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July 25

Lake Keowee water levels are at 97.9% of full pool and water temperatures are in the upper 80s.  Clarity remains normal.

There’s not much change in the pattern for catching Lake Keowee bass, but Guide Brad Fowler reports that fishing has gotten slower in the intense summer heat.  A few fish can still be caught on topwater lures, and a few will take drop shots, but mostly the fishing is pretty slow.  Some suspended fish will come up to the surface schooling periodically, and Brad says if he had a tournament right now he might concentrate on throwing topwaters all day.

Of course, one tried and true pattern for catching spotted bass in the summer on Keowee is by approaching it like a striper lake and fishing 10 rods out with down-lined blueback herring.  However, that won’t do any good for artificial lure purists or tournament anglers!

June 16

Lake Keowee water levels are at 98.2% of full pool and water temperatures are generally in the mid-80s.  Clarity is normal.

Guide Brad Fowler reports that Lake Keowee bass are in a pretty typical summer pattern, and on recent guide trips they have had good catches.  Early in the morning his boat has caught fish on topwater lures fished pretty shallow off points.  He has been throwing Spook Jrs., but most any small walking bait or other topwater lure will catch fish.  After the sun gets up fish will be found around deeper points and humps in the 20-25 foot range, and while he has not been fishing very deep there are almost certainly some fish around similar structure in deeper water, too.  Drop shots and shakey heads are both working.

During the day there is also a decent shallow bite around bream beds and docks, with a pretty good number of fish up shallow to feed.  These are not the easiest fish to target with artificial lures but they will take shakey heads and Pop-Rs at times.