Chip Hamilton said he’d love to hunt turkeys on the WMAs that adjoin Lake Hartwell, but there is a small conflict. Just as turkey hunters do, he usually begins his April mornings in the predawn darkness, but he is fishing live herring off points where hybrids tend to school up in the shallow water.
“It’s important to get on the water and setup early while it’s still dark,” Hamilton said. “The key to this shallow water action is that herring and shad are spawning and they are running the shallow in 18 to 36 inches of water, and that’s where the hybrids will be feeding. Most of this action will be on hard clay banks and points, although it does occur on sandy banks occasionally.
“I want to jump-start the day with some fast-paced shallow water action and just before dawn is prime time,” he said. “I’ll actually ease the boat onto the shoreline and fan cast herring on Carolina rigs and freelines around the boat. Usually I don’t get all the rods out before the fish-biting action begins. It’s often a brief flurry of action but we usually add several fish to the cooler to begin the day.
“The really cool thing is that just as the sky starts to get light, the shad and herring will begin to retreat to the deeper water,” he said. “When this forage leaves the shoreline, they move toward the deeper water and usually move right over a bunch of waiting stripers. So just as the hybrid action slows, there will be another flurry of action in slightly deeper water with stripers. The stripers are typically holding in 15 to 18 feet of water, so I make a small move to that depth of water, and by free-lining herring, we often pick up several stripers right at dawn. Its’ a double-whammy for fishermen. I’ve caught a lot of 30-pound-plus stripers in this early morning April pattern, and it’s probably the best way to hook a big striper at this time of the year.”
Hamilton said on a typical April morning there’s several fish in the cooler by the time the sun comes up.
“That’s a great way to start any day,” he said.
Be the first to comment