American Bass Anglers announce, a while ago, that the Angler of the Year bass tournament, for the 2011 season, will be held on Lake Greenwood, South Carolina. Let the research begin. I knew it would be on a body of water near Lake Murray, however, in early research it could have been one of many. I decided to hold off on trying to guess which lake it would be and concentrate on learning other important factors until now.
First thing, after finding out where it was going to be held, is I hit the satellite mapping programs to get a look at the lake from above. Quickly you notice Lake Greenwood has a lot of docks on it. Some shoreline cover and a few places where there was some timber left in the lake. Greenwood also has two large arms and two medium arms feeding it, and tons of smaller arms or coves. Doesn’t appear that these arms carry much flow of water unless it’s the rainy season. One particular arm has muddy water coming from it during the time the satellite photos were taken, something to keep in mind should we get substantial rain while there.
While looking for fishing reports, there really wasn’t much to be found. Lake Greenwood does not seem to be a popular lake among the anglers that share information on the internet. This has been frustrating task, but I have come up with some information. Like, the water temperature is in the mid 70’s now, and in years past, it was still in the mid 50’s come December. This leads me to believe that I should have low 60’s for a water temp come the end of October. This is great news.
I have my Navionics chip and have been looking over the lake on the home computer. This map is fantastic and has one foot contours. I’ve been looking for travel routes that bass may use for fall migration. With only a day to pre-fish and look at the lake, studying the map now saves me a lot of time. The more I can learn about the contour of the lake now; the faster I will be able to find new water once I establish a pattern.
It’s time to start tracking the weather. I have Columbia, South Carolina, plugged into all my weather apps for my phone. I’ll monitor daily and extended forecasts; this will help me determine how far the fall migration will be when I get there. Well a good idea anyway.
Since, I really haven’t found much in the way of fishing reports for the fall for Lake Greenwood, I’ll be taking everything with me. I’ll approach it like any other lake in the fall. Which means have everything and be ready for anything. Fall fishing is exciting. You can pretty much catch bass on whatever you would like to fish with at this time of the year. The trick will be finding what the tournament winning fish will eat.
This tournament is going to be a blast; I can’t wait to get it underway! If you have some public information, it’s legal for me to review it, and I’d love to. Every little thing can help me build a plan to putting this puzzle together. I’m going to keep digging in the search engines and keep trying to learn more about things like Blue Back Herring. Seems the tournament on Lake Murray the next weekend may revolve around them.
Get the Net it’s a Hawg
Mike Cork
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