Lake Hartwell Fishing Report – March 2010

Hartwell: Level: Full pool. Temp: Low 40s. Clarity: Stained in the backs of drainages.

Bass: Good. Josh Fowler reports, “It’s taking around 20 pounds to win the tournaments up here, and I expect these types of weights to hold up as we get into March. On Feb. 20, it took 19 pounds to win the Fish the Fall tournament trail and 13 pounds to draw a check. On the lower end of the lake you need to be fishing the ditches. The fish are holding from 40 feet deep all the way up to the backs in 2 feet of water. I am working the ditches from shallow to deep. I like to run to the back first and then fish my way back out to the timber. When fishing in the backs of the pockets, I am casting a Lucky Craft D-7 Slim Shad or a Lucky Craft LV 200. As I work back out, I am casting a 3/4-oz. Buckeye Lures football jig rigged with a Zoom Creepy Crawler. If the fish are there, they will bite quickly, so have a milk run of these types of places. As the water temperature creeps into the low 50s, we should see the shallow cranking bite bust wide open.”

Linesides: Preston Harden reports, “As soon as we have a few warm days, the fish will become active and move shallow. The stripers will move into the creeks, which will warm quicker. They will move to the lightly stained water but not all the way back in the muddy water. I will move around throwing small jigs and flukes close to the banks. If the wind blows on the bank, that is where to throw. The afternoons will be better than the mornings, especially if it is a warm afternoon. They will not eat herring well until April. If you like to cast, March is the best month to catch stripers on small artificials.”

Crappie: Fair, and it should get better quickly. Preston said, “I have caught some nice crappie on 1/32-oz. tandem jigs under deep-water docks. The jigs need to be fished slowly by barely shaking the rod tip.”