Freshwater Fishing Archives - Page 162 of 292

July 11, 2026

Fishermen can keep only two blue catfish longer than 32 inches — like this one caught by guide Allen Spence — per day on the Santee Cooper lakes and river system.

New catfish regs are in effect

The S.C. General Assembly passed a bill last year that took effect on April 1, changing how blue catfish in the Santee Cooper lakes are managed. […]

Guide Joel Richardson fishes around one of Randleman Reservoir’s many laydown trees that have been cut and cabled to their stumps.

Find Randleman’s bass hotels

Craig Holt

Fishermen who once fished flooded trees on either side of the narrow New Hope Creek channel in Jordan Lake will remember how those spots concentrated largemouths. […]

Whitey Outlaw shows off a mixed stringer of blue and channel cats caught in the Congaree River on catalpa worms.

The Congaree catfish connection

Terry Madewell

In the extreme upper end of Lake Marion, above where the convergence of the Congaree and Wateree rivers to form the Santee River, Whitey Outlaw from St. Matthews regularly mauls catfish in the Congaree. […]

A light Texas-rig and a plastic worm is a definite ticket to catching treetop summer bass.

Go light for treetop worm fishing

Craig Holt

Using soft-plastic lures such as worms and lizards is an effective technique for hauling bass from submerged wooden structure in reservoirs, but heavy weights don’t work well when fish are suspended in the upper reaches of the water column, where shad often prefer to hang out. […]

The Cooper River downstream from Lake Moultrie has a great trophy fishery for blue catfish.

Cooper River cats

Terry Madewell

Great fishing for catfish is not confined to the Santee Cooper lakes and the Diversion Canal; there’s outstanding fishing in the Cooper River below Lake Moultrie. […]

Downriggers are lethal tools to get baits down to depths where they can be trolled through the strike zones of different fish species.

The lowdown on downriggers

Phillip Gentry

Trolling open, deep water is a lethal tactic for a number of different species of fish, but problems develop in trying to place a bait at a specified depth on line that ultimately ends up in the hands of the angler at the surface. […]

Jim Crouse’s custom-made paddles can be both useful to paddlers and decorative to persons who appreciate the artful side of woodworking.

Just paddlin’ around

Pete Rogers

Next door to Pure Bubba, a tackle shop in Nichols, is a shop where Jim Crouse has been making custom paddles for anglers and collectors for more than 20 years. […]

Power-jigging with an Alabama Rig drew a strike from this Lake Norman hybrid bass for guide Craig Price.

Strike out for a reaction

Dusty Wilson

Whether you call it power-jigging, speed-jigging, or speed-reeling, the technique has been proven effective at catching numerous offshore saltwater species, striped bass and now, hybrid bass. […]

Above: A small topwater plug like this Spook Junior is a perfect tool for drawing strikes for hybrid and spotted bass feeding at the surface on small baitfish.

Opportunities on top

Dusty Wilson

Conventional fishing wisdom says that topwater baits should be retired shortly after sunrise, not to be picked up again until shortly before sunset. […]

Fishermen can fish streamers either downstream or upstream, although they might be more effective downstream.

Sculpzilla: king streamer

Robert Satterwhite

Streamers are flies that imitate a variety of aquatic life, especially minnows, and when fly fishers fish big waters for big trout, they’ll usually tie on a streamer. […]