Clark Hill observation

I rarely ever post. But I have to say this year has been the worst ever for me at Clark Hill. I don’t fish for Crappie a lot. And it’s always brushpile fishing with minnows. But for about the last 15 years, from about mid March until June, I could expect to at least keep it interesting catching fish. I think I’ve been 4 times this year. And up until today I don’t think I’ve caught a 10” crappie. I did bring home 8 today with a few above average size fish. But they started out small again. But thankfully I caught a few larger ones late. I wonder what is up with these fish? High water? Weather? I have enough brush out and enough year in and year out producers I just expect better. It’s been rough. At least I have one crappie meal freezing for later.

That’s odd for sure. It’s been about average for me as we do most of our crappie fishing from a dock on the broad river. Several times when it’s been really muddy, it’s been slow but other than than we always catch enough to keep it interesting. Here’s a few from April.Attachment 457723Attachment 457724


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Don't feel like the lone ranger. I have been fishing the Hill consistently for 25 years and this has been my toughest year without question. I had a good early start to the season while longlining, particularly Feb and the early part of Mar. Once we got the crazy up and down weather patterns, I struggled to find and pattern the fish. Like you, the brush piles and trees that typically produce for me this time of year have been spotty at best, and the fish are smaller than normal. I fished for 8 hours yesterday and finally lmanaged a decent box of fish, but I fished 20+ spots and caught fish from 20' to 3'. My best spot was a small blowdown in 3-4' of water! My theory is that the fish are running a bit late getting established on their late spring/early summer homes. I think it will get more predictable in a few weeks.

Fish the hill about every weekend, the fish have been in different areas every weekend it seems. One weekend in 5ft of water and the next 30ft. To add insult to injury the weather has been either windy, cold or raining or all of the above at once. Figuring them out has burned a lot of boat gas and trolling motor battery’s but that’s what makes me keep coming back. Attachment 457735
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It’s not just the Hill, it’s most lakes. I fished Lake Norman yesterday and caught males in 6-8 feet of water, majority were 20-22’ but got my biggest 30 feet deep. Also noticed the fish were down in the brush instead of on top. They didn’t wanna come up to the bait and didn’t want to follow. Had to go deep in the brush to get them.


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On the positive side, I do believe that working thru the more challenging conditions is what ultimately makes us better fishermen. The challenge is the foundation of what keeps it interesting. And the Hill is still one of the best crappie lakes around. Those of us who live close to it are blessed to have such a phenomenal resource in our backyard.

I haven’t been finding volumes of crappie but I have been finding size. I have been catching size. I get 6-12 1.5-1.75 lb almost every trip. They’re definitely all over the place. I have been finding them on brush around 20 fow in the morning and in suspended under docks in the afternoon or in down trees in 7 fow near the banks. It has been on a mix of jigs and minnows. Hope this helps with finding them. Hopefully the weather will settle down soon and so will the crappie.

I haven’t fished the hill since winter, but the couple trips I made we did fairly well. I think everything is a little behind schedule this year. The fish on Murray are scattered out bad too. In recent trips I’ve caught fish from shallow brush, deep brush, docks, bridges, and even roaming open water. A week and half a go the water temp was still mid 60s so I think we are just behind. When that water warms up I think everything will normalize and fish will set up on brush more consistently. At least I hope they do! LOL


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