March 2023 Striper Fishing

[Snaphook]

With February being warmer than usual it looks like March will be even better. Water temperatures are rapidly rising and the fish are moving shallow. I'd like to open the discussion for tips, tricks, advice and knowledge sharing for this month.

Coneross Creek is still a hotspot. We're launching at Friendship tomorrow morning. The Threadfin bite is on fire right now so I'm not going to waste the money on Herring. Going to troll A-Rigs with 1/4oz Rooster Tails. Hope to fill up the cooler. Only thing that concerns me is how much rain we get today. Hopefully the water temps won't drop too much. Either way we're going to get out there and get on them at first light. The morning bite tends to dry up around the 9:30am mark but the afternoon bite is growing every day.

Curious if anyone has been up Lawrence Bridge yet? That's by far my favorite place to fish when the time is right.

Anyone else have good intel?

[BigBait]

I know you guys like to hit the Coney and Keowee river this time of year but so does everyone else. If you want some bigger fish you need to get away from people. Need to get shallow. 10’ or less. You may swing and miss but then again you may snag the biggest fish Hartwell has left in it. If you want numbers hit the 2 places I mentioned above. It doesn’t last long up there in the river.

[Magoo5]

Had a good weekend this past weekend ( 3/31 & 4/1 ) fishing around little beaver creek and Andersonville Island. Trolled herring and trout, with almost all strikes coming on the herring. Between three boats on Saturday we had around 100 lbs. of fish ( 20 fish total ), with a couple of them in the 10 lb. range. Seemed to be pretty consistent bite after the thunderstorm moved through. Wind was something to contend with, but when you are catching fish you don't really mind it as much. Hope to get out a few more times before the hot weather and the crowds take over.

[keywest]

I had a friend come down from PA for his annual striper fishing trip. Weather wasn't the best but we made the best of it. Saturday was a rainout but we fished the other 4 days including Easter Sunday which was out best day. We fished the Keowee River and Sunday was the first day they ran water so we hit the top of the river and it was darn near every cast for 90 minutes until we ran out of bait. The class of fish was outstanding. We caught all hybrids. The smallest was just under 4lbs and the other 20+ were between just under 5 lbs to just under 7 lbs. Biggest was 6.75 lbs.

Water was up and you were not getting under the bridge if you had a Ttop. Also a lot of debris in the water. Good luck.

[Magoo5]

Sounds like a great day Keywest ! Nice job. Were you trolling Herring or some other type of live bait ?

[keywest]

We were casting herring into the bank/downed trees where the current wasnt as strong 4.11.23 scott.jpg4.11.23.jpgtrying not to get snagged. But if you could keep the bait down for 5-10 seconds without getting hung up, you had a fish on. The current was ripping about 2 meters per second. Casted upstream a little with just a medium sized split shot and a 3 ft leader. Using light spinning tackle and 8lb test. It was a lot of fun.

[Magoo5]

Those are fun days when you can get them. Looks like you bleed yours as well. The meat looks fantastic. I just started bleeding mine two trips ago and can't believe how much better the meat turns out. How do you bleed yours ?

[keywest]

Bleeding them makes a huge difference! We cut them from the bottom side where the two gills come together all the way to the spine. then hung them over the boat on a stringer for about 5 mins or until the next fish went on. then into the cooler.

Bleeding them does take some extra time but if you are keeping them, it is worth it even if you miss a few fish. The ones you get will be much better on the table. Probably doesn't matter if you are deep frying but cooked any other way you will notice a difference.

[wkelly]

Finally able to get out this week-- hadn't had my seachaser on the water in way too long. Of course that meant a lot of delays figuring out new problems, but all settled and off to the lake with 3 doz lively BB's and full charges on my new trollng batteries....
Nothing! Fished thurs-sat. Could not find them-- fished all around the river fork, both beaverdam creeks, and places in between. Spent too long in little beaverdam thinking the fish were all over until I realized it was carp rolling season. I saw one boat with 15 rods out-- presumably cut bait fishing-- pull in one fish. Stopped by another one with a ton of rods out and they were shaking their heads, too.
Finally gave up and trolled deep divng plugs and picked up a number of spotted bass.
Water temps were 62-67, depending on the creek. I guess with the odd weather and prolonged cool water they may still be up in the creeks?
Disappointing weekend-- only able to dull the hurt with evening cocktails....

[keywest]

At least you got out WKelly. I hit a floating log going up the keowee in the dark and bent my prop shaft. Just got a call from the dealer my new lower unit is in. Going to pick it up today. Not sure I will fish this weekend. my have to get the farming done. I'll let you know if I get it on.