Chad Morgenthaler – Been a While Beaver Lake to Hartwell

It’s been a little while, so let’s catch up on Beaver Lake first.
I’ll take my 31st place finish at Beaver with a great big wipe of my brow and a “whew; dodged a bullet on that one.”

I struggled a little bit the first day there because I couldn’t figure out the suspended fish bite, and it showed with three fish that put me somewhere in the 90’s in the standings.

Then the weather changed…

Thank goodness, because when they moved out onto the main lake and suspended, I couldn’t make them bite. I think I was getting in too much of a hurry with my jerkbait and not giving the bass in Beaver’s clear water a chance to commit.
When they moved from their late winter suspending phase to their prespawn staging point on day two in the nasty weather; I was able to catch them on a Wiggle Wart much better. They kept coming too; all day long they moved up in waves.

I weighed in 13-8 and moved up from 95th to 31st; which I was happy with. I had a chance at a much bigger bag; I had two really big ones come up and bump my crankbait with their mouths closed, and had either one of those eaten and taken a ride in the Jasper / Fishouflage Phoenix; it would have been top 20 cut time.

Oh well, I’ll take it.

I just finished practice at Lake Hartwell, and I can honestly say I don’t know exactly what to expect. This lake has some good ones in it, and I had a good first day of practice, then two that were so-so.

I think I figured out something good, but I’m not sure that there are enough of them to fill a bag every day. I’m not planning on sightfishing, even though it’s likely to be a sightfishing deal, but, you never know; I may have to.

I’m pretty sure there are going to be some really big bags caught here, but my thought is that it will be a spotty deal, and that consistency will win out in the end.

Well, I’m off to the pairings and registration meeting; I’ll talk to you after Lake Hartwell; wish me luck.

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