Creek mouths producing great catches of bass on Hartwell, Greenwood

Schooling fish hitting small lures, jerkbaits under concentrations of baitfish

A stopover earlier this week at Port-Tronics Fishing World in Greenville found manager Justin Holder holding court with several of his regular bass-fishing customers over which Upstate lake was the best place to catch bass right now. Several lakes are producing good catches of both spotted and largemouth bass, but the discussion  centered on Lake Greenwood and Lake Hartwell.

“Since the cooler weather moved in, anglers on Hartwell are catching good largemouth bass on deep points and humps in about 25 to 35 feet of water using jigging spoons,” said Holder (864-299-1432). “On the cloudier days, the largemouth are closer to the top, but most of the topwater and schooling action that’s been seen on Hartwell has been spotted bass.”

One customer chimed in that he and one of his buddies were fishing in the Hurricane Creek area of Lake Hartwell, chasing schooling fish, and had found that spotted bass and hybrid bass were mixed together, chasing baitfish at the surface. If you target schools out in the lake, a mixed bag is more in order, but in any location where fish are schooling up against red banks, he said that the catch was almost entirely made up of spotted bass. His best bait during two weekend trips was a shad-colored Lucky Craft jerkbait.

Holder said that Lake Greenwood has also been producing good catches of largemouth bass over the past week. Anglers were throwing a variety of Blade Runners in areas where they were finding concentrations of baitfish.

“I had a customer text me a photo of his graph,” said Holder. “It was all lit up and looked like spaghetti noodles on the screen.

“That high school tournament they held out of TL Hanna High School also had a big weigh-in last week on Greenwood, so those kids were catching them there.”

The common thread among anglers on both bodies of water is that they have been targeting fish that were keying in on baitfish schools. The cooler weather and recent rainfall has concentrated baitfish around the mouths of major creeks.

“You always hear, ‘Find baitfish in the fall and you’ll find the fish,’” Holder said. “It looks like now that fall has arrived, that’s exactly what’s going on now in more than just one location.”