Clarks Hill Offshore Bass In September

The blueback herring have made Clarks Hill more of deep-water, offshore bass lake, and that suits Forward Facing Sonar experts like Evan Beard just fine. The growing population of spotted bass in Clarks Hill has also affected patterns.

Get offshore on points and humps to catch Clarks Hill largemouth and spotted bass right now. They are feeding and holding in 15 to 20 feet of water waiting on cooling water next month to move up and get more active.

Clarks Hill is a big lake, and it can be hard to pattern bass in September. It has changed a lot over the years, becoming a herring-based lake with more bass offshore year-round than in the past. And the growing number of spotted bass in the lake makes largemouth fishing more difficult.

Like most other lakes where spots infest non-native waters, they do not grow very fast at Clarks Hill. Although you can catch a big spot, like the lake record 5.45-pounder caught by Tanner Hadden in April (gon.com/news/hadden-clarks-hill-spotted-bass-record), big spotted bass are not the norm on Clarks Hill. Hammer-handle spots—12-inch fish—are much more common.

Keep some spotted bass to eat, and maybe the largemouth will do a little better on Clarks Hill.

In late summer and early fall, those offshore bass are feeding around brushpiles and canepiles on main-lake humps and long points. You can catch them on a variety of baits from the surface down to 25 feet deep most days, so you have to be flexible.

Evan Beard grew up fishing with his dad and is now a junior on the Greenbriar High School Fishing Team in Evans. Being close to the Wildwood ramp on Keg Creek gives him easy access to fish Clarks Hill often. He fishes team tournaments as well as local tournaments, especially the high school Tuesday night tournaments put on by Hadden Outdoors, winning one the last week of July.

With a part-time job at Hadden Outdoors, Evan also gets to listen to local fishermen and pick their minds on what is happening every day on the lake. And he is at the right age to take advantage of new technology and put it to good use.

“I love Forward Facing Sonar,” Evan says.

It shows him if fish are present in a place he wants to fish. If they are present, he can watch how they react to his baits and adjust to what the bass are doing. He knows when to change baits and also when to keep trying and when to move on from their actions.

If he could have only one bait it would probably be a drop shot, since he can fish it from top to bottom. He depends on a drop shot most of the time. But he will also have a Dimiki rig, a Fluke, a walking topwater bait, a big worm and a jig ready for different situations.

“During September, I always watch for surface activity,” Evan said.

Offshore bass tend to be looking up toward the surface for food and will hem up baitfish on the surface this month, so be prepared for topwater action at all times.

Evan showed me the following 10 locations on a tough day in late August. He caught a couple of good keeper spotted bass, one decent largemouth and several small spots. As the days get shorter and a little cooler, more quality fish will be feeding on these locations in September.

All of these places and similar ones show up in detail on a good GPS map, showing the depths and direction the points run off the bank and shoals.

No. 1: N 33º 40.248 – W 82º 14.719 — Going out of Keg Creek, watch for a danger marker way off the upstream point of the cove of Trade Wind Marina. Stop upstream of the marker in 20 to 25 feet of water and fish toward the marker. A side point runs off it. This is Evan’s method—start fishing out deep and work up to about 10 feet of water.

Evan will often cast his drop-shot worm ahead of him and twitch it constantly ahead of the boat when he first starts fishing. After fishing a couple of holes, he will usually know if the fish are on the bottom or suspended, and he will react and fish accordingly.

Evan will rig a morning-dawn colored worm about 6 to 8 inches above a 1/4-oz. sinker for his drop shot. You can cast this and twitch it along the bottom or drop it straight down. Evan will also cast it to a suspended fish, let it sink in front of the bass, and twitch it as close to the fish for as long as possible.

Fish up the point that runs upstream from the marker, staying on the creek side. Fish all the way up to the marker with your boat in 20 feet of water on the side of the point so you can cast to 10 feet of water. You are fishing rocks here, but always watch your electronics for piles of brush and cane to fish.

No. 2: N 33º 40.837 – W 82º 14.524 — Go across the mouth of Keg Creek toward the last big island between it and Little River. A smaller island is back upstream of it out from the line of islands between the creek and river. A danger marker sits on a shoal with a point running off it upstream even with the smaller island. It has rock and brush to fish.

Stop out in 20 feet of water and work toward the hump. Evan scans constantly with his FFS, looking for brush, rocks and fish. When he sees cover or fish, he casts to it.

If he has his drop shot in his hand when he sees a suspended fish that is moving, he’ll cast to it, let the drop-shot sink in front of the fish, and then shake his rod tip to make the worm wiggle. He does the same to fish on the bottom.

If a suspended fish is not moving quickly, Evan may grab his Damiki rig to cast to the bass. He rigs a Sixths Sense Devine Minnow swimbait on a Greenfish Tackle 3/8-oz. Swimball jig head.

This rig shows up well on his FFS, and he can put it right in front of the fish and shake it to draw attention and bites. This rig looks more like a baitfish than the drop shot and often works better on suspended bass.

No. 3: N 33º 41.046 – W 82º 14.267 — Go downstream a little until your boat is about even with the gap between the last two big islands between the creek and river. A point runs off the upstream side of the downstream island. It comes way out toward the creek channel and then drops off into very deep water—a factor that Evan wants in September.

Fish this location like the others, working a drop shot and Damiki rig to bass that you see on your electronics. If you don’t have FFS, fan cast the point with both rigs, checking depths from 10 to 20 feet deep from the surface to the bottom.

Always keep an eye out for brush or a rockpile. You can hit them with your bottom baits to find bass, too. Fishermen have built brushpiles and canepiles on many of these places, and they concentrate the bass for you. This location has several brushpiles.

No. 4: N 33º 40.605 – W 82º 13.760 — Go back across Keg Creek past the last island on the downstream side. Just past it, a hump comes up to about 20 feet on top. It is even with the point at Lake Spring Park as you’re looking toward the dam. Stop in 30 feet of water to fish this location.

Cast your drop shot to the top of the hump, working all the way around it. Try your Damiki rig if you see suspended fish. Evan says if he sees fish on a place like this but they will not bite, he will come back later. Sometimes it’s a timing thing to get bites.

Wind blowing across these places helps, too. At this location near the dam, current can help the bite. If you hear the siren at the dam warning of a water release, make sure you are on a main-lake point or hump. You can call 800.533.3478 to get projected water release times to help you plan.

No. 5: N 33º 40.439 – W 82º 13.360 — Go to the point at the Lake Spring Park picnic area with the bulkhead seawall around it. There is a danger marker here that is very close to the bank. It marks where a side point runs out, so stop out in 20 feet of water even with the marker.

There are brushpiles out here to fish. If you have FFS, you can tell if the bass are holding over the brush or down in it. If they are holding over it, try a topwater bait like a chrome Gunfish walked over it to draw them up.

If the fish don’t want to come all the way to the top, Evan will have a white Super Fluke rigged to work over the brush. He can let it sink as deep as needed and then twitch it to draw strikes. With FFS he can control the depth exactly and watch fish react. Without FFS, try different depths until you get bit.

No. 6: N 33º 30.738 – W 82º 12.712 — The West Dam area is right at the dam on the Georgia side. The point with rip-rap that turns into a bulkhead seawall has a good underwater point running upstream off it. Stop out in 20 feet of water even with the seawall change and look for rocks.

There is a big rockpile here, and Evan caught a decent largemouth here off the rocks. That was a little surprise, as spots are more likely to use rocks and largemouth the brush, but both do use both kinds of cover.

If you don’t have electronics to find the rocks, drag a jig or your drop shot to hit them. A jig is a good bait to catch bass on both rocks and brush. Evan likes a brown 3/4-oz. Greenfish Tackle jig with a matching Zoom Z Craw on it. This is heavy enough to let you know what it is hitting on the bottom, and fish like it, too.

No. 7: N 33º 40.373 – W 82º 11.596 — On the South Carolina side of the dam at the swimming area at Clarks Hill Rec Area, there is a point that runs out that has a good canepile on it. There is also a small brushpile. It is worth your time to find and fish both.

Usually, more than one piece of cover like a brushpile in a relatively small area like this just spreads out the fish. Or they hold on one and you have to figure out which one each trip. The more piles of brush and cane close together, the harder it is to find the key one that is holding bass.

Try both these piles starting with topwater over them, and then fish a Fluke near the surface. Work down into the brush with a jig or drop shot. Fish each one carefully, but fish quickly. Evan says he will not spend more than 10 minutes at each place without a bite before moving on.

No. 8: N 33º 40.602 – W 82º 12.157 — Go upstream and stop on the bare red clay bank on your right. An underwater point runs out toward the channel off the side of it, and the point is sweetened with a good canepile. Work all around the cane with all your baits—sometimes different angles will draw a bite.

At times, the bass will hold on the bottom near but not in the piles. FFS will help you find them, but without it, try letting your bait hit the bottom and fish it out several feet. A big Texas-rigged worm will work for this, as will a jig. Rig a Zoom Mag 2 or Ol’ Monster behind a 3/8- to 1/2-oz. sinker and try to hit every little piece of cover—rock and wood—on points and humps. Sometimes bigger bass will hit bigger baits.

No. 9: N 33º 40.944 – W 82º 12.328 — Going upstream, there is a danger marker sitting very close to the bank on the downstream point of a big bay. There is a campground back in the bay, and the point is red clay. Stop out even with the end of the red clay point on the river side.

Evan caught a keeper spot here on his drop-shot worm by dragging it on the bottom. Some rocks are on the side of the point that runs out toward the river. Points like this will get even better later in the month when shad start moving into the coves and bays and bass set up on the points to ambush them.

No. 10: N 33º 41.983 – W 82º 14.568 – Run across to Bussey Point—the big point between Georgia Little River and the Savannah River. On the Savannah side, as you’re heading downstream, a big bay goes back just past the last finger point. That point has big rock visible on the bank, and there is a cement pipe at the edge of the water you can see if the lake is down a foot or so. This rocky point runs out into very deep water, and spotted bass love it.

Evan saw a bunch of bass on his electronics and caught several small keepers here. Work your drop shot and other baits from 20 feet deep to 10 feet deep, bumping the rocks with the bottom baits.

All these places had fish on them a few weeks ago. Check them out and fish different baits until the fish show you what they prefer. Bigger bass will move onto these locations as the days get shorter.