Quote Originally Posted by STUMP HUNTER View Post
Hartwell is a hard lake but 3 years ago I caught 3 black crappie that were 2-1, 2-4, 2-5 and caught on jigs longlining.
Now that you mention that about Hartwell, I can't ever remember catching but a couple fish out of Hartwell that hit the 2lb mark. My roommate caught a bigun that we never got the chance to weigh. Ridgerunner may remember that fish. He came over to weigh him for us, but his scales were dead. If I had to guess I'd say he was 2.25-2.5 lb. That fish came off of one of Ridgerunner's brush piles that he was nice enough to show me.

While I was at Clemson I fished Hartwell a lot and I caught a lot of fish when the lake was suitable. As a whole, I generally caught better sized fish on average than I did on Murray back then, but we always caught more BIG fish (over 2 lbs) out of Murray. Recently the average size fish we catch on Murray is on the up and has probably surpassed what I used to catch on Hartwell. I guess that's due to the new 8" rule?!?!?!? Murray has had an extra year for it to yeild its effects.

It's odd though from year to year what the fishing is like. 2 years ago before I started full time employment I probably caught 15-20 fish in the spring of the year that were 2 lb+. Last year I only caught 4-5 and this year I've only caught 1 fish that hit the 2 lb mark. With that being said, we have consistently caught bigger sacks of ten fish this year than any other year to my knowledge. From Christmas time till now I don't think we have dipped below 11 lbs for a ten fish sack and the majority have been 13 lb+.