The last couple days have realy put the crappie into spawn mode.  Guys/Grirls Its time to hit the backs and fish for those crappie.  Try fishing around fallen timber, bridges, and Docks.  Water is a little low right now, so any timber that is in 3-8 ft of water should have crappie on them.  Minnows and a cork is all you nead.  Good luck

Fishing has been good.  I caught a little of everything over the weekend. 
Friday it was a handfull of Stripers and Bass along with a couple very nice Blue
Cats close to the 20 lb range.  I have been pulling up on a few banks cutbaiting
and mixing it up by trolling freelines.  Both are producing.  The crappie are
starting to fire up with these warm days. Well It has been very good, but it
close too spawn now.  I even caught a few fish very shallow.  8 ft of water! 
Over all the best was 15-20 foot of water over brush both on small jigs and
minnows.  Matter of fact we were even able to slow troll the crappie near timber
in 15 ft of water.  Most of the water is 54-55 in the morning, but I did see 62
Sunday afternoon.  65 is a target temp to look for on spawning crappie as well
as a lot of other fish.

Water temp 54-57.  Saturday after the rain was a very good day to fish.  It was
cloudy all morning with a touch of wind.  We caught a good combination of Bass,
Striper, Hybrid
and white perch.  All fishing in the same areas.  Big fish of the day was around
a 7-8 lb striper.  We did get pulled around by a fish that
was much bigger before it hit the trees and broke us off. Over all the best
bites we had came off free lines or small crappie minnows. It is amazing that as
large as the hybrid and striper get, they will still pile on a little
crappie minnow.  It is sure a fun way to fish, but when that big Elephant grabs
that little peanut it is hard to get him to the boat if there are trees around
submerged in the water. Sunday was a different story... Windy and 10 degrees
colder.  We actually had really good fishing until about 10:30 when the wind hit
20 plus.  We caught a hand full of Hybrids early on downrods in 30 ft of water and got into a little
pocket of Bass.  They were biting us just about as fast as you could get a bait
down to them.  They would have continued to bite but the wind just made it too
difficult to fish. Most were 2.5 to 3.5 pound spotted bass with a few good Largemouth in the mix 

Tight lines
Capt. Steve Pietrykowski
864-353-3438

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Hartwell fishing report: Water temp is way up from last year.  On the low the
water temp is 49 and on the high I have seen 61... surprise and yes 61.  I
actually couldn't belive it myself.  I have been mixing it up for a while now. 
One day I may just crappie fish, the next it might be dragging umbrella riggs or
pulling free lines.  Now the down rod bite with live herring has been slow over
all the warmer water has helped us of latly.  I have been over a few deep primary points and
have found some large schools of spotted Bass with Large mouth mixed in.  15-27
ft seems to be the best of it.  For Stripers, I'm catching some good fish on
Free lined Herring and Gizzard Shad in the backs creeks. Crappie are bitting
very well. Try fishing 15-25 foot over brush 6-15 ft down with small minnows. 

Water temp: 48-52.  After these last few days the surface water has made it up to the low 50's.  Fishing was great the last couple days for Crappie.  Crappie are biting very well.  I'm finding most of my crappie still in 15-25 ft of water 6-15 ft down.  Small crappie minnows are working well over brush piles. Now I caught my biggest crappie of the year yesterday.. I didn't weigh it, but It came in at 15 inches!  I put her back to swim another day!  As for the bass, I found a good school that was chasing shad up a major creek in 17 ft of water. We were able to catch a couple pulling umbrella rigs to start, but the best of the bass fishing was in 8-17 ft of water off a couple primary points.   Some of those bass boys would die to have those spots for a tournament! As for stripers, I'm catching but not filling coolers. Over all I have been after crappie most of all.  Most of my stripers have been caught on small bait while crappie fishing or by pulling umbrella rigs.  If I see a few birds working an area.

Tight lines
Capt. Steve 864-353-3438

Fish and Chips!  Boy is it hard to beat fried Crappie!  I spent the day yesterday insearch of new brush piles!  I'd have to say it was successfull!  Now
finding a new crappie hole is a lot of searching, finding and trying.  It takes
a lot of time.  With the water around 7ft from full pool, it is a great time to
ride around areas you like to crappie fish and mark brush piles that are in the
shallows.  Bass fisherman and Crappie fisherman, thanks for your hard work in
putting them in the lake.  Boy do some of them make good fishing spots.  I think
I marked at least 10-15 new Brush piles yesterday that were in 8-10 ft of water on the old Hummingbird.
  Now right now that is a little shallow in water depth to catch a big mess of
Crappie, but if the water goes up quick or closer to spawn those brush piles
will be worth there weight in Crappie. 

As for the water Temp I had 48 degrees in the morning and in places by mid
afternoon had 52 in some areas in the back of the creeks.  I had to look hard
for deeper brush, the best being Brush that I found in 15 ft of water.  I was
catching some crappie only 5 ft down.  Minnows and jigs worked good.  Seemed that
the jig actually caught a few of the bigger fish of the day. Matter of fact I
think it could have got ugly on at least one of the brush piles.  Over all, I
still think if you has a good brush pile in 15-25 ft it should have Crappie on
it this time of year and they should bite good all day for you. GOOD LUCK
Tight Lines

Capt. Steve Pie 

As a whole the water temp has been around 48.  Warmer in the backs of the creeks where there is muddier water and cooler in the main lake.  Both the Tugaloo and Seneca side has been producing a few Crappies.  Most crappie are coming in 15-25 foot of water over brush.  I've found that the fish are alittle spread out, but you can catch a handfull of fish off each brushpile in the right area.  Small crappie minnows seem to be working the best.  As for the Striper and Hybrids, Live bait has been a little slow.  Try Pulling Large Gizzard Shad for the Big fish!  Umbrella riggs are still working really well.  Im finding schools of fish under the birds!

Wow the weather has been great this year for us here in SC.  Fishing remains to be pretty good over all. Or Great for the month of Jan.  Some days are better then others, but over all for the middle of Jan, I have been impressed!  Water temp is still reading 48 degrees.  Now the live bait bite has been a little tough, the artificial bite has been good.  Just about every day I still see a little surface activity.  The fish are keyed in the the small threadfin shad, making it tough to get them to bite our usaual offering(bluebacks)  I have had to downsize my livebait and tackle making some exciting battles on light tackle.  Some days were lucky to get the fish over what I call clean bottom and our odds to land 6-10 lb striper on 8 lb line is very high.  The days that we find the fish over trees makes it tough to pull on the fish without them diving right to the trees.  U-riggs are still doing well and I would have to say if a man liked to flyfish for these fish, now can still be the time to try that.  Use small streamers for flies 1-2 inches long, no longer and hold on!

Water Temp.56

We have been blessed with great weather for this time of year.  Water temps are up from last year this time.  Actually fishing has been pretty good.  It is still a mixed bag bite.  I'm still making my days by catching a little of everything.  For someone that just wants to make it on the water in the mid day and fish in the afternoon, this is the time of year to do it. Fish will bite all day long in the winter.  Fisherman are having sucess by just pulling freeline blue back and gizzard shad with a handfull of fish every day.  I mix it up between how I see the fish are reacting.

Water Temp 58:
This report is comming from before the Heavy rain we had yesterday.  We recorded 2.5 inches of rain.  Matter fact I have to say that the fish are keyed in to the small shad.  I have got smart and I'm starting to catch the Shad and have them while I'm fishing.  I'm picking up just about everything and making a great catch.  The weather has held off for us this year and I would have to say we should have good fishing through Christmas at least!  Blake caught an 8lber on 8 lb the other day.  It was quite exciting! 

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