Deciphering Deep, Clear Lakes

South Carolina's Lake Hartwell will host the 2008 Bassmaster Classic on Feb. 22-24. It's a deep, mostly clear reservoir on the Savannah River that was formed by a dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers near Hartwell, Georgia.

It has 962 miles of shoreline and 56,000 surface acres, with numerous fingers, points, bluffs and clay banks. It receives high fishing pressure since it is just 2 hours from Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., and only an hour from Greenville, S.C. Greenville is the host city for the Classic.

Striped bass fishing is big on Hartwell – so much so that local guides pay high prices for harvested live blueback herring caught from the lake. The herring were introduced years ago and boosted both the striper and the black bass populations. Spotted bass especially benefited, and now it's not uncommon to catch 4- and 5-pounders.

Reigning Classic champion Boyd Duckett used to fish Hartwell on the Jerry Rhyne circuit years ago, and was happy when it was announced as the next Classic venue. He spent 6 days scouting it before the off-limits period and thinks he has it wired.

Here's how he applied a classic approach to figuring out the Classic lake.

Research and Experience

"Hartwell is large, deep and fairly clear, with a lot of long sloping points," Duckett noted. "The banks are clay with some rock, and traditionally the ditches in the backs of creeks are good in February and early March." The ditches are cuts near spawning areas.

The only hitch is that the lake is 13 feet low this year, meaning those good ditches are only a few feet deep now. He doesn't believe the same ditches, or fingers of the lake, will necessarily produce just by fishing out deeper.

"On a clear lake like Hartwell, at that time of year, a lot of guys will misread it," he said. "Especially the guys who fish shallow in 2 to 10 feet of stained water all the time. What you have to remember is that the same things they look for along the banks happens deeper in a lake like that.

"What I mean by that is when you're fishing shallow, you can look at shoreline topography and kind of read how it extends into the water and know where to fish key areas. But in deep, clear lakes you have to move out and read the bottom with your graph, and then get in your mind how that lays out and fish the same kind of key areas.

"For example, you don't catch a lot of fish deeper than 4 or 5 feet on a lake like Neely Henry (in Alabama)," he added. "It has a lot of stain and the fish are comfortable shallow. You can run down a bank with a spinnerbait or crankbait and catch a bunch. When they're not active, you can use a worm and catch some in 8 to 10 feet. You rarely have to fish deeper.

"But at a place like Hartwell, they'll still hit a crankbait when they move up to feed up in 5 to 8 feet, but when they quit they go much deeper. You have to fish in 25 to 30 feet with a heavy worm."

He said many anglers underestimate the depth of the fish on clear lakes in the South.

"They need to sit in 50 to 60 feet (of water) and throw to 20 to 35. That would cover anytime but spring spawning time. Just key on 15 to 30 feet and get that in your mind and fish that way.

"I caught fish in 55 feet in December consistently on main-lake humps (in his Classic pre-practice). There's a strong population of small spots out there and it was a repeatable pattern with a jigging spoon."

Lures and Techniques

Given a fairly deep bite of 15 feet and below, Duckett won't be throwing a spinnerbait much. But he might have a different type of spinner in play.

"The (Sworming Hornet) Fish Head Spin is famous there and will play in any deep clear lake, fished in ditches where they suspend," he said. "It's also a good jig lake. The new Berkley jig with the Gulp! Wicked Wing trailer will be a major factor in the Classic.

"I also expect swimbaits to play, like the Berkley Powerbait Hollow Belly. (Using a swimbait is) not popular locally, and we don't really know what the reaction will be, but based on clear water and suspending fish, that should play. And don't leave out the jigging spoon, like a 1/2-ounce Hopkins."

Forage also should be a consideration in bait selection. "Blueback herring, which are typically 6 to 8 inches long, are in a lot of South Carolina lakes," he noted. "You should try to imitate the dominant forage with your lures. I found five to eight schools of threadfin shad at Hartwell before I found a small school of bluebacks, and that was just a few fish. So I think shad-sized lures might be better.

"Big pencil-poppers will work on lakes with big bait like bluebacks, and they won't work on a lake like Guntersville that doesn't have such big bait," he noted. "Bluebacks stay in the top of the water column. The bass key on large topwater objects."

Tips for the Spawn

It won't be a factor in the Classic, but for those heading to Hartwell later this year, Duckett has some advice for fishing the spawn. "For spawning fish, my rule of thumb is to pick out objects as deep as I can see on a slick day with polarized sunglasses in water with normal clarity for that lake," he said. "Fish from that depth on up. That's about 6 feet on Hartwell, or maybe 15 on Smith Lake (in Alabama). The bass have to have sunlight on the nest to hatch the eggs.

"I do a lot of sight fishing," he added. "At Dale Hollow Lake (in Kentucky) I have sight-fished under the boat for smallmouth bass in 25 feet. I drop a tube right over them. Smallmouth and Florida-strain largemouth bass are easier to catch from the beds, but northern strain largemouths are tougher.

"The key is to determine quickly which are catchable and which aren't. I catch 100% of the fish I fish for now, since I can read them before I cast. Once the boat passes and I circle back, I can decide within a minute or 2 if it's worth taking the time to try to catch it. I may still have to spend over an hour to get it to bite, but I'll get it."

He uses Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line for almost everything except topwaters.

"I fish 30-pound Stren Super Braid for those, especially the smaller ones. They work real well with a no-stretch line."

Notable

> Duckett doubts the water will be warm enough by the Classic to have any fish on beds, but there might be some late afternoon swimmers cruising shallow water. "That's another traditional early-spring bite," he said. "Those early-season bank runners are some of the biggest females."

> He noted that whereas Smith Lake in Alabama, which is also deep and clear, has a lot of sunken logs and brush in many of the coves, Hartwell doesn't. "There isn't a lot of floating stuff that sank there. That's probably due to it being a flow-through reservoir with a dam on each end."