Hartwell Lake, Crappie, Bass , 5/25/08

[tyler ware]

Headed down to Hartwell Lake this weekend to visit my wifes cousin. I decided I was going to pull my boat down there. Got on the interstate at Germantown rd feeling good, but by the time we got to East ridge exit, someone was behind me flashing their lights. I am already a little nervous about pulling my boat that far, well when I look back at the car flashing their lights, I notice the driver side trailer tire is smoking. Pull over to discover that the bearing has completely blown out, and the axle is is freely clanging inside the spindle. I am really lucky the tire did not come off and hit another car. Just a reminder, MAKE SURE TO CHECK AND LUBE THOSE TRAILER BEARINGS EVERYONE, REGULARLY. Well $15 later and a trip to the autozone we were back on the road. Did not have a map of the lake and Hartwell is a big lake with many little fingers, so we fished not too far from where we were staying. Talked to some different people, but no one really knew that much about fishing Hartwell, wanted to catch some stripers. Finally talked to some guys that were crappie fishing, they said the crappie were still good and the striper were not yet turned on fully. So we fished a little more while watching those guys move to different brush piles. They were using jigs under a bobber, and I only saw them catch one small crappie. Well we went back to the shack and got our crappie rods, and made a marker out of fishing line, a coke can and a half oz weight. Trolled around that area until we saw the brush on the screen, threw out the marker and fished away. Off two different brush piles we caught 7 keepers,a few throw backs, two largemouth and one small striper. All fish caught on some type of pan assassin with 1/32 oz jig, usually about a 12 count in 14 -18 feet of water. The water temp down there was 75 in morning and 80 in evening. Very different lake than what I am used to. Too many people, every other boat is a pontoon loaded with 10 people putting off a huge wake or a wake boarding boat putting off a bigger wake. There are smallow islands under the water everywhere so you really need to know the water well to get sround safely, especially at night. I really really appriciate this river we live on. Sorry no pictures from this trip, nothing special you would really want to see.

TW

 

[dlancas]

In case you make another trip, try this board. I haven't fished Hartwell this year but the striper are probably mid lake around humps near the river channel. Later in the summer you can catch some trolling umbrella rigs on the lower lake.

www.striperboard.com