“There is an abundance of 7- to 8-inch class bluebacks, which is perfect for bass. With a low number of largemouths, there are plenty of groceries to go around.”

Rankin said anglers could expect to find decent numbers of both smallmouths and redeye bass. He describes the fish of both species as “very chunky,” and that it is not uncommon to catch 2- to 3-pound fish of either species.

“Unlike other lakes in the area, the number of spotted bass is low,” Rankin said. “These fish are probably a result of being pumped back from Lake Keowee during hydro operations. The numbers aren’t great, but the fish are really big.”

Because the lake is located high in the mountains, Rankin explained the timing of biological events with the fish lags behind lakes at lower elevations.

“Anglers seem to do the best from late spring into early summer,” he said. “April is good, but because the spawn is behind other areas, May and June can be great as well. Once the heat of the summer sets in, a lot of angling effort moves to after dark. Many of the night tournaments held during the summer are very successful,” Rankin added.

Stepping down in elevation from Jocassee is Lake Keowee, a lake that is similar in some ways to Jocassee but has been through a transformation.

“Keowee is nutrient deficient as well, but you have a warmwater discharge from the nuclear station,” Rankin said. “This allows more threadfin to survive the winter. You could describe the fishery on the lake as a “numbers” fishery as opposed to a trophy lake.”

Rankin said fish populations in Keowee have gone through a drastic shift in composition.

“We have 18 years of creek survey data that have revealed some major changes,” Rankin said. “Spotted bass were introduced into the lake by anglers in the mid- to late 1980s. In 1990, largemouth bass comprised over 75 percent of total fish harvest. That same year, the first year spotted bass showed up in the creel survey, they comprised less than 1 percent.”

Now fast forward to 2005.

“Last year, largemouth bass were 11 percent, whereas spotted bass had ballooned to over 68 percent. It is a real change in the fish population, not that anglers are just catching more spotted bass than largemouths. We have seen a good harvest of spotted bass that hasn’t changed much since 1996, but largemouth bass harvest is going down,” Rankin noted.

Rankin said early on the spotted bass grew very fast, as fast as the largemouth bass that were already in the lake. However, this is not the case now.

“The spotted bass have become super abundant, which has slowed their growth and overall size,” Rankin said. “During the population expansion, 3- to 5-pound spotted bass were common, but now a 3-pound fish is a really nice one and the common spotted bass is only 1 1/2 pounds.

“The notion of anglers taking fisheries management into their own hands by introducing non-native fish into reservoirs has repercussions. You are going to lose some things with non-native introductions.