Lake Hartwell
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Lake Hartwell Fishing Reports
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Reports from all past years within a 60-day time frame
Real Diehl
Bronze Ambassador
4/12/25
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Spring (Spawn)
Technique
Shakey Heads
Structure
Points
Forage
Crawfish
Water Temperature
65°
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Post-Spawn)
Technique
Texas Rigs (Worming)
Structure
Docks
Forage
Bluegill
Water Temperature
67°
It’s that time of year and a lot of people forget about swimming a worm, one of my favorite ways to catch frye gaurders! I throw this on both a spinning and casting setups. 1/8-3/16 on spinning and up to 3/8 on casting. I should go by too. Stay back off the bank and make long accurate cast around cover and docks. Typically you can pick off more than one fish. The key is to slow roll the bait making sure you stay in contact with the bottom. Hook set wise, reel and set. Tight Lines!
Real Diehl
Bronze Ambassador
4/10/25
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Spawn)
Technique
Football Jigs
Structure
Laydowns
Forage
Crawfish
Water Temperature
65°
Fish are moving into spawn coming into the full moon on Hartwell. Cooler temps have some them held back a touch, but the fish are close.
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Spawn)
Technique
Bladed Jigs
Structure
Docks
Forage
Bluegill
Water Temperature
65°
Look for beds and frye guarders. Most of the bass have finished, but there is still another wave of bed fish on the way. Most of the fish are in groups of 3 and those fish seem to be a little more aggressive and you may be able to pull more than one fish off of the bed, but the key is patience. Make good flips past the bed and slowly swim the bait up to the and shake the heck out of it. It may take a few flips, but they will EAT IT!
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Spawn)
Technique
Wacky Rigs
Structure
Docks
Caught bass skipping a general up under docks.
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Spawn)
Technique
Topwater Walking
Structure
Points
Forage
Blueback Herring
The bite on Lake Hartwell is as good as it gets right now!! April is an amazing month for fishing on Lake Hartwell because the fish are in all stages of the Spawn and they are biting! There's still a lot of fish on the beds up shallow, and throwing a weightless fluke stick has been the best tool for covering water and catching numbers of fish. But this is my favorite time of the year to fish Hartwell, because of the Blueback Herring Spawn!! All you need is a chrome topwater and a Zoom Super Fluke and look for main lake points with any schooling activity or any birds along the bank and you're in action!! Don't be afraid to cover as much water as you can, because you never know what the next point might have to offer!!
Species
TroutSeason
Fall
Technique
Trolling 20'+
Structure
Docks
Forage
Minnows
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Ned Rigs
Structure
Points
We tried fishing largemouth for a bigger bite. We targeted warmer water docks where the females would be moving up to spawn. We found some success skipping black and blue Yamamoto Senkos. We knew we would need more fish to fill a limit so we looked for spots on main lake rock points. If you could get a bait in front of them they would eat. Our most successful lures were ned rigs and slow rolling swimbaits.
Species
Spotted BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Ned Rigs
Structure
Points
We caught some bigger largemouth up shallow in the docks staging to spawn but there weren't enough to fish in the tournament so we backed up to the points and threw ned rigs for spotted bass. If you could get the bait in front of them then they were aggressive and would bite.
