Santee’s swamp bass

A bass angler’s paradise

The swampy, cypress-tree-studded areas of the Santee Cooper lakes of Marion and Moultrie look like a bass fisherman’s paradise.

The truth is, these swamps come pretty close even in January.

Kyle Austin is a professional bass tournament angler and USCG licensed fishing guide for largemouth bass and catfish. He said mid-winter can provide excellent bass fishing in the swamps.

“Swamps look like ideal cover to find lots of bass, but fishermen won’t find a big bass hiding around every tree or log anytime of the year,” he said. “With the right game plan, bass fishing in the swamps is highly productive, including having a reasonable possibility of hooking monster bass.”

Austin (843-209-3726, Kyle Austin Guide Service) said the tree-laden swamps do provide great woody cover for bass in the form of not only trees, but logs, stumps and weedbeds. But not all of these bass-attracting features are created equal. And their bass-attracting super-power can shift daily.

“The wooded swamps throughout the lakes paint an ideal-looking bass fishing picture, but it takes specific circumstances for that woody cover to be consistently producitve,” he said. “It’s what’s on the bottom that separates productive trees from pretty scenery.

“I prefer to work along underwater ditches and runs that cut across flats and through the tree-studded landscape,” he said. “The edge of creek channels, high spots and old ponds offer this underwater depth change that attracts bass.”

Bass utilize several travel routes as they search for ambush cover and forage.

Find the food source

Austin said the slightly deeper water is a bit of a safety factor for bass. But they won’t always be in that deeper water. He’ll focus a lot of effort around that type of place but he’ll certainly fish back onto the flats for a reasonable distance.

“In addition, bass require food sources to stay in a specific area so forage fish including shad and bream are excellent bass attractors to specific areas,” he said. “Crawfish are another prime forage and are sometimes overlooked by anglers. But they can be a key attraction. After a heavy rain, or on a full moon, the crawfish become more active and thus more available to bass. They’re high in protein and bass love them.”

Austin finds bass at considerably varying depths. And that’s often influenced by the weather, but water depths of 3 to 5 feet is a good range to begin your search. Since the Santee Cooper swamps are typically shallow, the depths are not going to be extreme. That means even relatively small changes in depths can be crucial.

“Water color and time of day can impact where bass will be,” he said. “Dingy water is more likely to have fish shallower than clear water. And that will be a direct function of weather and rainfall. Light patterns on sunny days can influence bass locations in shallow water.

“In this part of South Carolina, it’s not unusual to get 2 or 3 days of warming weather. And water temperatures can rise quickly in these shallow swamps with sunshine and warm winds.”

Austin’s basic pattern is to find the areas with access to water depth changes, locate forage in those areas and then begin fishing at various depths. He covers lots of water, working various depths and cover combinations.

Develop a pattern

“The trick is not simply covering a lot of water, but fishing it effectively,” he said. “Cold weather slows the metabolism, so the bite is not always aggressive. I work a variety of lure combinations to offer bass multiple options.”

Austin said that via this searching and checking process, a pattern will develop in terms of depth, speed and lure combinations.

“Then it’s a matter of finding similar areas when I feel I’ve worked a specific area thoroughly,” he said. “But it’s not a bad idea to return to a highly productive area a few hours later because more bass may have moved in. This month, areas with the right depth, cover and forage requirements are premium spots for bass. And they’ll find it.”

Water conditions will vary based on seasonal weather patterns that change annually. But Austin said typically anglers can expect stained water in the swamp.

“It’s great water color for bass fishing,” he said. “The stained water means I’ll be using a good bit of chartreuse color in many of my lures. Also, when crawfish are on the menu, common at this time of year, then red and brown color patterns can be quite effective.”

Austin said he’ll use a wide assortment of lures that perform well in shallow water.

“I’m fishing heavy cover in water depths typically 3 to 5 feet deep and lures I’ve found to be effective include the 1.5 square bill and lipless crankbaits, in a crawfish pattern. Jigs in a chartreuse and black-back pattern are effective. This is a solid color pattern that I use in the swamp anytime of the year.”

He said spinnerbaits and chatterbaits are excellent choices too.

As late January morphs into February he said the fishing can pick up for big pre-spawn bass. Big bass are a realistic target in January but even more-so in February.

“Since I’m fishing a lot of thick, gnarly cover, I use 15-pound test fluorocarbon line on most lures, but will move up to 17- to 20-pound test fluorocarbon when using bottom bumpers such as jigs,” he said. “I want to be rigged to handle a trophy bass because that’s a distinct possibility.

He said fishing can be productive throughout the day because of the heavy cover.

“On an average day, I’d look for 5 to 10 bites from quality fish,” he said. “The potential exists for big fish, even double-digit sized bass,” he said. “It’s what fishermen wake up for when they fish Santee Cooper. No guarantees, but 7- to 8-pound bass are realistic goals on any given day.

“I’m basically an ‘old school’ young fisherman,” he said. “I use a lot of what my bass fishing mentors taught me when I was young. And I combine that with electronics to create my own modern strategy as a blend of tactics.”

Austin said the key to successful swamp fishing at Santee Cooper is to not overthink the process.

“Granted, the swamps do look like a bass-fishing paradise even during the winter,” he said. “With diligence and patience, this bass paradise does exist in the swamps. It simply morphs as the weather, water and forage conditions change. When I find that small, isolated area with a high population of bass, it really does seem like a hungry bass lurks behind every tree.”

Finding winter hotspots

A primary reason that Kyle Austin fishes fast and thoroughly is he’s looking for the hotspot where he’ll often find a lot of fish in a relatively small area.

“Fishing the swamps can take patience, but can be extremely rewarding,” he said. “I may fish a mile of trees and woody cover with slow action, then find an area packed with bass and maul them in a 50- to 100-yard stretch where all the conditions mesh to hold bass.

“The keys to these honey holes may change daily,” he said. “It may be on a specific day it’s the tupelo trees that produce, not the cypress trees. Or, bass may be in 4 feet of water, but not in 3 feet or 5 feet. Sometimes I literally have to let a lure bump the tree and fall directly beside it to generate a bite. This ‘bumping the bark’ tactic is effective during January.”

He said the productive pattern can be a specific niche, but that’s why swamp fishing can be so much fun. Once he develops a pattern, fishing can be surprisingly wild considering the time of year.

Austin said he’ll single out individual trees as prime targets. The point tree of a stand of cypress trees is often more productive than other trees.

“It’s not aways a visible woody or weedy target where bass are found,” he said. “Bass relate to ditches, deeper holes and any bottom contour changes that provide slightly deeper water near feeding areas. Sometimes it’s right along the edges, or in the slightly deeper water of these features, where bass stack up in big numbers.”