Lake Hartwell Preview
2016 Walmart FLW Tour Preview
Anderson, S.C.
March 17-20, 2016
Anderson Convention & Visitors Bureau
Presented by Evinrude
About the Fishery
Lake Hartwell is a 56,000-acre man-made reservoir that sprawls across the Georgia-South Carolina border. It’s a deep, clear body of water that holds ample numbers of largemouth and spotted bass. Structure and cover on the lake vary widely, from brush piles and docks to islands (sunken and emergent), points, humps and river ledges. Shad are the predominant forage in the lake, but it’s also home to blueback herring.
Last Time
The Walmart FLW Tour has visited Lake Hartwell three times in March during the last decade: 2011, 2012 and 2014. In each event, the four-day cumulative weight of the winner was about 70 pounds.
Local pro Casey Ashley is the most recent Tour winner at Hartwell, and he won fishing out deep. At that tournament, the shallow bite was beginning to pick up. Due to a streak of frigid weather and heavy angling pressure, however, Ashley decided to stick to finesse fishing brush along creek channels and deep docks. Avoiding the shallow crowds and catching prespawn bass transitioning to spawning areas paid off for Ashley, who since has won a Bassmaster Classic on the lake.
The 2012 tournament was held during the “umbrella rig era,” when the multiple-bait rigs were legal on Tour, and the rig factored heavily into Brent Ehrler’s win at that event. Targeting prespawn fish exclusively, Ehrler also caught bass on drop-shots and jigs in deep water, as well as by dock-fishing with Senkos.
In 2011, prespawn and spawning bass were caught by the top 10, and Jason Christie ran away with the tournament by keying on dirty water in the back of a creek with a spinnerbait. He also caught a few bass by sight-fishing. Interestingly, Christie shared his creek with third-place finisher Ramie Colson Jr.
What to Expect this Time
The determining factor in the winning strategy will be what stage of the spawn the fish are in when the Tour arrives. In the 2014 event, bass were mostly in the prespawn phase. However, winter lingered into March that year, and successive days of cold, sleety weather held back the bite. The 2016 tournament is a week and half later in the month. If the weather cooperates, expect a mix of spawning-phase patterns that favor shallow anglers. There could be some fish on beds, while others are transitioning to spawning areas.
Whatever phase of the spawn anglers encounter, it’s likely that the winning weight will be similar to those of previous seasons. Tournaments on Hartwell are seldom slugfests, with bags of more than 20 pounds being a rarity.
Baits and Techniques
- Sight-fishing – If sight-fishing is a factor, anglers will use Texas-rigged soft plastics, as well as wacky rigs and shaky heads.
- Offshore fishing – For staging bass that are still out on offshore structure, finesse fishing will be prevalent. The deep, clear water will have anglers reaching for spinning tackle with light line and drop-shots and shaky heads. Light jigs fished on casting tackle and Fish Head Spins could factor in too.
- Shallow fishing – Sight-fishing aside, the shallow game will be played with crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigs, jigs, wacky rigs and more. Topwaters, especially buzzbaits, could be productive.
3 Critical Factors
1. Finding quality fish – Last time the Tour was at Lake Hartwell, more than half of the field caught limits the first two days. Getting to fish on Saturday and Sunday at Hartwell means not only filling a limit, but catching bass in the 4-pound range.
2. Managing fish – If the bedding bite is hot, anglers will need to manage their fish to make sure they have enough weight over four days of competition.
3. Reading the spawn – The spawn will likely be occurring, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be other patterns to exploit. The angler who is dialed in on the current spawning phase and is in key areas when new fish arrive will do well in this tournament.
Fantasy Fishing Pick – The ideal angler for Lake Hartwell is versatile and able to make good decisions on the water. To do well, anglers might need to start finesse fishing on staging structure or brush and then head shallow to catch a kicker. Our picks: Anthony Gagliardi, Andy Morgan, Scott Martin and Cody Meyer.