12-28-2024 Fishing Report

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you got to spend some time with family and to get out and fish.

The water temps have finally dropped enough on the bigger lakes for them to start really going off with the fish feeding primarily on threadfins. That means small, slow moving, low action baits. Thats why bucktails are killer in the winter, they just glide along and mimic the size and profile of those 2.5” to 3.5” stunned threadfins so well. As it gets colder, I tend to go smaller and smaller with my bait size that I’m throwing. I got out scouting around on Hartwell last week and ran into hybrids close to the surface all over the lake. They were so close to the surface and feeding on such tiny baits I had to move down to 1/8 oz hair jigs that I tie. I caught over 50 hybrids by myself just casting. When the schools would break up, there were loads of big perch on the bottom cleaning up after the feeding hybrids.

I’ve noticed the fish aren’t moving into the creeks well on Hartwell. They are more along the main lake. My personal theory is we got some nasty water running in from the hurricane. I’ve noticed that after big floods, the fish don’t seem to like the run-off water in the creeks.

I’m hearing the fish are outside the creeks on Clarks Hill as well. Check flats and points off the main channel for fish suspended high in the water column. Down line herring are working well.

I usually stay off Murray for the weeks around Christmas and New Years. It gets very crowded with bird chasers that have no clue how to properly fish the birds. They race each other right into the middle of the schools before they shut down their motors. I will probably say it all winter long, but if everyone would stop 100 to 150 yards out and come in with their trolling motor, every boat could catch fish no matter how crowded it is. Usually I will just hang where the birds were once the boats have run off after another school. The fish will still be there most of the time.