With hot weather bearing down, summertime fishing patterns are solidly locked into place on the Santee Cooper lakes, but if you have a good plan of action, that’s certainly not necessarily a bad thing.
Bebe Finklea of Summerton works on largemouth bass hard during the heat of the summer. He’s developed a style of fishing that is consistently productive.
“I typically fish the upper end of Lake Marion and stick close to the shallow water and heavy cover,” Finklea said. “I’ll usually fish in four to five feet of water during August, and I’ll primarily use Texas-rigged plastic worms and small crankbaits.”
Finklea’s plan is too get out early and fish cypress tree points, open stump flats and downed logs.
“Once the sun gets up, hunt the shady size of the trees, and keep an eye open for baitfish and schooling bass,” he said. “Have a rod rigged for long-distance casting in case largemouth are schooling on shad.”
Having fished locked on a specific pattern is a good thing for Pete Pritchard, a veteran crappie guide.
“During the hot months, the fish are pretty much locked into the deeper water areas,” said Pritchard (803-478-7533). “During the spring, crappie were scattered in different depths, but now you can focus on the 16- to 22-foot depths and be confident that most of the fish are in that range. The bite isn’t usually fast-paced, but it is consistent. Move from place to place, keep your bait in the water, and you can make a good catch. I’d suggest fishing areas with woody cover such as brush, logs or treetops with live minnows in that depth range for best success.”
Hot-weather catfish action continues on both lakes. Blue and flathead catfish are biting along the river ledges, humps and deep holes. Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie are productive right now, and many guides are splitting their fishing time into the evening and after dark hours.
The forgotten catfish
In addition to the blues and flatheads, another species of often gets overlooked. Channel catfish provides sensational summertime fishing, producing large numbers of fish. Channel cats don’t grow as large as the other two major species, but Santee Cooper does hold the world record channel catfish of 58 pounds, set back in 1964 by W. H. Whaley of Pineville.
Channel catfish are present in significant numbers and have been a productive fishery since the lakes were impounded. They were “the catfish” before the blues and flatheads were introduced.
The huge top-end size and prolific numbers of blues and flatheads are responsible for enabling the Santee Cooper lakes to make a legitimate claim as one of the best overall catfisheries in the country. However, the channel catfish is often ignored, and fishermen are missing a real treat by not taking advantage of them. Right now is a prime time for these fish.
Channel catfish are very sporting and fight every bit as hard as blues or flatheads on a pound-for-pound basis. They provide a twisting, turning, bottom-boring struggle when hooked. They also measure up to the standards set by the others in the frying pan.
One key when targeting channel catfish is the bait they prefer. Of the major catfish species, the channel catfish is the one primarily responsible for the species being tagged with a preference for stinkbaits. There are numerous stinkbaits on the market that work great on these fish. Also red worms, catalpa worms, live or dead minnows and cut bait will all produce excellent channel catfish action.
Broken lines and tangled dip nets
The channel catfish simply deserves more respect than it receives. In Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, an average fish is in the 2- to -5-pound class, with occasional 10- to 20-pound fish being taken. For most of us, that’s not a bad addition to our daily catch when seeking big blues and flatheads.
Plus, you can target this species, and they can be caught in big numbers in a short period of time.
Channel catfish can literally save a fishing trip when the bite is slow for other species. They have saved several largemouth bass, striper or trophy catfishing trips at Santee Cooper for me. The rigging is simple and does not require special heavyweight tackle.
Next time on the lake, especially with catfishing as hot as the Dog Days weather, discover and enjoy Santee Cooper’s other white catfish meat.
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