By majorleaguefishing.com
OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. — Any list of the most famous tournament fisheries in the U.S. has to include Lake Hartwell. The Georgia-South Carolina border reservoir has hosted four Bassmaster Classics and 92 MLF/FLW events at just about every level of competition, including two editions of the All-American.
The one exception has been the Bass Pro Tour. Major League Fishing’s top circuit will finally rectify that when it visits Hartwell for Stage 2 of the 2026 season, set for February 19-22.
Since Hartwell has never hosted a BPT event, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s also never been an every-fish-counts tournament at this level held there. That should make for an interesting new twist on the fishery and, weather permitting, perhaps some gaudy weights, as it usually doesn’t lack for numbers of bass.
Covering 56,000 acres with almost 1,000 miles of shoreline, Hartwell will offer the field plenty of room to spread out. Most of the time, the primary decision facing anglers is whether to target spotted bass or largemouth. While the latter aren’t quite as plentiful, they typically offer a higher top-end size.
But between the format and the February timing of this event, anglers might not care which species they’re catching. Regardless, most of the bass will likely be found offshore. Long before the introduction of forward-facing sonar, fishing deep ditches accounted for the win at both the 2008 and 2015 Bassmaster Classics on Hartwell; both of which featured cold weather, and anglers have only gotten better at targeting offshore fish with modern electronics.
The bigger question figures to be what anglers will do during the two periods per day in which they’re not able to utilize forward-facing sonar. Some might stay offshore and try to fool the deep bass without being able to see them, while others will likely head shallower, where there’s plenty of docks and other covers available.
Casey Ashley will look to add to his impressive Lake Hartwell résumé, which already includes a Bassmaster Classic title and a wire-to-wire win at a 2014 FLW Tour event. Photo by Rob Newell
A couple of competitors could have an edge when it comes to knowing where to look for winter bass on Hartwell. Casey Ashley and Mitchell Robinson both live near the fishery and have logged multiple big wins there. Ashley won a 2014 FLW Tour event on Hartwell as well as the 2015 Bassmaster Classic, while Robinson won a high school national championship in 2024 and a Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event last March.
In fact, both of the protagonists from last year’s Invitationals event, the most recent tour-level tournament on Hartwell, are in this field – Robinson and fellow BPT rookie Dustin Smith. Last year, Robinson erased a 4-pound deficit on the final day to edge Smith by 2 ounces for his first pro win. Both could be anglers to watch this time around, although with the event being two weeks earlier, their tactics are likely to be a bit different. Last year, Smith exclusively targeted shallow largemouth and caught several key fish on a buzzbait.
Of note:
- Ashley and Robinson are two of the four South Carolina residents who will be competing in their home state, along with Anthony Gagliardi and Andy Montgomery.
- Four anglers in the field have previously won on Hartwell, all of them netting six-figure paydays. Like Ashley, Alton Jones won his lone Bassmaster Classic on Hartwell in 2008. Brent Ehrler won a FLW Tour event on Hartwell in 2012.
- Speaking of Ehrler, could this be the event he finally claims his first Bass Pro Tour win? The California native has taken a liking to Hartwell. In addition to his 2012 win, he finished second at both a 2011 FLW Tour event and the 2018 Bassmaster Classic. Ehrler is overdue to claim his first BPT trophy – his 19 Top 10s are the most by any angler without a win.
