Find brush piles, find crappie
The key to catching wintertime crappie on Santee Cooper’s Upper Lake for Capt. David Hilton is to find active fish on brush piles.
Fishing out of Bells Marina and Resort, Hilton has no trouble finding plenty of sunken brush. “There’s definitely no shortage of brush piles on either the Upper or Lower lakes,” he said. “And this time of year, crappie hang tight to those brush piles and feed. They need to fatten up this time of year.”
Hilton said electronics play a big role here. “You don’t need the newest or the fanciest electronics,” he said. “As long as you can find sunken brush, that’s all you need, because that’s where the crappie are right now.”
But Hilton said every single brush pile isn’t always going to be active.
“They’ll move from one brush pile to another. So if you’re not catching them pretty quick, you need to move on,” he said. “These fish are eating, so if they’re not eating where you are, you need to find out where they are eating.”
Hilton said when he finds fish, he drops minnows down just above the depth of the fish (or brush).
“If fish are at 20 feet, I’ll put a live minnow at about 16 or 18 feet,” he said. “Crappie like to feed on what’s above them.”
Don’t reel
He said one of the best techniques is using long fly rods with spinning reels mounted to them. “If you want your minnow at 16 feet, you pull line straight out your spinning reel. Pull a full arm’s length, and that’s about two feet,” he said. “Do that eight times, and your minnow’s at 16 feet.”
One problem many anglers have, once they begin catching fish, is getting their minnow back down to the proper depth without wasting fish-catching time. But Hilton has a solution for that. It comes across as a bit of an off-the-wall technique, but it works.
“When you hook a fish, don’t use the reel,” said Hilton. “Instead, hold the rod with one hand, then pull the line with the other, just like you’re fly fishing.”
Hilton (843-870-4734) said anglers should grab the line at the eye of the rod, and pull line toward the reel.
“Then you just pin that line against the rod with the hand you’re holding the rod with. Then pull some more line. Do that until you’ve got the fish on the surface, then just lift the rod to get the fish in the boat,” he said.
Bells Marina and Resort offers easy access
Once the fish is unhooked, the anglers can get a minnow on their hook and get it down to the proper depth quickly by just tossing the bait overboard. It now sinks to the proper depth, without the need to pull line out and count down again. “Once you move to a different spot, you might have to do it over again, because the fish may be at a different depth at the new spot,” he said. “But overall, it saves a lot of time, and makes it easy to know you’re fishing at the proper depth each time.”
This month, Hilton said anglers don’t need to worry too much about hitting the water at first light.
“Crappie can be a little slow to start during winter. As the sun gets up and the day gets warmer, they’ll bite better,” he said. “So if you don’t get there at daybreak, you’re not missing much.”
Hilton primarily fishes out of Bells Marina and Resort, which is located at 12907 Old Number Six Hwy, Eutawville, SC. They can be reached at 803-492-7924 or bookings@bellsmarina.com. Conveniently located right on Lake Marion, Bells Marina has a boat ramp and boat slips, and the cove at the resort is lined with trees and relatively narrow, keeping it protected from wind and the wakes of boats that are present on the main lake. The resort also has numerous short-term and long-term lodging options, including hotel rooms, cabins, tiny homes, and RV sites, as well as a restaurant and store. An added bonus is that during winter, the cove often serves as a part-time home for big numbers of white pelicans, a rare sight that many folks enjoy seeing. ■
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