Lake Hartwell Fishing Report — April 15, 2024

Level: 0.5 over 660. Temp: 62-66 degrees. Clarity: Mostly clear with a little stain in the backs of some creeks.

Bass: Ronnie Garrison fished the Potato Creek Bassmasters Tournament over the weekend and reports, “I saw many males preparing beds in Little Beaverdam Creek and the mouth of Reed Creek and a few females cruising them. The full moon this weekend should means lots of bedding bass.

“The wind was bad Friday, the first day of our two-day April tournament. I caught five keeper largemouth on a shaky head fished slowly while working bedding flats back in coves. I had caught some 3-lb. spots from rocky humps and points on Wednesday and Thursday, but they did not hit early Friday morning, and the wind made them unfishable Friday afternoon.

“Two 3-lb. largemouth helped me have 9.92 pounds. Raymond English had five bass at 14.26 pounds for first place, and Niles Murray was second with five weighing 12.93. Three anglers had weights in the 11-lb. range and one 10-lb. limit, so I was finished in seventh place.

“Saturday was better with less wind. I again had five largemouth. I was fishing bedding flats with a 1/4-oz. green Bitsy Flip Jig with a green-pumpkin Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer. As always, the tails of my trailers and shaky-head worms are dipped in chartreuse J.J.’s Magic.

“My five bass weighed 8.10 pounds and moved me up to fifth. Raymond had another 14.59 limit to win the two-day tournament, and Niles added 10.62 on Day 2 for second place. Kinny Delay had a 4.06 for big fish and said it hit a DT6 early Friday morning.Raymond said he caught most of his fish on a Carolina rig up shallow. Niles was fishing docks with plastics.

“On Saturday in the Savannah River BFL on Hartwell, it took 20 pounds to win, 17 for second and 15.03 for sixth. Bass are biting good on Hartwell!”