The best place to find catfish in the spring is shallow water, but the Santee Cooper lakes are littered with shallow water, and knowing exactly which shallow flat is good can be taxing. Plus, small channels and depressions in the middle of flats are ideal places to find concentrations of catfish. Anglers can utilize modern technology that identifies these places to narrow down the search and spend more time putting fish in the boat.
The old-fashioned way to locate underwater obstructions and/or contours is either trial-and-error or from low-water scouting. No doubt, one of the best ways to find out what the bottom contours look like is when the lake levels is down. However, anglers cannot always count on extended periods of low water, because power plants can raise or lower the water very quickly without notice.
But today, finding catfish in shallow water can be right at the end of your fingers. Fishermen can map out their fishing itinerary on remote imagery or using aerial photographs, especially those taken during low-water periods. These images can be accessed through Google Earth and some other web-based programs, such as Navionics.
Navionics produces detailed maps of the lakes called Sonar Charts that can be downloaded or inserted as an SD card into on-board GPS and depth-sounding device.
Anglers can also use their electronics to find these places or to confirm their locations after locating them on remote-imagery sources. Any time a good place is found, anglers should save the locations on their GPS units.
Knowing the location of these channels and small depressions is essential, and the technology available today can shorten the search time from hours to just minutes.
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