Lake Hartwell......help!

[ITSMEBOAT]

Need advice.....Have 2 crappie since March 15th. I have fished shallow,
deep, jigs, minnows, trolled, etc. By this time last year I several
hundred crappie. My dock is in 21' of water and I have several large
brush piles at 8' and 16' and 4 large bamboo condos and no crappie.
Is it over or too early....water is 55 to 62 degrees depending on the cove.
Can leave minnows out all night and catch cats, striper, blue gills, but no
crappie.
What gives, so many of you are catching fish at other lakes ??

Thanks.......Don

[UpSouth811]

i feel your pain....been a little rough on my end of the lake.....was doing ok averaging about 10-15 a day.....now its large mouth and striper...

[papasage]

fishing has ben tough this year in most lakes . the rain and cold has held them back from spoon. the ones i caught Saturday had eggs in them and some looked like they have laid some . there was some mails in the 17 i caught .all in 6 ft of water 25 ft from shore in a slue . this was the deepest part of the sloue you need to go to a more shallow area probabley . they should have ben there when the water was colder . do you have light at the dock ?
something to draw some bait fish in . try a green light just under water serface

[hollidas]

I fish the S.C. side of Hartwell and the fishing has been real rough. I caught some crappie Friday. They were all caught in 6 feet of water or less.

[Ridgerunner]

Unfortunately, welcome to the club! Hartwell has been very difficult this year. I have been baffled by the crappies this year on Hartwell. They haven't done anything they traditionally do. I agree with papasage, the weather is definetly a factor and I think all of the new found cover in the lake is playing into the game as well. I have lots of brush piles that are apparently sitting empty and lots of good shallows not yielding fish. I'm hopin the next week or two will show us a different story. Good luck.