug in quiet wooded coves caught some nice bass nothing over 3lbs where I was but if I controlled the boat I am sure that I would have produced bigger farther back in some coves.
Overall SLOW IT DOWN, if you get a hit stay there for a bit and use slow erratic movements. If you get a hit with a calm cove nearby, check out the 5-10ft depth in the cove. STAY IN THE SUN. Small openings in treelines or cooking flats are where they will be early morning as it will heat up better and as a result the baitfish will pass through.
I would test deep problue/Chrome blue/foxy shad(water clarity/sun) hard jerkbaits, a C-rig and various spooning techniques during the practice day(s) as I forgot to do that since I was already getting hits, but I am betting that a deep spoon would probably do better, and the Crig allows you to put a fluke or ribbontail into the strike zone faster and longer.
Anyway, best of luck and I hope this helps the few who might skim across this before the tourney.
Best regards,
Will
