April continues the trend at Santee Cooper of finding plenty of fish roaming the shallows. This month’s focus is on largemouth bass and catfish in skinny water.
Largemouth Logic
Largemouth bass fishing is phenomenal during April, with most of the action in shallow water. However, bass move in and out of the shallows, so their patterns and staging areas may differ. Not all shallow water is equal this month because bass are moving in and out of the spawning areas. Many fish have already spawned and are in a post-spawn pattern, and while some are in spawn mode, others are staging in pre-spawn areas.
But whether they’re in pre-spawn, spawn, or post-spawn patterns, shallow water fishing patterns rule.
The best lures vary, from bottom bumpers to spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and crankbaits, depending on the target fished. With the vast amount of shallow water available on both lakes, your options are many.
One of the best things about spring largemouth fishing is that bass scatter through the shallows, allowing anglers to find them using multiple patterns. This provides anglers with options to work their favored techniques.
However, some tactics, such as fishing soft plastic bottom bumpers, require very accurate casting, but the big bass rewards are worth the effort. They hang around cypress and gum trees on shallow flats and around stumps along old ditch channels and ledges. Also, some huge stump flats in slightly deeper water, from 3 to 8 feet deep, are prime staging areas for bass in pre-spawn or post-spawn patterns.
The Cooper River offers excellent bass fishing by April, producing quality largemouth. The best lures depend on the specific habitat fished, but soft plastics and spinnerbaits are two productive lures.
Compared to many lakes, the topwater bite at Santee Cooper is good during April because the water warms quicker in the shallow flats. Frogs are a good choice when fished in weedy locations. But bottom bumpers, shallow crankbaits, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits all produce bites. Fishing weed edge lines, small points or pockets along the weeds, and grass that drop into slightly deeper water are productive.
For trophy largemouth, April is a productive time to use live bait, such as big shiners or herring. Freeline the bait or use a float a couple of feet above it to track where your bait is swimming. However, working the bait slower gives the live offering a better opportunity to produce big bass bites.
Skinny Water cats
Except for the spawn, most everything for catfish is forage-driven, and that’s the case in April. Generally, shad, herring, and other species are moving into the shallows by March, and the big catfish follow. The cats are not in the shallows to spawn; that occurs later. They’re in the shallows to feast on readily available forage.
Shallow flats that lead to mussel beds are prime targets, but mussels are a bonus because the finfish forage draws fish into the shallows in big numbers.
And because some of the targets in the skinny water are the big herring that are here to spawn, the big catfish are shallow, too.
Cut chunks of gizzard shad, big herring, and white perch are all quality baits. Shallow flats near deeper water, or with a ditch coursing through them, provide a travel route for big catfish and thus usually are more productive than isolated shallow flats far from any deep water.
Most shallow-water catfish anglers fish from an anchored position and fan-cast baits around the boat. Typically, shallow-water catfish are active fish looking for grub, so if you fish for an hour with no bites, move to another area.
As is almost always the case, not all the catfish will be shallow (or deep), and if you’re fishing during post-frontal conditions, sometimes a severe front may push the catfish back out.
Work the deeper water by drift fishing or anchoring on a hump and fish the deeper slopes around the sides. Lakes Marion and Moultrie produce trophy catfish during April and plenty of eating-sized catfish.
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