Lake Wateree’s striper fishery is on fire
August mornings are prime time for catching stripers on topwater lures at Lake Wateree, but anglers can keep stocking their coolers even after the sun gets up high.
Capt. Jason Wolfe of Wolfe’s Guide Service said it just takes a change in tactics.
“This month, I want to get on the water as early as possible. I’ll throw the cast net a few times to get some bait for my livewell, then I head to the main lake and cast topwater lures,” said Wolfe.
He said the stripers maul topwater lures on some mornings. The challenge is staying where the fish are schooling.
“You can get a few good bites from one school, then they’ll go down. And the next surface activity you see might be clear across the lake 20 minutes later,” he said.
Sometimes, Wolfe cranks his outboard and heads that way. Other times, he waits it out, hoping the next school is within casting distance.
“I’ll usually move around a few times in a morning. Sometimes, you can just move right along with a school. They’ll go down, then resurface about 10 minutes later right where you last saw them, or at least relatively close,” he said.
Beginning the day at (or even before) daybreak allows anglers to get a solid couple of hours of topwater fishing, sometimes longer.
“But when the sun finally gets up and the day begins to swelter, these fish are still willing to bite. They’ll stop chasing surface lures, and we’ll catch them on the live bait we caught earlier,” he said.
Keep ‘em handy
He cautions anglers about putting their surface lures away though.
“They can school on top at any time, even in the heat of the day. So you always want to have a rod with a topwater lure tied on,” he said. “But most of the fish will come on live bait on down rods once it gets hot.”
Wolfe baits several rods that have Carolina rigs tied on. He places the rods in rod holders, then waits. Sometimes he motors ahead slowly with his trolling motor. Other times, he sits still, watching his electronics.
“It’s also a good idea to scan the surface with a pair of binoculars, because a school can surface any time, adding some bonus time to the topwater bite,” he said.
When he gets a bite on one of his down rods, Wolfe doesn’t get too excited.
“If you get too excited, you’ll yank it out of their mouth. It’s best to just leave the rod in the rod holder until it doubles over and there’s no doubt about a fish being on it,” he said.
Lake Wateree has a “put and take” striper fishery. The SCDNR stocks the lake with stripers every year, and this body of water has some of the most liberal striper limits in the Carolinas.
“The limit here is 10 stripers per person/per day. A lot of folks criticize anglers for keeping that many fish, but these fish are in no danger of going extinct. They are stocked yearly by SCDNR for people to catch and keep,” said Wolfe (803-487-3690). “Without the stocking program, these fish wouldn’t even be here.”
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