September 2016 Archives - Carolina Sportsman

The wider profile and heart-shaped tail give this bait a distinctive wobble and kick.

Heart Tail Swimbaits

Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits keeps raising the bar higher and higher with each entry into the artificial lure manufacturing industry. […]

Cable steering has always been the first choice where quick and positive maneuvering is required and the new Ultrex has power cable steering.

The next step in trolling motor evolution

Allan Tarvid

My first real bass boat was a new 1973 Raycraft Pro built in St. Augustine, Texas, right between Lake Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend Reservoir. […]

Take plenty of time on the range to get your bow shooting accurately before the season arrives.

Make sure you’re ready – Give your archery equipment a good preseason test

Sammy Romano

Opening day of bow season is already here for a few hunters, and it will be here fairly soon for most of the rest of the Carolinas. It’s time to get your bow setup ready. […]

The Chattooga beckons to anglers

Robert Satterwhite

Anglers who spend a day on the Chattooga River will quickly see why Trout Unlimited named it as one of America’s top 100 trout streams. […]

Guide Kevin Davis expects September to be a great month to catch blue catfish like this one at Santee Cooper.

September serves as a wake-up call for outdoorsmen in the Santee Cooper area. The fishing patterns begin to change as the month progresses, with a trend to shallower water for some species and more-reliable, big-fish patterns in deep water for others. Hunting seasons throttle up everywhere around the lakes in September. […]

The SCDNR offers a handful of special youth dove hunts across the state.

Take advantage of youth opportunities

John Gribb

A good dove shoot is a great way to introduce youngsters to hunting. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources provides a perfect venue where conditions and bird counts are generally good to excellent depending on the weather, for the exclusive first-day use of parents with children. […]

Speckled trout can tolerate waters with a wide range of salinities as long as food is readily available.

Speckled trout biology

Jerry Dilsaver

Spotted seatrout, aka speckled trout, are members of the sciaenidae family, which includes drums, croakers and weakfish. They are prized as gamefish by recreational anglers throughout their range, from the Chesapeake Bay to Laguna Madre in south Texas, and have been occasionally caught as far north as New York and as far south as Mexico. […]

Many charter captains participate in the NCDMF red drum tagging program. The information helps biologists understand red drum growth rates and movement patterns.

Tag, You’re it!

Mike Marsh

Catch a tagged fish in North Carolina’s coastal waters and you may reel in a cash award. The NCDMF’s fish tagging program randomly selects tag numbers; anglers who have turned them in win $100. Of 1,020 fish tags anglers returned in 2015, the program drew three tag numbers for each of four species in the tagging program. […]

A chum slinger helps fishermen toss chunks of croaker or other fish overboard to set up a chum slick.

Chum slingers

Mike Marsh

Croakers make great bait for red drum, and they also make good chum. The Longer Life Bait Slinger was a great tool for tossing chunks of fish far out into the water to attract big red drum. […]

Fishing deep water and setting up directly over the fish and vertically teasing stripers below is how power-reeling spoons works.

Tips for catching Lake Hartwell stripers on jigging spoons

Phillip Gentry

Power-reeling with big, heavy baits has a track record for catching both big striped bass and big numbers of stripers during the summer at Lake Hartwell and other lakes. Guide Mack Farr said while the technique is not hard to master, there are a few advanced tips that can help your overall success. […]