Lake Hartwell Fishing Report, 03-24-2018

[mygreenihc]

Conditions:
Cloudy and Overcast skies,  Some rain
Winds East 5-15mph
Outside Temps Morning started at 46 up to 58 at 3pm.
Water Clarity: Stained to slightly muddy, 1 to 2 foot visibility
Water Level: 1 foot below full pool
Fish boated: 8,  missed about 8
Fishing time: 10:30 am - 4:30 pm

Got off to a bad start,  it was one of those days.  I was going out by myself when a buddy called me and wanted to tag along.  He had lost a trailer bearing the day before and didn't really want to pull his boat around on three wheels,  so to the lake with me he went.  Drive 25 miles and launch only to find that my Mercury would not run.  Back to his house to pick up his boat and then on to the lake.  Finally on the water at 10:30.  But it went downhill from there....

We started off trying to figure out where they were. We fished grass up in the pockets to see if they had moved in close for bedding and boated three over about 3 hours. No size to speak of, one largemouth weighed 2.5 lbs and she was the lunker of the day. The other two were 14 inch buck bass.

From there we went out and started hitting rocky points and found more fish there. We caught 5 off of points, but they were all of the typical 14 inch variety. We missed about as many as we caught mostly due to the fact that they were not biting very aggressively at all. Most of what we caught was just feeling weight on the line or detecting bait movement.

All in all, it was better than being at home, but not a real nice day on the lake. Our intention was to put together a game plan for our tournament Friday, but the game plan did not materialize to the extent that I had hoped it would.

I will let you guys know how we do Friday with another report.  Here are a few pictures in case you do not know what a dink looks like...

Brad

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the report, definitely better than sitting at home or going to work. Time on the water is going to help for the tournament, no matter if it's was catching or eliminating 

Hope the motor is okay?

[mygreenihc]

The motor should be fine.  It was sort of self inflicted.  Last year I forgot to refill my reservoir with oil before heading out.  I was a couple miles up the lake when I started getting an alarm,  and shortly after that it slowed to an idle.  I kept a check on it and it never got below half full by the time I made it to the ramp.

I filled the reservoir last week,  but I filled it completely full.  I am not sure if the check ball was stuck or if it could not pressurize due to the tank being overfilled,  but I could not get oil in the upper container no matter what  I tried.  I got it home and pumped some oil out of the tank and cleaned the check ball and it started pumping like it should have.  i think I am good to go now,  but I am going to the lake this afternoon just to make sure.

Brad