Diversion Canal fryers

Catch ’em up, fry ’em up

Capt. Joe Dennis of Chasin’ the Wild Outdoors TV has put his anglers on plenty of trophy-sized catfish on the Santee Cooper lakes. But a lot of his anglers prefer catching smaller cats that are better for a fish fry. September, he said, is the perfect time to do that, and the Diversion Canal, which connects Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, is the perfect place to do it.

“What a lot of anglers like about this, is it’s a pretty simple pattern to follow, and you can catch enough for a fish fry before the heat of the day sets in,” said Dennis (843-245-3762).

Fresh shrimp bought at the grocery store is a great bait for this type of fishing. And that’s the easiest bait to get ahold of.

Dennis usually meets his clients at Canal Lakes, which sits right on the Diversion Canal. From there, it’s a short ride to where he begins fishing.

“You can start anywhere along the canal really,” said Dennis. “I like to drift with my boat sideways, because it gives you the whole side of the boat to put rods out and set them in rod holders,” he said.

Then he drifts with the current of the canal. On some days, he drops drift socks to slow his drift. On other days, he just allows the current to move him.

“I’ll use my trolling motor sometimes, just to keep my boat situated sideways,” he said.

As he drifts, Dennis keeps his rods in rod holders until he gets a strong pulldown on one of his Catch The Fever rods.

Watch your speed

“Don’t pick up a rod that’s just getting nibbles. You want to wait until that rod doubles over and stays doubled,” he said.

When his anglers catch multiple catfish in a certain section of the canal, he’ll crank his outboard and head back up to the starting point of that drift, and he’ll do it again.

“You want to keep watch on the banks so you can remember where you’re catching them,” he said.

When dropping the bait down, Dennis advises his anglers to lower the bait until it hits the bottom, then crank up on the reel’s handle a few times.

“You don’t need to cast. Just let the bait drop straight down,” he said. “Your bait is drifting right along with the boat.”

And if he’s drifting and not getting bites, he’ll slow his drift by deploying a drift sock or two.

“Some days, you’ll have to experiment with your speed,” he said. “Some days, the wind blows in the same direction the current is moving. That make you move faster than the fish want. Other days, the wind blows against the current and can slow you down just right, too much, or not enough.”

Dennis said the fish will let you know if your speed is wrong.

“If you’re not catching fish, you need to make some type of adjustment, and that’s usually in the form of either slowing down or speeding up,” he said.

If you specifically want to target trophy catfish, Dennis said this isn’t the best way to do it. But if you’re looking to have a fish fry and catch a mess of cats that range from 2 to 10 pounds, this is a quick way to meet your goal.

“And you’ve still got a decent chance to hook into one or two much bigger catfish,” he said. “We’ve caught some true trophies fishing this way, but this is not the preferred method for doing so. But this is the way to make everyone at the fish fry happy.”