Lake Hartwell Fishing Report May 2014

Hartwell: Level: 1.2 feet below full pool and trending down. Temp: Mid 60s. Clarity: Mostly clear with some stained water in creeks.

Bass: Guide Preston Harden reports, “Largemouth bass and Kentucky spotted bass fishing is very good. May is primetime for catching lots of bass in shallow water. Look for them in very shallow water all day long. Look around the flooded grass in the pockets and coves or in any shallow cover. Weedless worms or flukes will catch lots of bass in the grass.”

Linesides: Guide Preston Harden reports, “As we move from April to May, hopefully the weather will settle down. It has been a roller-coaster ride of up and down temperature changes. May usually finds me moving out of the creeks and upper reaches of the lake toward the lower main lake. Fishing will become more consistent with stripers and hybrids moving shallow early in the morning and feeding hard for a few hours. Freelined herring will get nailed near shoals, points and shallow flats. I will switch from a small fluke to a larger lure such as a Sebile Magic Swimmer or a Lucky Craft Sammy. By mid-morning, the stripers move back to deeper water and become harder to locate. Usually by late morning, we have caught plenty of stripers and hybrids and change to catching bass.”