August 2018 Archives - Carolina Sportsman

Mike Cork of Benton holds a good-sized bass that bit on a Tri-Alive 6.5 Nightcrawler made by Minden-based Mister Twister.

Mister Twister’s Nightcrawler

Glen Freeman of Zwolle has a new weapon in his bass fishing arsenal. So does Zack Hughes of Quitman, Texas, who boated a 10-plus-pounder on the first day he fished with it at Lake Fork. […]

It’s time to get prepared for bowhunting season

Sammy Romano

Bow hunting season is right around the corner, so now is the time to check out your bow and make sure it is ready for it. […]

No roads lead to one of the most-celebrated trout streams in the East. Isolated, remote, accessible only by boat or foot, Hazel Creek lives up to its reputation as a trout-fishing Mecca. It’s all that everyone says it is, and more. […]

Summer, shallows are not exclusive

Terry Madewell

Bobby Winters is a 23-year-old catfish and striper guide on the Santee Cooper lakes who has a youthful passion for catching fish. We were fishing on a hot, summer day, and he’d targeted an area with undulating bottom contours for drift-fishing. We had been drifting only a short while when one of his nine rods bowed over.

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Five best handguns for whitetails

Pete Rogers

Selecting the right handgun for hunting whitetail deer can be daunting, in part because there are so many excellent options. […]

Long, snake-like plastic worms can be deadly on blackwater rivers, where snakes are a regular part of a bass’s diet.

Go big with soft plastics

Jeff Burleson

Topwater fishing can be one of the most fun and easiest ways to catch bass over the summer, but the surface bite will surely short-stop an angler’s time on the water. To keep fish coming into the boat, you need to trade in topwater techniques for a slower strategy: shooting soft plastics into deeper water. […]

Early season requires plenty of stand options

Jeff Burleson

Hunters need multiple deer stand options in the early season when bucks are most predictable, but wind direction is not. […]

Keep a topwater plug or bucktail ready when stripers school at the surface.

Watch for schooling fish

Terry Madewell

Chuck Porter of Sumter, S.C., has been fishing Lake Wateree for 30 years and has seen the striper action ebb and flow. […]

The resurgence of striper fishing at Lake Wateree, credited largely to higher stocking rates, has turned the lake back into a prime striper destination.

Striper stocking at Lake Wateree

Terry Madewell

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources has stocked stripers in Lake Wateree since the 1980s, and fisheries biologist Robert Stroud has worked the lake since striper stockings began. Stroud said the goal of the striper program was to create a solid, renewable striper fishery. […]

Mowing food plots during hunting season will do a lot to encourage futher growth of the forage, as well as providing tender shoots for deer to eat.

In-season mowing? Yes!

Jeff Burleson

Deer are suckers for lush food plots, especially oats and clovers, but these choice forages don’t grow well without a little tender-loving-care on into the season. Few food-plot varieties can be labeled as plant-it-and-forget-it seeds. Stands of oats and clover can be strategically mowed to reduce competition and encourage vigorous growth. […]