Lake Murray, SC- Feb 10-11 2023
Hoodoo Hero 130, Fitzgerald Vursa and All Purpose Rods, PLine Fluorocarbon 12#, Shimano Spirex 4000RE
6am: Water Temps High 40’s Location: Buffalo Creek(N)/Hollow Creek(S)- Mid Lake North Creek Arm Water Clarity- Stained Temps: 57.2 Humidity: 47.46 Dew Point: 37.4 Barometer: 30.16 WIND: (mph) 9 Precip/Rain Total(hr) 0 at launch but rain moved in mid day
Buffalo Creek— Ramp- (Sunset)
Water Level- Lake Drawn Down
Max Temp- 55 degrees——-compared to this week where the Lake is now in the mid 70’s!!
Day 1- 11.23#
Day 2- 13.39#
A break from some Smallmouth fishing given the rivers have been blown out recently due to all the high water and rain events of the past weeks coiupled with the snow melting to our north!
Got a chance to meet up with mates for some fishing at Lake Murray the weekend of the SC Division of the BFL/MLF.
Lake Murray (SC) has always been one of my favorite lakes in the south to fish. It was one of the few southern lakes I experienced that always reminded me of of home and fishing Lake Anna growing up in Virginia. Kinda has most of the same features as a fishery as well as the same pleasure boating and recreational aspects that often times can irritate us anglers from time to time no doubt but I have always broken down Murray in the same manner as Anna in terms of approach.
Lake Murray has over six hundred miles of shoreline spanning over 50,000 acres from the lower dam area closest to Columbia, SC all the way to the Saluda River in the western portion of the lake. It is 14 miles at its greatest width. The lake offers up natural cover and structure as well as hundreds of dock structure for anglers that can just as easily target brush piles as rocky banks. Typically the water is more stained in
the north section of Mid lake in the creeks than the Mid Lake sections comprising places like Crystal Lake, Hollow Creek and Dreher Island. The Lower section also has bountiful population of stripers that often will be chasing the forage of bluebacks and shad.
Lake Murray much like Lake Anna can be broken down into three major sections; Lower (Dam) Section, Mid Lake Section and the Saluda River Section in the western portion of the Lake Murray.
Lake Murray is one of those places that can set up to every angler strengths. Each section of the lake offers anglers the ability to utilize multiple presentations and the lake often times may have multiple patterns working at the same time.
Murray provides those of us who prefer to fish shallow plenty of water to do so but also those that are utilizing the ever popular Livescope or FFS these days to capitalize on the off shore bite especially in the middle of Lake Murray or structure like docks or laydown fishing provided south and west lake with plenty of creek arms throughout the lake to provide anglers plenty of opportunity.
On this trip the weather was not as kind as it has been most of the days thus far this year. Cold front with rain and moved into region days leading up to the event scheduled for 02/11/23 out of Dreher State Park in the Mid Lake Section of the lake with many boats searching for the shad and herring.
Weather patterns for Lake Murray can be found here for those interested in the seasonal changes on the water that you will experience heading into Spring.
https://weatherspark.com/m/17896/2/Average-Weather-in-February-in-Lake-Murray-of-Richland-South-Carolina-United-States
As stated above at the time of launch in the morning there was no precipitation and the temps were mild compared to what we were experiencing in the DMV (District/MD/VA) the same week but precipitation did move in mid afternoon in portions of the lake before really raining late afternoon. This very well may have influenced the bite early in the morning as anglers registered some nice bags from Mid Lake section.
The top 12 anglers (boaters) in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League of Major League Fishing (South Carolina Division) all registered bags north of 20 pounds on Saturday and the top 5 Strike King Co-Anglers all registered north of 15 pounds. These were not bad limits given the late winter scheduling for the event with 179 anglers catching at least one bass on the day.
25.10 was the winning limit on this day caught by Chris Epting a local of Chapin, SC who lives on the lake and also had won in 2021 on Murray. Epting would catch both a 5 followed by a 6 pounder then a 7 Mid Lake reportedly throwing Spinnerbaits. Daniel Jordan came in just behind Epting with 23-13.
The events big bass catches were 8.40 pounds caught by Noah Nicholson of Union Mills, NC (boater) and Samuel Jones of Fuquay Varina, NC with 8.50 (co-angler)and the Strike King Co division was won by Wesley Trotter of Monroe, NC with 21.11 pounds
The day for most on the lake set up almost like two different days and two different lakes in truth given the wind gusts experienced in the Lower and Mid Lake sections compared to the creeks that did offer a little bit more shelter from the winds. The upper creeks like Buffalo Creek which is the next creek arm west of Bear Creek in the Mid Lake section was stained with forage elements typical of creeks like bluegill so these bait patterns were more effective especially the lipless crankbait patterned after bluegill or pumpkinseed coloration.
The multitude of docks provided a pattern of sorts as well in the north creeks though there are not as many of the big docks you can find on the south lake sections of Lake Murray where you find docks adjacent with rocky banks beset in front of more and more homes being built on the lake.
For me it became obvious that the bass in different areas were in differing stages of the transition to pre spawn patterns and this may have been directly impacted by the fact the water had been drawn down in the previous weeks on the lake. The forage had been pushed shallow in many areas in the creek as well.
Quickly determining this circumstance after a few hours on the water, I determined to tackle the situation by utilizing the reverse pattern strategy that I often employ on our regional river systems when attempting to locate smallmouth bass. Only this time it would be used to locate largemouth bass.
The “reverse” tactic is to begin where you believe the bass will be located in the next seasonal phase and work backwards. This strategy is much easier when you are fishing from a boat because you can cover more water quicker but should never be discounted if you are fishing from a kayak. Locating the areas within creeks that you know will hold bass and then working the pathways backward typically out into deeper water or if you have the luxury of electronics following the natural transition lines like a channel or roadbed in order to locate where the bass are positioning.
Of course you want to employ this tactic early in your pre fishing, especially on a lake the size of Lake Murray. Having fished Lake Murray numerous times over the years, I already knew the docks that I hoped to target in the creek so it was easier to begin with them and work toward adjacent water or rock piles until I located an initial bite. The first bite came about twenty yards right of the dock and in slightly deeper water off a custom squarebill crankbait that was worked from the rock line on the bank at a thirty degree angle back toward the dock platform.
I immediately changed up to my Fitzgerald Fishing rod (Vursa 6’9 Medium-Spinning) rigged with a Jerkbait to work off the corner of the dock about throwing away from the dock and bringing it back towards me positioned between the dock and the bait being worked some twenty five yards off the dock as search bait. On the fourth or fifth cast I landed another two pounder dialing in that the bass were in fact suspending and moving up and back to deeper water along the radius line of the dock.
At about this time one a boater moved up on the dock from the opposite side and began flipping into the dock and pilings. Just kept my head down and did me but I did return to the crankbait working the area with the rocky banks while the boater remained targeting the dock. It was not long before the boater glanced and moved on the the next dock a ways down dock hopping most likely but the boater gifted me my third bite because as he decided to pull away and get on up he created enough disturbance to generated enough displacement in the water column that may have triggered bass up because I immediately landed number three with the jerkbait again within ten yards of where I caught number two with it.
Jigs seemingly enough were no joy on this day. Even in and around the docks. My guess is the weather front moving in that was bringing the rain that would come mid day into the evening for the first time all week may have played a factor in that.
The bass wanted something with some action and rattle as all bass on this trip were caught with those characteristics whether knocker cranks, rattling lipless or jerkbaits with some noise at least until mid day to late afternoon. By that time, it was the swimbaits and spinnerbaits that got the attention of my biggest catches of the day which were found in some of the clearer or in truth less stained up water towards the middle of the creek. Love to throw the first spinnerbait pictured below in uber stained water and in the open water where you will find it Crystal Lake, The Gap, off Dreher typically go with more colorations like the herring imitator I tied pictured at bottom here:
The colorations for the swimbaits that seem to work best were those with the chartreuse/blue shift coloration as opposed to the clear more translucent ones that are very common and the smaller size versus the larger ones north of 4.5 inches. Obviously no coincidence that the patterns correlate with the forage of bluebacks much in the manner in which the cranks earlier in the morning were shad colorations or bluegill forage back in the creeks.
There are a multitude of manners in which the rigging of swimbaits can go down and much of it like so much is preference of course from simply using them as a trailer to a chatterbait or employing a jig head like a ball head for example which is great for the smaller swimbaits that will mirror the small baitfish forage especially this time of year up until Spring.
The beauty of this method is it can be done in both shallow creeks on Murray but also on the open water that is much deeper simply by increasing the weight of the head. I prefer to use my All Purpose Fitzgerald Rod with 12# flourocarbon from PLine for these presentations. Anglers can also opt for the less popular but effective belly weight method as well with swimbaits more so when the grass comes in this Spring when they want a more weedless presentation.
Line through techniques on the larger size swimbaits with a treble exposed are probably the best method for the larger profile swimbaits north of 5.5 inches but more and more I am seeing in places like Murray, Anna and even the Upper Bay (Susquehanna Flats/Carpenter Point)—- I will cover this in a seperate post along with rigging.
I did not get the chance due to limited time to fish the western section and the Saluda River which has won many major tournaments for the bigs during the late Spring and Summer events on Lake Murray. There is far less access than the main lake the further west you go especially beyond the bridges in the river section and with the new rules governing kayak trails in 2023 this could be an issue for those that are typically fished the river section.
I think that livescope will play a greater role this season on Lake Murray probably than ever before especially as brush piles and structure are targeted as well as the massive open water areas the lake offers on both sides of Dreher all the way to the dam as well as to the Gap.
Boaters have the luxury of “run and gun” and there was alot of it two weeks ago as anglers searched for areas to pick apart but Murray can be a ton more daunting for the kayak angler where the launch location will be critical in order to set the angler up more than anything.
Any event on Murray can be won in the creeks just as easily as it can be won on open water in my opinion this time of year but the great thing about Murray is it always will provide every angler the opportunity to fish their strengths and typically multiple patterns throughout the day.
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