Water Temp: 72-74

Fish have been Bitting real good all week.  I expect the bite to continue.  We ran out of bait the other day fishing with my party with about 6-7 doz herring.   I know we cleaned 30 but lost count how many we boated.  Majority of the catch has been Hybrids with a mix of a few stripers, spotted bass, Largmouth, and Catfish. I'm finding most of the fish in the 20-30 foot range. Most of the fish have been caught on Down rods, but a couple have been still eating the freeline.  I'm catching most of my fish upper to mid lake right now expecting this pattern to last for a good month or two.  This is just a good time to fish.

Hartwell water temp has shot back up to the low 70's.  Matter fact I saw 76 degrees on Sat Afternoon.  The fishing has just been good on Lake Hartwell.  Thats just simple to say.  Majority of the fish have been Hybrids with a mix of a few Stripers, Catfish, Bass and white perch.  I ran my buddies Carolina Skiff Sat.  It shows that it was a fish catching machine.  Thanks Darrel! Most of my fish have been comming on Downlines from 25-35 foot of water with a few being caught with a freeline tossed out the back of the boat.  The freeline swims down to the depth the fish are and boom, Gets eaten!  Try it when your sitting in one spot with down rods sometime.  It works!

The above picture is the picture of the week!

Water temps are up on both lakes from last week.  Jocassee is up to 65-67 during the day.  It has been fishing good both at night and during the day. 

Hartwell is up to 72 degrees. fishing was up and down last week, but over all still fishing good.  The more consistent to weather gets it seems like the better the fishing gets.  I look for May to be off the hook for stripers/Hybrids. 

Both Lakes are fishing good.  I've had a few great days on Lake Jocassee and I've had a few tough days due to the weather.   I've put some very nice trout in the boat last week.  The biggest of the week was a 7 pound Brown.  Hartwell has also been fishing very well for the last 4 weeks and I would have to say it will continue.  I've been very pleased on this fishing season as a whole.  It has been great for fishing.

Hartwell: Water temps are mid 60's. It seems that the later in April we get the lower the
water has gotten.  We are in another little cold snap.  Just like last week this
time.  This actually has lowered the water a bite but it hasn't cooled the
fishing much.  It is just a good  time to be on the water.  A little of
everything is biting.  Striper and Hybrid are biting over the whole lake.  Last
week when the water was close to 70's we were seeing a little schooling action
here and there.  Cut Baiting is still working well and as the sun comes up the
Freeline bite has been as good as it gets.  Down rod bite it also doing good in
25-35 foot of water.  I have been told that the Hybrids are still biting way up
the tugaloo and up the keowee river along with good numbers of Spotted bass. 
Catfish are shallow and eating Cut Herring.  Crappie have spawned but some fish
can still be caught shallow.  Try 15-20ft of water with small minnows and jigs.

Jocassee:Water temps were in the low to mid 60's. Its sad to say that the water is still
dropping.  I watched the levels drop every day I was up there.  We need some
rain.  On the bright side fishing was very good last week for me. It is the
begaining of some good fishing to come.  This is my favorite time of year to be
up there. You never know what the next fish might be.  It could be the 8 pounder
were all looking for.  I caught most of my fish 15-45 feet down.  I love to use
live bait, but Spoons seem to be the ticket for me last week.  I think I caught
one Trout on a Live Shiner, the rest were all green fish and thats for the whole
week of fishing.  I stayed busy with fish just about everywhere on the lake. 
Wednesday was good up the toxaway but for any reason I had a had to be patient
for bites as it got closer to the weekend.  Over all it seemed that the main
lake was the ticket for Sat. I have to say that I was blown away as of the size
of the fish we boated for the week.  Wed we caught 3 browns over 6 pounds,
friday 2 browns that were 5 and 5.5 and Sat. 1 brown at 6 pounds. All days we
had pretty good numbers of stockers to bout but not many were legal.  Sat was
the day of glory with numbers.  I think we boated 25 trout.  7 Legal rainbows
and one fatty brown.