A quick look at look at his Facebook page shows that striper and hybrid fishing is still wide open on Clarks Hill for Captain William Sasser (864-333-2000), even though William only rates the bite as an “8” out of 10 compared a 9 or 10 earlier in the summer.  However, parties are still loading the boat with nice stripers and hybrids.

Early in the morning his boat is concentrating on 30-foot deep humps on the lower end of the lake that have significant hydrilla growth.  When they clean stripers and hybrids it is clear that the fish are feeding on crayfish, but William is down-lining live herring to catch the fish.

Mid-morning when the sun starts to get up fish are pulling out and suspending in the river channel about 50 feet down.  William’s boat is having success fishing in the South Carolina Little River, Keg Creek, and the Savannah River.  In addition to down-lined herring trolling with umbrella rigs has been catching these fish, and to get them down to the fish they are pulling them on lead core line way back from the boat.  There is no significant schooling activity to report but it should not be too far off.

Overall, Clarks Hill is at 326.71.  Striper still dominate angling hours on the water, but other species can also be caught.

Black bass: Fair.  Buckeye Lures in Augusta reports that there are several different patterns working for bass on Clarks Hill right now, and as is typical on blueback herring lakes first thing in the morning there is some schooling activity – which quickly shuts off once the sun gets up.  Sammies, Super Spooks and other larger topwaters will catch fish.  Outside of the very early window two other patterns have been dominating, and in a surprising bite black buzzbaits – especially double buzzbaits like these – have been catching fish all day long.  Interestingly, these have been working best on sunny days and cloud cover has actually killed the bite.  Anglers are throwing the baits in the backs of pockets near deeper water, on shallow humps, and off main lake points – but the key has been the presence of hydrilla.  The other pattern has been fishing deep around humps that may top out in 19 or 20 feet of water but that are surround by 25 or 30 feet of water.  Dragging plastic worms or throwing jigs has been the main way anglers are targeting these fish.

Crappie: Slow to fair. Captain William Sasser reports that like most Clarks Hill anglers he spends little time pursuing crappie in the heat of August.  However, anglers who want to target them should look for deep, suspended fish.  Fishermen should target deep brush in the 50-foot range and drop minnows about 30 feet down to the fish.

DHEC Fish Advisory: Only one meal per week of largemouth bass.