By late June, hot-weather patterns typically set in on Lake Murray, but the striper fishing continues to be red hot for those adapting to deep-water patterns.
Guide Townsend “Townie” Wessinger knows the secret to successful summertime striper fishing is the deep-water, live-bait bite.
“The fishing will transition from topwater schooling and the shallower, live-bait bite to a solid, deep-water pattern, and this action will be great in late June and right through July,” he said.
Wessinger said most of the fish in the deep- water pattern are in the lower to mid-part of the lake, in water 50 to 60 feet deep and occasionally even deeper.
“I rely on my Hummingbird Onix graph to help me locate schools of baitfish and stripers,” he said. “I’m finding the forage and fish on humps, ledges that drop into very deep water and on saddles where a cut splits between high spots.”
Wessinger said one key to hot-weather fishing is that much of the action is close to the main- river channel.
“The fish are not always right along the river ledge, but being near that target is much more important than the late-May through mid-June time frame,” he said. “It’s a good starting point to search for stripers.”
Wessinger said the bite can be great early, but sometimes is just steady at dawn, with the real hot action later in the morning.
“It’s a daily situation,” he said. “I go early in case the bite is early. Every day can be different in terms of the best bite.
“This is not necessarily big fish time of year, but some we catching some quality stripers most mornings. They often gather in the deep water by size, so if we get into small ones, I move.”
Wessinger noted that fishermen can get help catching stripers on Lake Murray by getting involved with the Midlands Striper Club (www.midlandsstriperclub.org).
“That’s how I got into striper fishing, and I found a lot of people willing to help,” he said.
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