After several months of hit-and-miss precipitation, the sub-basins along the Savannah River delivered in style for August.

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American Bass Anglers, Inc. and Visit Anderso
n have joined together to present the 2015 American Fishing Tour National Championship at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC the week of October 17 -23, 2015.  The event will take place at the new Green Pond Landing launch facility to be completed in December of 2014.  Up to 250 boats will descend upon Anderson, SC to compete for three new Triton Boat/Mercury Outboard packages during the 2015 AFT Championship.  Anglers will be coming from AFT divisions as far away as New York and Kansas to attend the event.  “Visit Anderson is proud to be the host of the 2015 AFT National Championship at Green Pond Landing on Lake Hartwell.  We’ve worked hard to make the facility and our community a world class destination for bass fishing,” said Jennifer Norman, Executive Director of Visit Anderson.

Lake Hartwell lies on the South Carolina/Georgia border and covers 56,000 acres.  The Lake Hartwell Dam was completed in 1959 joining the Savannah, Seneca, and Tugaloo Rivers.  Many events such as the FLW Tour and the B.A.S.S. Elite Series tournaments have been held on the lake.  Lake Hartwell will, also, be the home of the 2015 Bassmaster Classic.

The completion of the new Green Pond Landing launch facility will open a whole new chapter for tournament fishing in Anderson, SC.  The state of the art facility will be open in December of 2014 and will include four launch ramps and paved parking for 175 trucks/trailers.  Phase II of Green Pond Landing will take place over the 2015-2016 winter adding additional parking and facilities to the site.  Completion of this facility will bring many events that typically take place in other communities on Lake Hartwell to Anderson, SC.  The AFT National Championship will be the second major event to be held out of Green Pond Landing.  Green Pond Landing is located at:  470 Green Pond Road Anderson, SC 29626.

“We feel privileged to be working with a first class organization such as Visit Anderson.  With the help of Visit Anderson, this should be an AFT Championship for the record books,” said Morris Sheehan, ABA President.  Visit Anderson is located at: 110 Federal Street, Suite 8; Anderson, SC 29625 and can be reached at (877) 282-3660 or www.visitanderson.com.

The American Fishing Tour was originally known as the Military Bass Anglers Association and was formed in 1974 four decades ago. MBAA was purchased by American Bass Anglers, Inc. in January of 2000 and was renamed the American Fishing Tour opening it to grassroots anglers outside of the military ranks. The American Fishing Tour is now the largest grassroots angler tournament trail in the country. There are currently 80+ divisions of the AFT spanning across more than 30 states. Nineteen (19) of these divisions are located in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina making Lake Hartwell a great choice for an AFT national event.  The American Fishing Tour offers low cost, close to home bass tournaments that are designed for the weekend angler. All ABA anglers fish for money and points. The points advance the anglers to their divisional championship and the top 500 anglers in the US are invited to the American Fishing Tour National Championship.

AFT Championship anglers can cash in on contingency programs such as Triton Gold, Atlas Awards, Garmin Grand Giveaway and Mercury/Motorguide bonus money during this event.

American Bass Anglers, Inc. is supported by Triton Boats, Mercury Outboards, Royal Purple Lubricants, Carlisle Tires, Odyssey Batteries, Dolphinite, Wicked Glow Lures, T-H Marine, Livingston Lures, Best Western Hotels, Simms Clothing, Garmin, North American Fishing Club, Maui Jim, and Power Pole.  American Bass Anglers, Inc. can be contacted at (256) 232-0406 or by visiting americanbassanglers.com.

If we were to use the current conditions of the Savannah River Basin as indicators, it would seem reasonable to conclude we are facing imminent drought.

First, the upper basin has experienced below average rainfall for the last three months. Thurmond fared better than Hartwell by receiving about 86 percent of average rainfall in the past 90 days. But in the same period Hartwell has only received about 69 percent of average.

Second, the result of this rainfall deficit has left portions of the basin abnormally dry, and a few places in moderate drought, as shown in the image released Aug. 6 by NOAA here.

Third, inflows are currently dismal. At Hartwell inflows are 22 percent of normal, and at Thurmond we are observing a painful -19 percent of normal. The negative inflow at Thurmond means evaporation is greater than local inflows to the reservoir. Even assuming inflows improve to 75 percent of normal, our 10 week projection has us brushing up against Drought Level 2 in October.

If the projections are close to the mark, reservoir levels will reflect a sharper naturally-induced winter drawdown that hangs in the Drought-Level 1 vicinity, and maybe in Drought Level 2.

But by December we have good reason to expect a turn of events. We may even be dealing with the opposite challenge: high water.

The most recent ENSO forecast shows all models remain equal to or above +0.5ºC through spring 2016, and most predict a +1.5ºC or higher, as shown below.

This means El Niño conditions are now present and we are facing a near-certain “strong El Niño” for the winter. El Niño conditions are warmer-than-average air currents in the Pacific that typically translate to above-average precipitation in the southeast, as indicated in the winter outlook map below.

As a reminder, the cooler winter weather significantly increases the rainfall-to-runoff ratio. Historical data demonstrates reservoir levels are very responsive in the winter, which is why successful refills occur even with below-average rainfall.

In fact, I spoke with Todd Hamill, a hydrologist with NOAA’s Southeast River Forecast Center, and he said the last time we experienced a comparable El Niño was the winter of 1997-98. In October of 1997 both Hartwell and Russell were about a foot away from Drought Level 2.

Starting in December that year we began receiving above average rainfall. In January 1998 Hartwell received more than 9 inches and more than 7 inches the following month. As a result we were dealing with high water issues beyond June of that year.

“We got rain every three days [that winter],” Hamill said. “There are other factors that can come into play [besides El Niño] but it looks like we’re facing a chance of flooding – which is a bigger problem than people think.”

If the ENSO forecast is a reliable prediction of what’s to come in the winter, we may experience a refill that exceeds expectations earlier than usual – perhaps even causing a high-water event.

~Russell Wicke, Corporate Communications Office

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