Home From "The Hill"

A few stellar days of crappie fishing is now in the books. Today was South Carolina Crappie Associations Clarks Hill tourney so I took a few trips over there this past week to try and find the big girls. Day 1 was Monday. Monday was a holiday for me so me and my dad loaded up and left out at 5:30 AM. It was our first trip to Clarks Hill since last March so we were on the hunt. We were tightlining or pushing minnows and jigs in shallow water. We put lines out in about 2 FOW and caught a fish right off the bat. We started at the back of the creek and headed out, never turning around until we hit one stretch with some good ones. We did get to talk with Butch and it was great seeing a fellow crappie.comer on the water. We ended he day with 28 keepers and some quality fish. Biggest fish was 2.02 and we had another right at 2. Fish were caught in 2-15 FOW with 9-10 FOW being the magic depth.

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Day 2 was yesterday. We went a little farther from home so we left at 5:00 AM. It was a long trip, but it was well worth it. We caught fish and more fish. Same technique as Monday but we found he fish shallower. We fished in 3-12 FOW but the magic depth was 5-6 FOW. We never turned around on any spots and made one really long pass following the creek channel. With the lake being low it was more of a ditch. A two man SC limit was kept and our best fish were over 2 lbs with the biggest going 2.48! Talk about fun! It's some kind of adrenaline rush when you have a big mama like that on about 4 foot of line off a 14 ft pole.

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Day 3 was today, tournament day. Man, what a change in conditions. Both previous trips were dead calm with bright sun. Today we saw sun, overcast skies, rain, and PLENTY of wind. The fish bite was still on, but the big fish were hard to come by for us. We caught plenty of solid fish, but never got the kicker bites we needed. We ended up with 11.32 lb for our tournament weight which put us well down the board, but it was still an enjoyable trip. We probably caught 70-80 crappie today and kept another SC double limit. Same technique as our practice days but today we found fish even shallower! We ended up catching quite a few in 3 FOW and they wanted it moving fast. The females didn't appear to be blown up with eggs, but the males were starting to spray. I think the females will hold out for a few weeks until the length of day gets right, but they are in position to do there thing!!!

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Still a great 3 days of fishing Derek. Congrats to you and your dad for putting in the work to be competitive.

Just what Ray said, a great 3 days of fishing. Hey if I had just 1 of those days I would be happy. Is T Frick related just happen to see it? What happen to Russell? Did he not fish? I know him, he's a good guy. Thanks for sharing. By the way your little girl looks like she has grown some from the last pictures.

Always enjoy a good report from the hill. Thank you for posting.

I think I spoke to you on Monday. I was in a 22ft key west center console.

That is an outstanding 3 days of fishing. I think I will go back to the hill Monday and target shallow water. Thanks for sharing pictures and post and if you got any tips you want to share pm me.

Great report Derek and congrats on all three days of catching! Y'all had some nice looking crappie and the Hill can turn out some hoggs.

3 Nice days of fishing. How do you rig for pushing?

Strong weights!

Good job catching. Hate you guys didn't win. But there will be another day. Thanks for sharing and the great pictures.:biggrin

The Hill is going strong...I hope they hold off a while too, but we have followed them shallow in the past week too. Feb=Mar this year it seems. Some of the ones we got Fri looked like they had done laid and sprayed. Thanks for the report. Great pics!

Wow, some great weights and 14 lbs plus to win
Thanks for the report!

Great report CB! Thanks for sharing another great adventure!

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Originally Posted by Eatmorecrappie

Just what Ray said, a great 3 days of fishing. Hey if I had just 1 of those days I would be happy. Is T Frick related just happen to see it? What happen to Russell? Did he not fish? I know him, he's a good guy. Thanks for sharing. By the way your little girl looks like she has grown some from the last pictures.

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Todd Frick is from the Lexington side of Murray. I'm from the Chapin side. I'm certain that we are kin if we looked back far enough.

Russell fished alone and didn't go to the weigh-in. When he left he came by and talked with us and had about the same as us. Russell is a great guy for sure!!

My little girl is growing up too fast!! LOL


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Originally Posted by Jay_Hawk06

I think I spoke to you on Monday. I was in a 22ft key west center console.

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I think we did speak. Me and my dad were in a silver 18 ft ranger bass boat.


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Originally Posted by mrbigfish2

3 Nice days of fishing. How do you rig for pushing?

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I rig just like for spiderrigging. 1/2oz weight above a swivel and an 18-24" leader to the bait of choice. 6 lb mono for leader and mainline.


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Thanks for the comments everyone!


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Congrats on 3 good days Derek. You guys might not have won the tourney but you caught some great fish. It was good seeing you and your Dad on the water and that's a darlin' of a daughter you got there.:)

Congrats on 3 days wackin and stackin crappie. Good job.

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Originally Posted by Crappie Buster

I rig just like for spiderrigging. 1/2oz weight above a swivel and an 18-24" leader to the bait of choice. 6 lb mono for leader and mainline.


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Im off Tuesday and plan on going to Russell and giving this a try. Thanks for answering my question.

hey Derek. good to see you are still at it. your little girl is precious. we are enjoying little Paisley. she is now 3 1/2 years old. keeps Jeremy on his toes. we have been catching a few up at our normal place. hit the power lines this sunday. did o.k. nothing special. no fishing on saturday. wind was too much for us. i would love to go to Clarks Hll. got to talk jeremy into it. i will give you a call when we decide to go and maybe you can at least give us an idea on the area. have not been up there since we had a boat club around fishing village. it was the lazy 8 boat club when we were teenagers. take care. will give you a call before long.

Way to go great fishing. :HandsClapping

Congrats on a great few days fishing...the Hill has produced a lot of good fish this year as usual. 👍🏼