Freshwater Fishing

September opportunities

September serves as a wake-up call for outdoorsmen in the Santee Cooper area. The fishing patterns begin to change as the month progresses, with a trend to shallower water for some species and more-reliable, big-fish patterns in deep water for others. Hunting seasons throttle up everywhere around the lakes in September. […]

Crappie/Bream

Brush will hold crappie

August delivers “crappie consistency” to the Santee Cooper lakes. With water temperatures near or at the zenith for the year, slabs are ganged up around identifiable underwater targets in both Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie. […]

canal
Freshwater Fishing

July is canal-fishing time

Excellent fishing opportunities abound during the summer on Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, and one of the most-productive places to be is the Diversion Canal, the stretch of water linking the two lakes that provides sensational catfishing around the clock.

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Bass Fishing

Don’t quit thinking bass

Spring spawning for largemouths at Santee Cooper is in the rear-view mirror, but looking forward, the opportunity to catch bass, including trophies, is still a focal point for anglers. […]

Bass Fishing

Santee Cooper striped bass plan is prepared

Restoring the striped bass fishery on the Santee Cooper lakes with the 26-inch size minimum,a three-fish creel limit, and closed summer season was the goal of a seven-year plan formulated by the Santee Cooper Striped Bass Stakeholders Committee and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. 

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Freshwater Fishing

Fishing’s tops, no fooling

April is the month when almost every species of fish that spawns is in skinny water:  largemouth bass, crappie, catfish, stripers, shellcrackers and bream. Stripers are shallow in the sense they are running up the river to spawn and in fact, many are caught in the Pack’s and Elliott’s flats areas adjacent to the river.

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Freshwater Fishing

Don’t give up on January

January may be the coldest month, but it does put some fish into definable patterns that enable anglers make the most of the cold weather that usually greets the new year. […]