Trophy Largemouth Fishing in South Carolina's Upstate

What pumps me up for bass fishing is the feeling of picking up a giant largemouth out of the water, seeing the true size of its enormous mouth. The Upstate of South Carolina receives notoriety for the tournament bass fishing scene, with Lake Hartwell playing a major role in many bass fishing circuits and being a regular location for the Bass Master Classic. Lake Hartwell has become somewhat of a bucket-list fishery for tournament guys. But that is not what excites me about fishing in my region. What excites me are the smaller, tucked-away places around the Upstate that feature clear water and jumbo bass. Lake Jocassee is a prime example of this, where largemouth bass grow to enormous sizes by feeding on stocked trout. However, there are many other locations nearby that fit this criteria in the Upstate of South Carolina, over the border into North Carolina, and even into North Georgia and Tennessee. The key is finding a location that either has an abundant shad population or is regularly stocked with trout. The bass need this forage to grow to true giant sizes. Many of these clear lakes don’t have a large quantity of fish, but this allows more forage to be available for these fish to eat, enabling the largemouth bass to grow to impressive sizes. These waterbodies are challenging for fishing in this respect because of their low fish density and high amount of wise and discerning mature bass. It is truly a game that demands a trophy-hunting mentality.

The Tactics

Once you determine where you will hunt for these trophy largemouth, you need to develop a game plan. Due to the nature of the clear-water fisheries, traditional power fishing techniques often leave people scratching their heads, wondering if there are any fish in these lakes. What I have found works best for me is slowing down and finesse fishing for these giants. Find the prime-looking areas that would hold the forage for these fish and slow down. Drop shot can be like watching paint dry, but it is often the best technique for really soaking a bait where these big fish reside. Other finesse techniques, such as a neko worm, weightless fluke, shaky head, small jigs, or even a Ned rig, can be the key to convincing these wary fish to bite. At certain times of year, a big swimbait can be deadly, such as pre-spawn, after trout stocking for lakes that receive trout, the bluegill spawn, or the shad spawn for lakes that have abundant shad populations. It is crucial to pay attention to what the baitfish are doing in various seasons to determine what the bass are looking for.

Be Prepared

Trophy largemouth bass require the utmost preparation from anglers. This starts with ensuring that you are using a line that will hold up to their powerful headshakes, and making sure that your hooks are sticky sharp to penetrate their dense jaws. Stealth is paramount when approaching these fish. I have sight fished giant bass who I’ve watched turn around and stare at boats that are over 50 yards away, feeling every bit of the boat’s movement with their sensitive lateral lines. Because of this, when on foot, it is important to watch your footsteps and the movement of the rod to remain undetected.

One element of stealth that is often overlooked is what you wear to hunt these giant bass. It is very important to wear clothing that blends in with the trees around you or the sky above you, wearing drab colors, light blues, grays, or even camouflage to blend in with your surroundings. Leave the orange, red, and other bright colored clothing at home.

It is also very important that you prepare for how you will land the fish once you have it hooked. Approach each spot you fish with a plan for securing the fish once you hook it. Have a landing net, scales, and a bump board accessible for a quick landing and measurement once you catch your trophy. I have lost count of how many big fish I have lost at the moment of truth, right before I was able to lip them at the bank. Being unprepared can cost you the fish that you have worked so hard to catch.

Patience

One of the biggest qualities that separates the average fisherman from the ones who land giant bass is patience and persistence. Hunting big largemouth is as much of a mind game as it is physical skill. You will get skunked, lose confidence, have long drives home, be baffled by the lack of success, and wonder if the lake you are fishing is just not the right place. It is important to push through this doubt if you have researched the waterbody and know that it has the forage to hold giant bass. The truth is, they don’t always bite, and lakes that have lower quantities of bass can seem like ghost towns when the big fish don’t want to show themselves or bite. Landing a giant bass is a long game of learning a fishery, where the fish set up, figuring out the behavior of the forage species, and just plain luck. There is no substitute for time on the water and hitting the right place at the right time. Minus sheer dumb luck, persistence is the only way that you will find the bass of a lifetime.

Conclusion

South Carolina is often overlooked as a trophy largemouth fishing state. When people think of giant bass, Texas, Florida, or California come to mind. However, there is no shortage of places where you can find that double-digit bass that every bass angler dreams about. You’ll have to put in some work to find which bodies of water have the conditions necessary to grow such gargantuan fish, but once you do, it is not an impossible task to find that fish of a lifetime.