I love to take my family fishing at Lake Murray, my home lake, in December. Football is over for my sons, Parker and Payton, and I’m ready to get out of my deer stand and back in my boat.
Striped bass are a perfect target in December because you can go out with your family and expect to have a pretty successful day.
Striper fishing is usually good at Murray during the winter, especially at the upper end of the lake from Dreher Island all the way up to the forks of the Big Saluda and Little Saluda rivers.
You can go out and catch some nice fish that can be real good eating as long as you filet ‘em out and cut out the red meat on the side.
I like to mostly cast when I’m striper fishing, but you can pull live herring or shad. When I’m fishing by myself, I usually cast bucktails or swim baits or combination of a little spoon and bucktail on a 3-way swivel. But when I’ve got my family out there, I usually fish live bait.
The best fishing is usually when I head out by myself during really ugly, nasty weather days. In December the colder, the nastier the weather, those are generally the best days.
When I take my wife and the kids fishing, I normally like to fish live shad or herring, whichever is most-easily available.
I have two different rigs I use. I like to pull a shad or two off the back of the boat with nothing but a nose hook in them. And I’ll pull one or two rods where I’ve got a Carolina rig tied off — an egg sinker about 3 or 4 feet in front of the bait.
On cloudy days, stripers will stay closer to the surface, so free-lining baits will work better. On real bright, sunny days, the Carolina rigs will work better because you fan fish them down in deeper water, and that’s where the fish stay.
When I’m pulling live shad on a free-line, I use lighter line, usually 8- to 10-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon because it will sink. If you use heavier mono, it will tend to float, and your live bait will wind up staying close to the surface — too high up. The fluorocarbon line will keep your live bait at least a couple of feet below the surface.
When I fish live bait on a Carolina rig, I’ll fish Trilene XT in 14- to 17-pound test, with a fluorocarbon leader.
When I’m fishing a Carolina rig, I pay special attention to my electronics because it helps if I can locate the depth of water where most of the baitfish and the stripers are using. Then I can let my sinker down to about that level and keep the baitfish close to the fish.
I normally use a Pfleuger Supreme or Presidential baitcasting reel when I’m fishing for stripers, and when I’m using live bait, I’ll have the drag set loosely so fish will be able to peel off some line after they take the bait.
Then when I’ve got him hooked, I can tighten the drag down to where I think I can fight him the best.
And don’t be afraid to use spinning tackle when you’re striper fishing. Depending on the kind of rod holders you’ve got on your boat, you might need the long handle of a spinning rod — or a bait-casting rod with a really long handle.
One thing that makes casting really fun this month is that stripers will be schooling a lot. I make it a point to watch for sea gulls because they’ll show you where the best concentrations of bait are, and typically, that’s where the stripers are. And on cloudy, nasty days, you can get some good topwater action or good action close to the surface.
When I’m casting, I like to use line that’s a little bit heavier — 15- to 17-pound Trilene XT. I like to fish bucktails or swim baits or a spoon/bucktail combination, and as far as colors are concerned, I try to stick to natural shad colors. I don’t think bright colors like chartreuses work as well. I stick with whites and shads and silvers.
A lot of companies are making plastic swim baits, but I really like to fish baits in the Gulp! series. Stripers are really a saltwater fish that we’ve put in freshwater lakes and discovered that they’ll thrive. And the Gulp! baits really, really work on saltwater species — and stripers, too.
I like to fish a 4-inch Gulp Minnow or a 3-inch Gulp Pogy, which are life-like baits that you can get good action out of, and they’ll catch fish.
Davy Hite is a 40-year-old native of Saluda, S.C., who now resides in Ninety Six, S.C. He has fished professionally since 1993, when he qualified for his first Bassmasters Classic. He was the BASS Angler of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and he has won the 1999 Bassmasters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Triton boats, Evinrude outboards, All-Star rods, Pfleuger reels, Pure Fishing (Berkeley), Owner hooks and Solar-Bat sunglasses.
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