Published Bi-Weekly: Week of February 11, 2016 Fishing Updates / Comments Lake Fishing Update (from Ken Sturdivant) - CLARK HILL IS DOWN 1.5 FEET, HIGH 40 S Bass fishing if fair. A good bait is the jig head and worm. Jig heads and finesse worms just get more bites when it is slow. If fishing is slow shorten the finesse worms a bit. Definitely try shortening Trick worms down to 6 inches. And, if the bite is slow go to plenty of dead sticking with a twitch here and there. In the stained water, Jigs and a Carolina rigged lizard should also be used. Crank baits have been slow but try them later in the day on the rocky environments. Slow presentations may be important to success with jigs, Carolina rigs and cranks. A 3/8 ounce jig or lighter should be used for its slower fall. Go with black and blue in the stain. Green in the clear water. Long points, deep banks, and sand bars dropping into deep water should be fished this time of year. Wood cover in 15 feet or deeper can also be productive. Bob Vose and his friend Clarke The Water in Little River is heavily stained. Crappie are starting to stage in Buffalo and Baker Creeks. Look for stacked up bait fish hanging in 17 to 20 feet of water. I was trolling with bare blue, green and purple crappie jigs rigged with a 1" to 1.5" minnows, 7 to 10 ft down. Troll at no faster than 0.5ph and loosen the drag. Crappie are hanging in 20 ft of water under wherever the bait fish are concentrated. Some great slabs were hauled in but expect a Striper or Hybrid bite at any time (loose drag). Was nailing as many stripers in the 4lb to 7 lb range as slab crappie on light line (what a hoot!!!). Water temps were in the low 50's and air temps were in the high 60's. This weeks cold front could and probably will change everything. Good luck and until next time...good Fishing!!!! Clarke Stearns Bad Fishing Joke An Irish priest loved to fly fish, it was an obsession of his. So far this year the weather had been so bad that he hadn t had a chance to get his beloved wadders on and his favourite flies out of their box Strangly though, every Sunday the weather had been good, but of course Sunday is the day he has to go to work. The weather forcast was good again for the coming Sunday so he called a fellow priest claiming to have lost his voice and be in bed with the flu. He asked him to take over his sermon. The fly fishing priest drove fifty miles to a river near the coast so that no one would recognise him. An angel up in Heaven was keeping watch and saw what the priest was doing. He told God who agreed that he would do something about it. With the first cast of his line a huge fish mouth gulped down the fly. For over an hour the priest ran up and down the river bank fighting the fish. At the end when he finally landed the monster size fish it turned out to be a world record Salmon. Confused the angel asked God, Why did you let him catch that huge fish? I thought you were going to teach him a lesson. God replied I did. Who do you think he s going to tell? SPECIAL FISH BATTER (IT S GREAT) I know most of you know Ken and Nancy McGhie and some of you may have attended one of Ken s Nancy has agreed to share her recipe for her batter, see what you think. fish fries. Well, This recipe is for enough batter to feed 6 people, you may need to adjust it for your needs. You will need: 2/3 cup of flour, ½ tea spoon salt, ½ tea spoon baking soda, 1 table spoon vinegar, ½ cup water. Process: in one bowl mix the flour and salt. In a measuring cup mix the baking soda, vinegar then add the water. Mix liquid with the flour and salt. Mix well and let stand for 15 minutes. Mixture will thicken as it sets, IF the batter seems too thick ad a small amount of water to bring to desired thickness (be careful not to thin too much). Make sure the fish are dry (use paper towel). Coat your fish, fry and enjoy!
I know most of you know of William Sasser. I found this article on the internet and thought you might enjoy reading it. It s interesting that he has shared information / locations on the lake that is rarely done by professional / charter fishermen. At almost 71,000 acres, Clarks Hill Reservoir, the largest manmade body of water east of the Mississippi River, is still surprisingly undeveloped compared to many of the other impoundments across South Carolina. Clarks Hill, or Lake Thurmond if you prefer, was built between 1946 and 1954, just a few years before Lake Hartwell and some 30 years before Lake Russell, the other two impoundments upstream on the Savannah River system. As a fishery, Clarks Hill has a reputation as a better-than-average destination for a number of species. Professional bass tours frequently make stops there, and a growing number of crappie and catfish tournament circuits are also becoming regular visitors. One of the more sought-after species, at least as far as recreational anglers are concerned, are striped bass. Stripers and their test-tube cousins, hybrid striped bass, were first introduced into Clarks Hill during the late 1960s. The fishery was to their liking, and the lake produced a state-record striper in 1993 that wasn t topped for eight years. William Sasser, who grew up around the lake, has been a fishing guide there for most of his adult life. He s even further invested into the life of the lake by purchasing and revitalizing two nearby bait and tackle shops. Sasser opened his playbook and offered a look at some of his go-to locations to catch a number of different species in October. 1 Camel Humps 33 41 545 N/82 12 948 W Small shoal islands at the mouth of Howell Branch resemble a camel s branch on a depthfinder screen. Although water as deep as 70 feet can be found around them, Sasser suggests searching for striped bass and hybrids at 50 feet or less. "During October, stripers and hybrids will be caught here on down-lines 30 to 40 foot deep using live herring," he said. "It s real close to the river channel here. There s a bunch of pockets and coves along the either side of the long point that sticks out into the lake. Blueback herring get trapped in those pockets, and you can catch a bunch of stripers during the early morning, right after daylight up until about 9 o clock." Sasser will motor through the area looking for concentrations of baitfish on his graph. A lot of times, he won t see fish here until he starts fishing. However, the presence of baitfish is almost a guarantee of fish nearby. "Put six poles in the water and just drift out of the cove," he said. "They will find you."
2 Bass Alley 33 42 946 N/82 14 953 W Although most anglers make little if any distinction in the way they fish for striped bass and hybrid striped bass, Sasser said this is a great place to catch hybrids. Water depths range anywhere from 30 to 70 feet. Most of the fish will be found holding around 30 to 40 feet deep. "Right here, on the coordinates, we re on an underwater point," said Sasser. "You want to fish either side of the point; I always fish the downwind side of anything I m fishing. The fish seem to hide on the downwind side of structure to get bait fish coming across the top of it." Sasser said fishing long points and humps is a typical fall pattern, using the wind to push bait into coves and pockets and then picking off the fish on down-lines. He also offered that a lot of surface schooling occurs in the general vicinity. "You ll find more schooling activity either further in the cove or further out of the cove," he said. "In October, I d say probably more out of the cove toward the main lake from this point." 3 Crappie Tree 33 43 259 N/82 15 263 W Clarks Hill has been renowned for its striped bass and hybrid fishing since way back in the 1970s. However, its abundant crappie make the sprawling lake a multi-faceted fishery, and Sasser spends many hours creating brushpiles to provide areas for crappie to congregate. This is one of those areas. "This is a single, but very large, hardwood tree that I put out," said Sasser. "It attracts a lot of crappie during the fall. Fish about 20 foot deep with small minnows or jigs, just make sure you match the water color with the jig color. In the fall, that s more of a brownish or yellow or orange." Even when fishing for crappie, Sasser takes a striper fishing approach to put fish in the boat. He prefers to anchor his boat directly upwind of the spot, then let the boat drift back until he s directly over the structure. Then he deploys light tackle rods straight down in a mini-version of his down rod fishing. "The fall is probably the best time of the year to catch crappie at Clarks Hill," Sasser said. "You ll catch nothing or you ll catch everything if you hit the right tree. The crappie generally will be bigger than in the spring time. Everything is a pound, pound-and-a-half, even 2 pounds. It s bigger fish and in larger numbers, if you re in the right place." 4 Gordon Shoals 33 42 154 N/82 18 853 W If casting topwater baits to schooling largemouth bass is more your style of fall fishing at Clarks Hill, then you may want to skip this spot, which is in the middle of Georgia Little River, straight out from Fort Gordon and offers shallow water surrounded by deep water. "It s a series of shoals, five underwater islands, right here," Sasser said. "In the normal fall pattern, the fish will be near the surface. You ll see largemouth breaking on top of the water. Evenings are really good here."
Sasser s preferred baits are either a Lucky Craft Gunfish or a Sammy. He said lighter colors work better, and fish have shown that they often prefer one bait over another on certain days, so it pays to change baits if you re not getting enough action. Other times of the day, Sasser has also had success using jigs in this location. "The shoals right now are around 5 foot deep on the top of the hump," Sasser said. "You ll find a lot of hydrilla in the shallow water, so working a mop head jig across the top can also work real well," he said. 5 Mistletoe Area 33 40 971 N/82 22 749 W Moving up Little River, Sasser stops at another good bass-fishing site on the other side of the bridge. This location is straight across from Mistletoe State Park, just past Graves Creek, right before you come to White Bass Island. It combines shallow water near deep water providing largemouth, a good location to ambush passing baitfish. "This is basically a really big flat area with some little valleys crossing it," Sasser said. "During the fall, largemouth bass will be on this location chasing threadfin shad and herring. If there s a little chop on the water early in the morning, the topwater fishing in this location can be phenomenal. Then later on in the day, you can come back and fish a mop head jig across the top of it and finish out your limit." 6 Donna s Crappie Spot 33 40 845 N/82 22 698 W Sasser and his wife, Donna, sunk a huge tree six years ago that produces a lot of large crappie every fall. "The water depth, with the current lake level 10 feet below normal pool, puts the tree sitting in 33 feet of water right now. It would normally be in 43 feet of water," Sasser said. "The tree comes to within 10 feet of the surface. You ll have to fish off and down the side of it right now. When the lake is normal level, I do better fishing near the top of the tree." Down-rodding for crappie isn t the only game in town at this or any of Sasser s other planted fish havens. He said he can catch an abundance of species depending on how he fishes them and what he fishes with. "You definitely will find hybrids and stripers hanging around a single tree out by itself," he said. "You ll also find largemouth, catfish both channel catfish and flathead catfish, as well as bluegill and crappie." 7 Buoy L-15 33 41 377 N/82 17 847 W Downstream, toward the mouth of Georgia Little River, this is another place where Sasser targets stripers and hybrids. He said the fish really key in on migrating schools of bait along long points upstream from, downstream from and on the point where L-15, a green buoy marking the Little River channel, is located. Sasser expects to find fish up and down the water column, but he said fish are easier to locate when they are orienting to the bottom.
"This spot has three long points running parallel to each other," he said. "I try to find fish on the bottom using my graph. Fish on the bottom are a whole lot easier to get to feed than suspended fish, so I look first on the bottom. Once they re marked, I just stay off the downwind side of each point and fish straight down. Once they start feeding, the smaller fish, especially hybrids, will come up, but the larger ones will hang back near the bottom." Sasser said he regularly catches hybrids from four to eight pounds on this spot, along with stripers between seven and 12 pounds. 8 No-Name Creek 33 42 542 N/82 16 865 W Before heading out of Little River, Sasser steers northeast and motors to the back of a "no-name" creek for one more shot at fall crappie fishing. This spot is one he made using one large hardwood tree, sinking it in water more than 20 feet deep. "Yeah, this is another tree we put down," said Sasser. "It s a great fall fishing spot. It s got a lot of good sized crappie on it. Fish small minnows about 20 foot down. With the water levels we ve had this fall. I d fish near the bottom to catch larger crappie. The smaller ones will be up in the tree a little bit. In days gone by, Clarks Hill boasted a strong population of both white and black crappie. Sasser said these days, catching a white crappie is a pretty rare event; he catches one white crappie to every 50 black crappie. "When I was a kid, there was way more white crappie, but a white crappie on Clarks Hill is pretty rare now," he said. "Usually, if you catch one though, it s pretty good size." 9 Monkey Island 33 41 155 N/82 14 057 W According to Sasser, this island got its name when a circus leaving Augusta, Ga., back in the 1950s camped out in the area, and some monkeys got out of their cages and sound up being caught on a series of islands. The name stuck. Sasser doesn t "monkey around" while striper fishing here. The area is the junction of Keg Creek, Georgia Little River and the Savannah River, a series of underwater points where striped bass chase bait in the fall. "Like the other spots, you re going to be looking for baitfish," said Sasser. "In this part of the lake, they might be a little deeper, even during October. If we ve had a hot summer, the baitfish still could be 70 to 80 feet deep, so if you see bait 70 to 80 feet deep, that s where the stripers are going to be." William Sasser of Sasser s Guide Service can be contacted at 706-589-5468, or at one of his bait shops, the Herring Hut in Clarks Hill (864-333-2000) or the Palmetto Angler in McCormick (864-852-3373). The End