Lake Hartwell Fishing Report: April 9, 2019

Hartwell local Brandon Cobb, of Greenwood, S.C., won the April 11-14 Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Hartwell this past weekend. Blast-off to weigh-in video coverage provided anglers some great timely Hartwell bass fishing information.

Mid-April bedding bass were key for Brandon and most of the top anglers. Wacky-rigged soft plastics were top producers, as were 3 1/2-inch creature baits.

Brandon reported catching most of his bass either from beds or in bedding areas using a wacky-rigged Zoom Fluke Stick and a Zoom Trick Worm rigged on a 1/8-oz. Greenfish Tackle Clean Up shaky head.

Georgia’s Micah Frazier, of Newnan, placed third by primarily throwing a Yum Dinger worm wacky-rigged on a 2/0 drop-shot hook and a 3 1/2-inch Yum Christrie Craw on a 2/0 hook with a 3/8-oz. tungsten weight. The second-place angler, Stetson Blaylock, reported using the same two plastics as Micah for his primary baits. Stetson said he also caught bass on topwater with a Booyah Poppin Pad Crusher frog and a Rebel Pop-R.

Look for the herring and shad spawn bites to heat up at Lake Hartwell as more bass get in a postspawn feeding mode.