Keowee 1/11/23

[wrat]

They are getting better

[FryDog62]

Nice, how deep and water temp?

[wrat]

15ft and and high 50's

[TnRiver46]

Long spot!!!

[GANGGREEN]

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.

 

 

[wrat]

On 1/17/2023 at 8:30 AM, GANGGREEN said:

I  There are lakes nearby where you can catch more, lakes where you can catch bigger ones, etc.,

 

 

Like for instance?? which lakes are you speaking of?

[GANGGREEN]

1 hour ago, wrat said:

Like for instance?? which lakes are you speaking of?

 

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.

 

[wrat]

I guess near by is a relative term because the other lakes you speak of are several hours away, btw I was not asking for SPECIFIC areas so no need to "burn" spots 

[GANGGREEN]

On 1/20/2023 at 12:53 PM, wrat said:

I guess near by is a relative term because the other lakes you speak of are several hours away, btw I was not asking for SPECIFIC areas so no need to "burn" spots 

 

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).  

 

[wrat]

no thats true Hartwell is a little farther than Keowee so really not far at all , Jocasee is close to an hour and  I drove up there Im not sure I want to trailer my boat there , from what Im seeing reading NEITHER of those are really much "easier" as a matter of fact Jocasee is considered much tougher then Keowee 

[GANGGREEN]

1 hour ago, wrat said:

no thats true Hartwell is a little farther than Keowee so really not far at all , Jocasee is close to an hour and  I drove up there Im not sure I want to trailer my boat there , from what Im seeing reading NEITHER of those are really much "easier" as a matter of fact Jocasee is considered much tougher then Keowee 

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.

 

[wrat]

well there is a BFL on Keowee tomorrow its expected to take 16-20 FTW so we shall see, im gonna go out the other side of the lake and see what I can find

[GANGGREEN]

13 hours ago, wrat said:

well there is a BFL on Keowee tomorrow its expected to take 16-20 FTW so we shall see, im gonna go out the other side of the lake and see what I can find

 

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.

 

[wrat]

Getting ready to head out and see what I can find, Im in a Red Triton with a merc 250

[GANGGREEN]

25 minutes ago, wrat said:

Getting ready to head out and see what I can find, Im in a Red Triton with a merc 250

 

I'm not leaving until noon'ish.  I'm actually pretty easy to find on the lake.  I'm typically near the mid-lake, though I'll occasionally move around or even launch down south, but I'm in an 18' grey Smokercraft with 115 Yamaha.   Not a ton of multi-species rigs on the lake, so I stick out some.   Good luck.

[wrat]

18lb took first in the BFL , and I had a crap day 2 fish and not until the very end of the day no other bites 

[GANGGREEN]

Interesting.  I saw a lot of guys, but didn't see anyone land any fish, though I'm sure they probably did fine.  We caught a couple of bass and one Crappie in just a couple of hours, but I was having trouble with my sonar, so didn't really fish much at all.  We did make a handful of casts in one spot where we each caught a nice Spot, I lost one and we marked a bunch in a 5 minute period, so had it not been for my electronics woes, we may have been able to hang around in that area and catch a bunch.

[wrat]

did I mention I have NO sonar right now, Heading out to Keowee in a bit 

[GANGGREEN]

Ha!   My sonar isn't behaving right either and I just walked through the troubleshooting with a Lowrance tech.  He discovered that the transducer is shot and I ordered a new one, so if I go, I'll be without sonar on the console as well (mine works some, but not well at all and I certainly couldn't find deep channels, deep fish, etc. etc.).   I thought about going for Crappie this afternoon myself, but decided I'd forego that and get some other stuff done.

 

Good luck.  You can always fish the bank on this lake with some success even without sonar.

 

My transducer is on the way and I'm hopeful I'll have it hooked up and working very quickly on Monday or Tuesday and I plan to spend some time fishing for Crappie this week if the weather permits.   

 

 

[TnRiver46]

22 hours ago, wrat said:

did I mention I have NO sonar right now, Heading out to Keowee in a bit 

Sometimes no sonar can help 

[wrat]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sometimes no sonar can help 

Well I did not use it much on Okeechobee thats for sure certainly NOT to find fish ,sometimes to try and determine bottom composition but different techniques for different laks

[TnRiver46]

8 hours ago, wrat said:

Well I did not use it much on Okeechobee thats for sure certainly NOT to find fish ,sometimes to try and determine bottom composition but different techniques for different laks

I went stealth mode no sonar today and got a decent smallmouth 

[GANGGREEN]

I still haven't bass fished much on Keowee yet this year, but the fishing for big Crappie remains good and I did get a couple of decent bass today (one Spot and one Largemouth). 

 

[GANGGREEN]

Hey wrat, not sure if you've been out, but the pre-spawn fishing has really picked up.  I'm still mostly fishing for Crappie, but went out with a friend last week for 3 or 4 hours and we caught the Spots really well.  We didn't catch any slobs, but a fair number in the 17-18" range.  Then I went kayaking with my wife last evening and fished only for 30-40 minutes and still caught a few.  Most on/near the docks in what I'd call deeper water, but I see fishing reports from guys who are fishing shallow too.   Good time to be on the lake if you're able.   

 

I'm going with another friend tomorrow morning, but again, will likely fish for Crappie until or unless they tell me that they aren't interested, at which point we'll do some bass fishing.

[FryDog62]

On 1/20/2023 at 5:41 AM, GANGGREEN said:

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.   

Just curious if I get to that area with my kayak... are there some good rivers near Greenville, SC with good fishing?