Clarks Hill Fishing Report – November 2008

Clarks Hill: Level: 15.9 feet below full pool. The lake is definitely turning over. By the time you read this, it will already have happened, and the fish could be anywhere in the water column. Temp: Low 70s. Clarity: Very clear.

Bass: Bill Crompton said the lake is dangerous. “Watch out putting your boat in the water,” said Bill. “You might drop off the end of ramps. Fish are in the ditches and on points. This is a great time to use crankbaits, Little Earls, Lucky Craft, Shad Raps and flat baits. November is a great time to use a Buckeye Lures 3/8-oz. spinnerbait. A few hot spots are the Parksville, Dordon and Hamilton Branch areas.” With fish shallow, you could pick up a few throwing Trick Worms around rock or wood. Try yellow and merthiolate colors, and look for the bite in 2 and 3 feet of water. There will be a shallow bite all through the fall, while some move deep as it gets colder toward December.

Stripers: Improving, according to Capt. Dave Willard. “The fishing will continue to improve throughout the rest of the season. With the cooler water, the larger stripers are becoming more active. They are also moving from Russell dam down river toward the lower lake and eventually up Little River toward the Raysville area. This major migration is usually complete by Thanksgiving. The really low water levels could cause the run not to be as good this year — no one knows yet. I’m planning to follow the fish up river and ambush as many as possible by fishing live herring 24 to 30 feet deep on downrods and also pulling freelines and planers when the fish are shallow,” Capt. Dave said. “The fish may be found holding in areas such as Cherokee Creek, Lloyds Creek and Germany Creek on the way up.” Capt. William Sasser just completed two days of fishing as part of the Catch-A-Dream program, <www.Catchadream.org>. “They grant once-in-a-lifetime experiences to children 18 years or younger who have a life-threatening illness,” said William. “We fished for two days, catching our limit of stripers both days. November is the month that stripers move up Little River following the blueback herring up around Raysville, so I’ll fish along the river-channel edges. The fish follow it like a highway. We will fish live herring on downrods 30 to 50 feet deep. We will also fish below Russell Dam with freelines on planers through the trees for big fish. There have been a lot of fish below Russell this fall.”

White Perch: Capt. Dave said these fish are starting to group up. They can be fun to catch on jigging spoons and are also delicious to eat.

Crappie: “We will fish minnows over structure in 20 to 40 feet of water in the Little River section of the lake,” said William. “The fish will be congregated in large numbers, so if I just fish 10 places, I would expect to catch none in nine of them and 50 in the other. So move around until you find them. With the water levels so low, I’ll also fish the treetops sticking out of the water with minnows, but I’ll take the boat paddle and bump the trees, which draws in the crappie. There will be good fish in the Hawe Creek section. Also pull green, white and yellow jigs in 5 to 10 feet of water, and hang on.”