fishing lake hartwell

[GSU_LipRipper]

I am going up to lake hartwell on july 18th for a week i was interested to know if anyone had any techniques or baits that have worked real well up there for them!? I know the big bait fish are blue herring! thanks

[skey44]

Fish main lake points (don't be afraid to try deeper water in the 20' range) with timber or brush piles near the river channel with jigs, c-rigs, shakey heads, deep cranks, etc. Top water and flukes morning, evening, and cloudy. You got your bait fish right... follow the herring. I have the most luck with "natural" colors (either silver, chrome, white, or blue for hard baits; wm seed, grn pumpkin or wm/red for plastics)

[GSU_LipRipper]

as far as jigs go what colors would your recommend?

Top water im thinking of throwing a zara spook (baby bass) and a lucky craft sammy (chartreuse shad).

would you recommend natural green colors for crankbaits or try and match the blue herring? 

[skey44]

Been out a lot this week. Found the bite a little hard to come by for me, heard stories at the local stores of people catching limits easily.

No bites dragging the old C-rig, or running crankbaits into brushpiles on points.

Good hits, lots of followers, top water over 20-30 feet of water on a super spook ( trasparent blue, no hook ups just loud splashes!).

Tons of chasers, but few strikers and no hook ups fishing schooling fish chasing baitfish off points (over 8-30' of water). Tried wacky rig, fluke, and hard swimbait (magic swimmer) in a herring look with a touch of green (customer at outdoor shop said he and his son caught a dozen keepers the night before on this exact bait).

Had a legitimate 5+ pounder (20" range) to the boat Monday, missed the lip, shook the hook,  on a green pumpkin 3/4 oz football jig, with a net bait watermelon colored crawfish plastic trailer. I was fishing a steep point with brushpiles and rip rap around 20', The only problem is losing jigs, and that has been my only brush pile bite in three trips (and of course after a five pounder lost at the boat been fishing lots of brushpiles in 20' of water).

The surface temp is 85+degrees, the water is pretty clear, and the weather has been nice.

I'll be fishing some more this week. I'll be sure to update you on any progress, or changes to my gameplan.

Current game plan... fish the heck out of brush or standing timber (if I can find any I mostly find brush) in 15-25' of water on steep points for bigger fish (though the schools can be found here more towards the surface). Keep playing with rising strikers out of schooling fish

[skey44]

Caught three decent fish today all on trick worms, one weightless (fished like a senko) and two on shakey head jigs. Color of the day? Watermelon/red.

Fish ranged from 13-19"

[SCangler91]

Where were you fishing with the trick worms?  Had to be pretty shallow.

[skey44]

a portion of lake Hartwell that can't be fished in a boat, I fish around a couple of trees and pipes from the bank.