Lake Hartwell confused me.
I saw a couple of things while fishing the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell I had never seen before. And I say this as a guy who graduated from Murray State University with a degree in Fisheries Biology. I’d like to know if anyone has experienced before.
The first one was a stretch of shad spawn that was about a mile long. That part is not that unusual, but the fact that I never saw anything – and I mean not a bass, a striper, a gar – nothing feeding in it. I fished it for quite a while in practice and never got a bite.
The other thing that really confused me in the event was – where did the quality largemouth go? During practice, I found a bite in the backs of any pockets along the main lake that had quality largemouth in it. I was catching 13 to 14 pounds a day out of it pretty easily. But, come tournament time, and I couldn’t get any bites in there and had to resort to fishing for spotted bass. I was lucky to catch right at 10 pounds a day and finished somewhere south of Key West in the standings.
To be clear, I’m not looking to make excuses, I’m earnestly looking for anyone to help me understand what I missed at Hartwell.
I was excited for the event after practice. I ran that largemouth pattern and by 11:00, I knew I was in trouble. I ended up chasing little spots on the main lake to try and survive – I really didn’t do that, as it turned out. I just went to the rocky flats outside of those pockets and pitched a Strike King Rage Craw and a Hack Attack Jig with a Rage Craw at the rockpiles and any cover I came across.
I’ve never seen largemouth vacate the shallows and just completely disappear like that before – and not come back. I know we had some weather come through, and I’ve seen that push them off for a little bit, but they usually come back this time of the year.
I had my “A” plan, my “B” plan and ended up punting to a “C” plan that I hadn’t even looked at. Anyway, I’m just kind of confused still. I’ve thought about it a couple of times getting ready for Lake Fork, and I’m still searching for answers.
