Take your pick in May

Just about every species is biting at Santee

Every fish species worth catching in Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie is biting in May, and they are typically caught in big numbers and sizes. It’s the last month we can target and keep stripers until October, and the good news is that the bite is red hot, especially using live bait such as herring. Catfish action is excellent, with blues, channel and flatheads all biting. The largemouth fishing is still outstanding in the shallows, and the bream and shellcracker action is wide open. The crappie action is still good, but they are returning to the brushpiles in slightly deeper water than they were caught in April.

Alan Spence of Spence’s Guide Service said that the striper fishing in May is excellent, especially in the lower end of Lake Marion and throughout Lake Moultrie.

“During May, many of the fish have completed their spring spawning run up the rivers and have returned back to the main body of the lakes,” said Spence (803-478-5029). “This is a prime month for catching stripers, and live herring is generally the bait of choice. In Lake Marion, we’ll look for fish using our graph and usually find them along the drops and ledges, and we’ll set up and fish live bait. On Lake Moultrie, a prime area is around the Pinopolis Dam using live bait. Plus, anytime we’re fishing live herring, we’re subject to hooking into a big catfish, especially a big flathead since they seem to prefer live bait.”

The catfish action is red hot this month. Pete Pritchard of Pritchard’s Guide Service fishes for catfish and crappie, and he said May is a great time for both species.

“The catfish are generally moving back to deeper water by May, so we’ll be looking for them in moderate depths of water, from 10 to 20 feet deep,” said Pritchard (803-478-7533). “The action on flatheads and channel catfish perks up as the water warms, and one key is to not go straight from shallow to deep water, because the catfish are actually in transition. But as the water warms, they will get progressively deeper.”

Pritchard also said that the crappie fishing is very productive this month.

“For guiding, it’s back to being a really good time of the year,” Pritchard said. “Most of the fish will be in the 10- to14-foot depth range on brushpiles. They’re not back to the deep-water brush that we’ll be fishing by June and July; they’re still in transition. But most of the crappie have finished with the shallow-water business and are again oriented on specific spots we can target.

“I generally use live minnows, but at this time of the year, small jigs are excellent as well if a fishermen is able to work around the edges of the brush or trees without constantly hanging up. Vertical jigging is one productive way to use jigs during this time of the year.”

According to Kevin Davis, who guides out of Blacks Camp, the largemouth bass fishing is still excellent.

“We’ve had an awesome spring already for largemouth, but the shallow water fishing is typically still very good during May,” said Davis (843-753-2231). “The fish are not so much in a spawn mode, but they still relate to shallow water cover, (just) a couple feet deeper than we experienced during March and April. The early morning fishing can be great with topwater lures, then most anglers will switch to lures they can work heavy cover with, in slightly deeper water — usually four to seven feet of water is ideal. The fishing is excellent right now in Lake Moultrie.”

Action is great on the upper end of Lake Marion, according to Steve Pack at Packs Landing, who said largemouths will be biting topwater lures throughout the month.

“May is topwater month in our area and just about any topwater lure will work,” said Pack (803-452-5514). “We have water that is slightly dingier than the lower lake, and buzzbaits, prop baits and floating worms will all produce. Some fishermen will make good catches up in the day on Texas rigged worms and spinnerbaits.”

The bream and shellcracker fishing should be awesome during May, Pack said.

“It is incredible how the panfishing has recovered since the long drought,” Pack said. “The bream and shellcracker fishing should be fabulous throughout May for both species. In addition there will be some catfish caught both on the flats and in the river channel. Most of the striper action will be further down lake by May, but this has been the best striper season we’ve in many years.”