For more information or to book a trip with Hamilton, contact him at Lake Hartwell Striper Guide Service at (864) 304-9011.

THURMOND (CLARKS HILL)
Another topnotch striper lake for cold-weather fishing is Lake Thurmond (Clarks Hill Lake). This huge lake has an abundance of fish, both stripers and hybrids, with some very large stripers caught during the winter season every year. In addition, the lake is chock-full of underwater structures, such as channel ledge, humps, points, river bends and more. In fact, one of the biggest problems an angler can have here is defining where the fish will be on a given day because of the diverse structure options the fish have.

Again, a little local knowledge will go a long way in helping you solve this problem. Tommy Bertzfield has been fishing Thurmond for 30 years, with 18 of those years working as a professional fishing guide. Bertzfield said the December to mid-March period is an excellent time to catch good numbers of fish.

“Plus, we’ll typically catch some really large fish during this time of the year as well,” Bertzfield quickly pointed out.

“There is good fishing throughout the lake, but my favorite area is the Little River (South Carolina) portion of the lake. But the strategies I use will work just about anywhere on the lake during the winter,” he added.

Bertzfield said that the two primary methods he and most successful anglers employ are free-lining live bait and using planing boards to present the bait.

“Usually, I’ll use blueback herring, but some fishermen will catch gizzard shad and have really good success with that as well. I use the planing boards as a mechanism to get the baits spread out over a large area, so I can cover a lot of water effectively. That’s one of the keys to success. While the fish may be congregated in general areas, often they are not so thick that you can successfully just anchor over them and catch them. Using these rigs, I can cover 50 to 75 yards of water on a single pass. Plus, I’m covering water where my boat is not close to the bait. During this time of the year, I am convinced that the boat can cause the stripers to shy away a bit,” he said.

He uses his electric motor to troll slowly along and he will focus his efforts on underwater creek bends, points, humps and even steep shorelines.

“One area that most anglers bypass is working the bait near the shoreline. On some of the steep shorelines, we’ve caught 20-pound-plus stripers only a few feet off the bank using the planing boards.

“When free-lining, which sometimes works very well, I’ll put the bait out to the side and behind the boat with only a small split shot to get the bait down. Get the bait well away from the boat so the boat doesn’t spook the fish too badly. While you won’t be covering as wide a path as you will using the boards, this is a very effective technique and one that doesn’t require the use of boards. When I set up for this type of fishing, I’ll use four rods, with two straight behind the boat and one out on each side. Sometimes I’ll even use a cork placed about 10 feet in front of the bait. This is a great method to work the points,” he added.