Late winter serves up some of the best bass fishing of the year at Lake Hartwell. Brian Latimer of Belton displays a typical winter bass from the lake. Photo by Jeff Samsel.

The good news is that South Carolina waters serve up an amazing variety of angling opportunities and that excellent fishing can be found 12 months a year.

The bad news is that South Carolina waters serve up an amazing variety of angling opportunities and that excellent fishing can be found 12 months a year.

Why is that bad news? Because there are only so many days in a year, and most of us have to work and have priorities other than fishing that compete for at least some of our off days. Days that can be spent on the water are limited and precious, while fishing opportunities are limitless. We've handpicked some of the finest fishing opportunities for every month of the year for those days when you can get on the water.

JANUARY
Lake Jocassee: Trout
When the world seems mighty chilly to fishermen, it's downright comfortable to trout, which are cold-water fish that are living at the extreme southern end of their range in South Carolina. That means they don't have to hang out in ridiculous depths to find comfortable water temperatures in Lake Jocassee. During January, they can go wherever the food is most abundant.

Jocassee Outdoor Center sponsors a series of trout tournaments throughout the year on Lake Jocassee, and their winter event typically draws the biggest crowd. That's not because folks expect a lovely day relaxing comfortably on a mountain lake. It's because the fishing tends to be good at that time, and anglers stand a better than normal chance of hooking into a really large rainbow or brown trout.

Most anglers troll with spoons or minnow-style lures, and during winter, the fish are sometimes shallow enough to troll with no downriggers. At night (yes, folks fish at night in the mountains in January!), a stationary approach with lights shined on the water and live bait fished in the lights produces a lot of trout.

FEBRUARY
Lake Hartwell: Largemouth Bass
Depending on water color and recent days' temperatures, the bass can be doing a lot of different things on Hartwell during February, and the best pattern may vary substantially from one part of the lake to another. The common denominator tends to be excellent late-winter bass fishing action.

A lot of fish will likely remain deep, holding tight to main-lake structure. However, they usually will be close to areas that they will move up onto in the spring and will be holding on the last available deep structure, which often will be flooded timber. Jigging spoons fished vertically among the trees and football-head jigs dragged slowly along the bottom work well for getting these fish's attention.

Another approach that works well in clear water if the fish have begun moving up is to crank a flat-sided, tight-wiggling crankbait, such as a Bomber Flat A or a Strike King Flat Shad, over points that stretch into the deeper water. Up the creeks and in the lake's upper end, where stained water often predominates, flipping jigs or casting lipless crankbaits will produce more action.

MARCH
Santee Cooper: Crappie
Fertile waters, super-abundant cover and half a dozen species of shad or herring make for fat and happy crappie year after year on lakes Marion and Moultrie, and March begins prime time for putting a mess of Santee Cooper slabs in the boat.

During the spring, a lot of fish will begin moving up to the edges of the cypress stands and even anglers who know little about the lake can do well by casting minnows under corks around the trees. Because there is so much cover, though, it's important to identify those trees that stand out a bit from the rest or are at just the right depth, which calls for searching and paying close attention to details.