Orr's favorite baits are hammered willow-leaf spoons in either gold or silver. He indicated that purple was often a good producer as well as green or firetiger green.

"I like a 71 Sutton spoon down to a 31 Sutton spoon," he said giving sizes that range from 4 inches to 6 inches. "One of our guides also makes the Badcreek Baits, which come in the same colors, and these work great too."

With the gin-clear water, Orr doesn't use any line over 10-pound-test. He also prefers a long, limber rod to set the baits up in the down riggers, favoring either a 7-foot Shakespeare Ugly Stik or Eagle Claw Ocean trolling rod in light action. The rods are matched with an Ambassadeur 5500 or 6000 baitcast reel.

The shop manager suggests using the main outboard motor to troll on Jocassee. Trolling speeds are normally from 1.0 to 3.0 mph with 1.5 being the preferred speed on a normal day. The newer four-stroke motors are well adapted at the slower speeds and make less noise than the older two strokes.

"If they're pumping water, the better bite in April usually lasts from about an hour before daylight till 10:30 a.m.," said Orr. "You can still catch fish even if they aren't running water, but the fish are not as concentrated and you'll need to do a lot of searching and cover a lot more water. There's a lot of submerged timber out in the lake and the trout will hold in that if they aren't ganged up at the dam."

The trout bite in April is primarily rainbows with just a few browns scattered in. Orr wasn't completely sure why the rainbows took center stage this time of year. In either case, he indicated that 90 percent of the trout catch would be rainbows with a few brown scattered into the mix although the browns tended to be really good-sized fish.

Stocking of both rainbows and brown trout are the lake's source of recruitment, with stocked fish coming from the nearby Walhalla Fish Hatchery. Stocking numbers vary from year to year, but Orr estimates the SCDNR stocked over 100,000 trout in the lake last year.

The daily creel limit for any coldwater trout caught from Lake Jocassee is five per person per day. There is a minimum size limit of 15 inches for any species of trout. A freshwater fishing license is required. South Carolina does not require a trout stamp.

So, whether you come for the scenery, the trout fishing, or a little of both, head up to Jocassee this month to get in on some of South Carolina's beauty and majesty in the mountains.