Santee Cooper SC

Columns

December: It’s all about bait

Terry Madewell

As water temperatures dip in December, with frequent cold fronts blasting through South Carolina, the fishing on the Santee Cooper lakes, Marion and Moultrie, seem to defy logic and actually improves instead of slowing. […]

Crappie/Bream

Cold crappie kickoff

Terry Madewell

Cool weather and dropping water temperatures are a very good combination for December crappie on South Carolina’s Lake Marion. Anglers with a good game plan find that crappies begin to congregate into tighter areas around deep-water cover and score outstanding catches. […]

drift-fishing
Catfish

Double dipping for stripers, cats

Terry Madewell

Veteran guide Dave Hilton from Ridgeville, S.C., has long cherished the opportunity to catch multiple species of fish at Santee Cooper. During November, the striper and catfish action is exceptional on Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, so Hilton set out to learn how to double-dip. […]

Bass Fishing

New Santee striper regs are popular

Terry Madewell

The new striper regulations implemented on the Santee Cooper lakes this past June have received rave reviews from fishermen, guides and landing operators around Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie. This has created a lot of optimism for the striper fishing season that reopens Oct. 1. […]

Catfish

Trophy cats: a biological perspective

Terry Madewell

Chad Holbrook, a fisheries biologist for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources who oversees the Santee Cooper lakes, said biologists use winter gill-net sampling to assess blue catfish populations and, the data shows increasing catch rates from 2016 through 2018. […]

Catfish

A long-time trophy fishery

Terry Madewell

A 58-pound channel catfish was caught from Lake Moultrie in 1964, setting state and world records that still stand today. While the Santee Cooper lakes provide excellent fishing for numbers of channel catfish, the sizes are no longer extreme and are not typically considered trophy size, even for channel catfish. […]

Crappie/Bream

VIDEO – How to catch crappie in thick grass beds

Brian Cope

For many anglers, fishing for crappie is an open water game. And whether they look for deep holes or shallow water with sunken brushpiles or stumps, you’ll find many anglers watching their electronics closely for any sign of fish or submerged debris that could be hiding the fish. It’s a great way to put crappie in the boat, but it’s not the only way. […]

Alligator

Upstate hunters kill 1052-pound gator at Santee

Brian Cope

On South Carolina’s opening day of the 2018 alligator hunting season, Daniel, Jennifer, and Justin Cunningham, along with Rutt and Candice Iusti left Santee empty-handed and headed back to the upstate after a long but fruitless encounter with a big gator. But they went back this past weekend and filled their tag with a 13-foot, 6-inch beast that weighed 1052 pounds. […]