How to Locate and Catch Blue Back Herring in Clarks Hill
With April finally here, the weather has settled down, and the bass fishing is wide open. Bass are feeding and spawning, and they are as easy to catch right now as any time of the year. Clarks Hill is one of the best lake's in the state to take advantage of April fishing.
Clarks Hill is massive. With 71,000 surface acres, it's one of the largest reservoirs in the southeast. The lake and its bass can be difficult to keep track of if you don't fish it regularly. However, an angler can narrow it down by fishing a small section to pattern the bass. This is especially true if you have some tips from a fisherman who knows it well. Baylor Ronemus grew up in Augusta and has fished Clarks Hill all his life.
"I don't like to sight fish for bedding bass, so I target prespawn and postspawn fish in April," Baylor said.
He concentrates on points where the bass hold and feed while moving into and out of the spawning areas.
Many bass spawn at Clarks Hill in April, moving in to bed in waves and then moving back out. These bass are staging prespawn and postspawn. Just as important are the shad and herring spawns. Blueback herring have changed the lake since they became established in Clarks Hill. Bluebacks have changed the way bass live and feed there.
In April, the shad will spawn from the middle of the month to the end, and the herring spawn starts late in the month. These baitfish spawns offer the chance to catch a lot of quality bass quickly. Postspawn bass school up and concentrate on these baitfish spawns.
Baylor's tackle selection includes a Zoom Fluke, a Sammy and a spinnerbait while searching for feeding bass. He also fishes a Carolina rig and a jig 'n pig to catch bass when he finds a concentration.
Baylor rigs a pearl-white fluke weightless on 12-lb. monofilament P-Line. It will catch fish anywhere, from points to pockets, and when fish are schooling. His white or chrome Sammy is rigged on 15-lb. monofilament line and is a good bait for casting to schooling fish.
A True Track 3/8- to 1/2-oz. spinnerbait with a chartreuse-and-white skirt with one silver and one gold willowleaf blade is good.
For slower fishing, a True Track 3/8- to 1/2-oz. jig in browns and greens is tied on 18- to 20-lb. fluorocarbon line, and a green-pumpkin Paca Chunk is added. On his Carolina rig, he uses a green-pumpkin lizard or Trick Worm behind a 1-oz. sinker. His 6- to 12-inch leader is 12-lb. fluorocarbon line, and his main line is 18- to 20-lb. test. Baylor often dips the tails of his plastic baits in chartreuse dip and dye.
The following three locations are in a fairly compact area of the lake near Mistletoe State Park.
NO. 1: N 33º 42.056 - W 82º 22.512
Go into the mouth of Graves Creek to the first small creek on the right. The downstream point of this creek is a combination of white rock and clay. White-rock points and banks are well-known feeding areas for bass on Clarks Hill. This is a good point for both prespawn and postspawn bass.
Start a little downstream of this point, keeping your boat out in about 18 feet of water, and cast a Sammy or Fluke right to the bank. Work your bait back out, covering water where the bottom drops off to about 12 feet deep. Those baits will get hits from bass looking for shad and herring, and also from bass holding on the point actively feeding.
When you get to the small blowdown inside the creek, turn and go back around the point with a Carolina rig or jig. Stay out in 18 feet of water. Cast these baits to about 2 feet of water, and work them all the way back to the boat.
NO. 2: N 33º 41.550 - W 82º 22.499
Go across the mouth of Graves Creek to the upstream main-lake point. Start about 50 feet down the bank from the point on the creek side, and fish around the point. The water is fairly shallow where you start, and then it drops off into a dip near the point before coming back up more shallow on the upstream side of it.
Start with topwater and a soft jerkbait over the clay and rock bottom, staying well off the bank and fishing your baits from the bank out toward deeper water. When you get around the upstream river side of the point, go back around with your bottom-bumping baits.
Also try a spinnerbait cast right to the bank. Start with a fairly fast retrieve, keeping the bait near the surface. Then slow it down to slow-roll it on the bottom. Baylor's spinnerbait produced two 5-lb. bass on this point in April last year.
NO. 3: N 33º 40.378 - W 82º 22.165
Go across Little River to the downstream point at the mouth of Cliatt Creek-the creek with Mistletoe State Park on the upstream side. A small island sits off the downstream point that has a classic blow-through between the island and point. The point of the creek has mile marker 94 on it.
Start on the upstream side of the island, and fish across the blow-through toward the point with both a Sammy and a fluke. Watch for swirls indicating feeding fish. Cast to any swirls you see, but cover the water all the way across from the island to the point regardless.
Blow-throughs are shallow areas where waves have washed away dirt leaving a gravel bottom. Herring spawn in a few feet of water in places like this, and the shad will spawn right on the bank. Clarks Hill bass feed heavily on blow-throughs this time of year.
To see seven additional locations, along with GPS coordinates and a map, pick up the current edition of GON magazine, available at most Athens-area convenience stores including Golden Pantry.
Source: https://www.onlineathens.com/story/sports/outdoors/2015/04/02/here-are-best-places-fish-clarks-hill/15498688007/
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