LAKE KEOWEE

Lake Keowee covers about 18,500 acres across Oconee and Pickens counties, with roughly 387 miles of shoreline winding through the South Carolina foothills. Largemouth bass are an important prize here, joined by spotted, smallmouth and Bartram’s/redeye bass in a lake where SCDNR documents four black-bass species. That variety, combined with Keowee’s clear water, deep sections, long points, coves and open basins, gives bass anglers a lake that rewards learning how different areas behave rather than fishing every arm the same way. Keowee is also a major boating and recreation lake, with public launches, shoreline communities and easy access to the Clemson, Seneca and greater Upstate area. Its clear water and mountain backdrop give it a polished, almost vacation-lake feel, but underneath that scenery is a complicated fishery with plenty to keep serious anglers coming back.