Clarks Hill Lake Fishing Report – February 2023

Clarks Hill: Level: 2.9 feet below 330. Temp: 48-55 degrees. Clarity: The main lake is clear, and the rivers above Soap Creek and Lloyd Creeks are stained to muddy.

Bass: D.J. Hadden, with Hadden Outdoors in Appling, reports that bass are still holding in the ditches and channels 15 to 20 feet deep or deeper but are moving toward the backs of them to feed on flats later in the month. Spoons, Creeper head jigs, Damiki jigs and drop-shot worms are good in the deeper water. Make short pitch casts with your baits ahead of the boat rather than vertically fishing directly under the boat in the clear water. Fan cast a sonar-blade-type bait or crankbait, like the Greenfish Tackle Stray Dog that will bump bottom to about 5 feet deep on flats adjoining the channels and ditches. Try to hit any cover, like stumps, rocks and brush on the flats (see Map of the Month article on page 50). Warm, sunny days will pull some fish up on rocky banks and shallow wood where they will hit jigs and crankbaits worked shallow.” 

Linesides: Bradd Sasser, of Sasser Fishing Charters, reports, “The stripers and hybrids are beginning to migrate back down the lake and can be found in a lot of mid-lake creeks. There has been quite a bit of bird activity giving way to where schools of bait are. Finding the bait has been essential to finding the fish recently as they are beginning to feed more aggressively as they prepare for the upcoming spawn season. The majority of the fish we have been catching have been in creek ditches fishing 20 to 30 feet deep in 40 to 50 feet of water. Once it begins to warm up, they will move back toward the lower end and start staging off points.”

Capt. Eddie Mason reports, “We’ve been fishing for striped bass and hybrids on the lower end of the lake mostly. In the early morning, we’re starting out near the mouths of the creeks in about 40 feet of water and catching them between 20 and 30 feet. Then a little later in the morning, we’ll take it to the bottom and get them around 40 feet. When we move to the river channels, we’re catching fish 40 feet down in water that’s about 110 feet deep.”

Clarks Hill Lake Page: Archived Articles, News & Fishing Reports

Various Species: D.J Hadden with Hadden Outdoors reports crappie are holding on standing timber 12 to 25 feet deep and can be caught dropping small jigs and live minnows straight down to them. They will move back into the creeks as the month progresses, and trolling flats with jigs and minnows will catch them. Stripers and hybrids are moving up the rivers and to the dam in their false spawning runs. Troll live herring at the depths they are showing up on your electronics. Watch for gulls and loons to locate baitifish. The linesides are usually nearby.”