The striper bite is red hot at Santee

Start early, start deep for Santee striper bite

The stripers are biting red hot at Santee, and Capt. Joe Dennis of Capt. J Hook Charters is catching the biggest ones he has seen in many years. He said the trick right now is to get started very early and to fish in deep water.

“If you want to be there when the bite first starts through the end of the bite, you need to be on the water early. When it is just light enough to bait your hook, you need to be set up and fishing. Live herring is their preferred bait right now. But if you’ve got live shad or even live bream, you’ll catch your share,” said Dennis.

Many of his clients’ recent catches have been 22+ pound fish. And while that makes it tough to catch one “small enough” to be a keeper, it’s a good problem to have. And it’s much different than just a few years ago, when it was difficult to catch one big enough to be a keeper.

“These are some of the biggest stripers we’ve seen on Santee in a long, long time. We used to have to weed through a lot of smaller ones to get to the keepers. Now we are having to weed through the ones too big to keep. And those fish are a lot of fun. So it’s really the best of both worlds for anglers right now,” said Dennis.

The stripers are running in big schools

“One wave will come through and you’ll catch several. Then once you’ve got baits back out, it’s not long before another wave comes through. I’m finding most of these fish in water that is about 50 feet deep. The stripers aren’t that deep; we’re catching them higher up in the water column, but in water that’s 50 feet deep,” he said.

Dennis said having good electronics is the key here.

“You’ll see them on the depth finder. I’m putting some baits right at the depth the fish are. And I’m also baiting some rods with corks, and setting those baits a good bit above where the fish are holding. They are biting both sets of bait very well,” he said.

He’s using Catch the Fever Striper Stealth rods, which are very strong, but extremely sensitive rods. It’s easy to detect a bite with these rods, even when they are in rod holders.

“I tell my anglers to leave them in the rod holders until the fish buries the rod. Then just crank fast on the reel about 7 turns, then lift the rod. You don’t need to do any Bill Dance style hook sets,” he said.

Don’t leave when the striper bite cools

For Dennis (843-245-3762), the Santee striper bite has been this hot very early, then tapering off between 8 and 9 a.m.

“One morning this week, we had our limit by 7:40 a.m. After that we went crappie fishing and caught them too,” he said.

He’s also been doing some catfishing once the striper bite slows. And he’s finding surprise catches of stripers mixed in with the cats.

“We’re catching catfish in shallow water — 3 to 4 feet deep with cut bait. We’re doing good on the catfish, but we’re catching some stripers there too.

“It’s a great time to fish Santee right now. The lake is much less crowded due to so many boat ramps being closed. But the pay ramps are still open, and charter guides are still running trips. And best of all, the fish are biting like mad,” he said.