90 percent of the fish are in 10 percent of the water, and that 10 percent moves through the year. Each season below says where I would check first and why, on the small lake in the maps from my seasonal series on Instagram. That lake is made up, a composite of the small lakes I fish within 45 minutes of town, but every piece of it is real water somewhere: the creek arm, the pockets, the riprap on the dam, and the old creek channel that ties them together.
The months on each season are a rough guide. Fish move on water temperature, and a warm February can bring the pre-spawn in early, so I trust a thermometer over the calendar.
The smallmouth fishing here is not the Great Lakes. There are smallmouth to be caught, but you have to put in the work to figure them out.
What runs when, and what it costs, is on the trips page.
February into March
Pre-spawn
Sixty degrees is the magic mark. When the water starts climbing toward it in late winter, the whole lake moves shallow in steps: winter hole, channel swing, point, pocket. The biggest bass of the year stage one move from the spawning banks, and a few warm days in a row usually put new fish on the staging spots. Watch the water temperature more than the calendar.
Fish: largemouth. Trips that run now: Trophy Largemouth.
March through May
Spring
The biggest largemouth of the year come shallow to spawn and then guard fry, and for a few weeks the fish you have hunted all winter are sitting where you can see them. As the water warms past the spawn, the bluegill move onto their beds and the bass move onto the bluegill. Most of it is bank-accessible, fly or spin, and it is the window people should book early.
Fish: largemouth, panfish, carp, Bartram's bass. Trips that run now: Trophy Largemouth, Beginners Bank Bass Fishing Lessons, Summer Creek Smallmouth and Bartram's Bass.
June and July
Summer
Where would I target largemouth this time of year? Bluegill beds: the honeycomb fans in the backs of coves near wood, stumps and docks, checked first to make sure the bluegill are actually on them. On the creeks it is wet wading with one rod and a small box for smallmouth and Bartram's bass, poppers and topwater in warm water. The bites come in windows: first light, shade lines, and the last hour.
Fish: largemouth, smallmouth, Bartram's bass, carp, panfish. Trips that run now: Trophy Largemouth, Summer Creek Smallmouth and Bartram's Bass, Beginners Bank Bass Fishing Lessons.
August
Late summer
August is the one month of the year the ten percent gets smaller instead of moving somewhere else. Warm water carries less oxygen, so the flats that fed fish all spring go quiet by mid morning and the whole lake comes down to three kinds of water: whatever is moving, whatever is shaded, and whatever is deep enough to reach from the bank. The shade line is narrowest around noon, which is the one thing about a hot day that works in your favor.
Fish: largemouth, smallmouth, Bartram's bass, carp. Trips that run now: Trophy Largemouth, Summer Creek Smallmouth and Bartram's Bass.
September through November
Fall
In September the ten percent goes wherever the bait goes: as the water cools, the shad and bluegill slide up the creek arm and the bass follow them in, and banks that looked dead in July fill back up. By November the shallow water empties out and the fish set up on the exits, the mouth of the creek arm, the points where the channel swings close, and the steep banks on the dam end. On the rivers, October and November are the best two months of the year for a big smallmouth here, and they are the two nobody books.
Fish: smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, trout. Trips that run now: Fall and Winter Trophy Smallmouth, Trophy Largemouth.
December through February
Winter
The elephants eat peanuts in the winter. The big ones are still catchable, they just pod up in the deepest water with the channel through it and eat small, slow, and in short windows, usually the warmest part of the afternoon. On a small lake that means the winter hole, the riprap after a few hours of sun, and the channel ledge between them. Most of the lake is empty, and that is the good news: less water to check. On the French Broad the water drops into the upper 30s and smallmouth hold in the deep, slow pools.
Fish: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass, trout. Trips that run now: Trophy Largemouth, Fall and Winter Trophy Smallmouth.
The fish
- Largemouth bass
- In just about every puddle and river around Greenville, and the specialty. The trophy fish live in small, clear water most people drive past, and they are hunted on foot: pre-spawn staging in late winter, the spawn and bluegill beds in spring and early summer, the shrinking ten percent in August, the exits in November, and the deep, slow windows of winter.
- Smallmouth bass
- Will our smallmouth fishing be as good as the Great Lakes or the Susquehanna? No. Do we have smallmouth to be caught? Yes, and you will have to put in work to figure them out. The trophy window is the fall, when the fish feed hard before settling into compact wintering areas on the Western North Carolina rivers, and the summer creeks hold smaller, eager fish for a one-rod day.
- Bartram's bass
- The native creek bass of the Savannah drainage. A few outfitters sell trips for it now, and it is still a niche fish. Poppers and topwater on the foothill creeks from late spring through early fall, best in the warm months. Hybridisation with introduced Alabama bass is the conservation story, and every one goes back.
- Alabama and spotted bass
- The reliable winter option: tight, nomadic schools chasing baitfish when the largemouth have gone slow. Not a trip of their own, but part of a cold-weather day.
- Carp
- Sight fishing start to finish: walk the bank, find a fish that is eating, and get one quiet shot at it. Warm water, roughly May through October; once the water drops into the 50s the grass carp mostly quit until spring, and September tends to be prime for commons. Grass carp are protected in South Carolina public waters, and every carp goes straight back.
- Trout
- South Carolina's delayed-harvest streams run November through May and offer some of the best trout fishing in the state, and the hatchery-supported sections of the South, North and Middle Saluda hold stocked trout closer to home. A Western North Carolina river day in the cold months can put a trout on the same rod as a smallmouth.
- Bluegill and redbreast
- The first fish for most beginners and the reason the summer largemouth are where they are. Big bluegill inside twenty minutes of downtown, redbreast on the Reedy.