June Fishing Trends

Lake Russell:
Catfish: Good. Catfish are being caught on cut herring fished 2-3 feet below floats around riprap near bridges. Striped bass: Fair. The best striped bass fishing is coming between the Highway 72 Bridge and the dam. Free line live herring or down line live herring 20-25 feet deep.
Black Bass: Good to very good. Fish are holding about 15 feet deep over 50 feet of water and they will take a live threadfin shad or herring, or come up to eat a topwater bait like a Sammie. Lots of spots are in these same areas. Around main lake points that intersect the main channel from Russell State Park up to Sander’s Ferry there are also a lot of bass orienting to the bottom and taking Spot removers or finesse-rigged soft plastics. Finally, as is the norm on Lake Russell, some good fish can be caught on Texas rigged worms fished in flooded timber. Right now fishing 15-20 feet deep over trees in 30-50 feet of water is ideal.

Lake Thurmond:
Crappie: Good. Most fish are being caught 16 feet deep over 20-25 feet of water around brush piles and trees. Anchoring and fishing vertically with either minnows or white popeye jigs is working well.
Black bass: Slow. Bass fishing has gotten tough again on Clarks Hill. The best fishing is on the bottom over humps in 15-20 feet of water. Jigs, Carolina rigs and Texas rigged worms are good options. Some small fish can be caught around the banks, and you can certainly run the bream beds looking for bass, but this is not a dominant pattern. Fishing topwater lures over deep points is a hit or miss pattern.

Lake Wylie:
Largemouth Bass: Good. Some residual fish can still be found shallow. Other fish have moved into a summer pattern and caught be caught around offshore structure on shakey head worms, deep running crankbaits, and jigs, or off deep docks.
Crappie: Fair to good. For now fish are scattered across the whole lake on the outsides of points, but as the summer progresses they will move out towards the river ledge. Some fish are suspended over the brush, and some are down the water column in the thick of the wood, so a variety of presentations will work. Vertically fishing minnows or vertically jigging Fish Stalker jigs in Ugly Green, blue with gold flake, yellow with black flake colors will catch fish. A slow, patient presentation is best. Some fish are also being caught casting jigs at the Colonel Creek and Dutchman Creek bridges.
Catfish: Good. Fish are returning to the flats where lots of eating size blue cats from 2-10 pounds can be found. They are hungry and killing cut bait offerings. A good bet for bigger blues is anchoring up the river in the morning.