santee cooper "blues"

[boating brad]

peterfishbuster: or anyone else. hows the fishing in august? i know the water temps probably going to be about 90degrees i've never been there in august but im going to try to get there around mid august. the 1st week of june i stayed at randolphs landing (lake marion) and fished mostly at my usual spot, around in front of the spillway along the edges of submerged creek beds or just drift fishing with herring. we usually do pretty good, but im still waiting to get that illusive 50 pounder. i have been with a guide 3 times, anyone have some good spots or tips their willing to share?

 

[boating brad]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

well i am going labor day weekend fri,sat,sun, coming back monday. anybody from the area other than peterfishbuster? peter must be "bustin" some fish, cuz he aint here.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Nope I was in a computer blackout. Fishing is good but in order to help yourself survive the trip and catch more fish confine yourself to either early morning late afternoon or nights. The canal area is real good if they are running water otherwise try the drifting the main lake. I have spent the past two weeks getting ready for and on vacation (the sme the computer was down) so I have not got any recent info and I know I will not make it out agian till next week. because the wife has already made family plans for this weekend and I don't think I can sneak out this week due to the fact my mom (the babysitter) is sick.

 

[boating brad]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

peterfishbuster, good to finally hear from you. when i go to santee its always a serious trip, meaning i stay out morning till late night. weather permitting i will be sleeping on the boat. its funny tou mentioned the canal, i've fished it several times but hav'nt had much luck! (its usually crowded with boats) i've stayed at harrys lots of times, and they insist that the canal is the place to be. where do you go to get the biggies?<br />ps. keep an eye on this thread, i'll let you know exactly when im going to be there. maybe if you want to we can do some fishin. if my buddy that has never been there doesnt go with me, i will be going alone. either way lets hook up!

 

[walleyehed]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Peterfishbuster, even though I love chasing my wallies, I have a secret love affair with cats, and it's been a dream of mine to go to Santee cooper and attempt a shot at a monster or 2. When is the best time of year, and what is the favored methods........??????????<br /> It's a LONG way from here(i'm 15 miles from the colorado border in Kansas)but a fish is always worth a good cross-country.

 

[boating brad]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

peterfishbuster can probably tell you more than a few places and methods, but i can tell you a few as well. i have only stayed on lake marion so i can tell you my favorite spots and a spot that can hook you up with a monster, which i didnt fish much because i'd rather be catching than waiting. here it is, for a monster the dam area between the randolphs landing and the spillway, get out in the middle of the stump field (35ft deep with dead trees sticking up) tie off to a stump in the day and fish all night with live bait (huge flatheads) warning: very dangerous to move around at night in the stumps.<br />my favorite spots that usually yeild many blues rangeing from 5-40lbs is in front of the spillway, fishing the submerged creek channel with fresh herring(whole) bobber rig 2-4ft off bottom. also drift fishing that whole area. another spot is right in front of harrys fish camp, there is a channel that runs about 28ft deep going right in front of harrys and leads to the diversion canal. real good with the bobber rig. thats it! my mouth is watering now!

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

The canal is funny they have to be letting water through the lower dam so that you get a current going from the upper to the lower lake. I like it when you need at least an ounce to reach the bottom with some angle to your line. Anywhere on the canal can be good when the water is moving otherwise forget it. The cats are not as easy to pattern this time of year as they are at others on the main lake that is why drifting is the best way to get them. Look for schools of shad, herring or whatever on your depthfinder as you ride from spot to spot or as you drift because the cats usually hang out below them. Sometimes you get feeding cats in the school but they prefer to hang below them and wait till the stripers or whites to start eating and then they pick off the dead and dying. Since finding the schools sometimes is hit and miss drifting is just as good as riding around and has the bonus of picking up fish you would not have normally have found. BTW drift the chanels from one side to the other if you can and then motor upwind for another drift. You don't have to follow the same path but rather drift run upwind and over some then drift again and only fish the same drift twice if you have a hit or two. If I can get away I would not mind meeting up for a cup of coffee or even some fishing but sometimes I can't get away. Let me know the closer it gets to trip time,<br />As to when is the best time I would say spring or fall with a lot of the best cats coming towards the end of the fall season. I like spring the best personally because although you get the biggest fish in fall you tend to get more fish overall in the spring and some can be just as big. Also in the spring the fish tend to be in the shallows and unless you have hooked into a 30+ pound cat in 6' of water with all sorts of trees and snags for it to wrap on you don't know what fun catfishing is. Cats also fight harder in the spring as they are cold blooded and the warming up of the water tends to make them more active fighters than in fall. BTW do a little research on what catfishing you have locally because there usually is at least one or two good lakes with lunkers close to home so that you can make the trip w/o spending a lot of money. Also Santee is not as good as it once was although it is still among the top catfisheries it has seen it's better days. I would also recommend that if you are heading in for your first or even a consecutive trip from a great distance that you look into hiring a guide to take you out at least once and it would be best to go out with one a couple of times. Santee consists of two lakes both different and while one is easy to navigate and easy on your boat the other can be a nightmare.

 

[boating brad]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

yes, i forgot to mention that guide thing! and yes lake marion can be a boating nightmare (stumps). lake moultrie is where most guides will drift. i've been with a guide out of canal lakes resort (JP clark), and i've been with a guide out of harrys fish camp (Joe Drose) twice, the latter being the better. all three times we drifted moultrie in the 25-30ft depth range.<br />if you get a guide pay special attention to the rigging and depth and they use the 0% stretch lines. if you go with Joe, he will call it a day after the cooler is full, so if the coolers full after two hrs, thats it!<br />its a big friggin cooler, last time i went with him we filled it with 20 cats we hooked one on the drift that stopped a 28ft pontoon drifting with a trolling motor, the drift socks came up against the boat. it was a fish that got away. i have been making the trip twice a year for the last 4yrs and have been told by several locals about how good it used to be, and that commercial fishing has depleted the fish. but its still the best catfishing i've ever done. i couldnt imagine what it used to be like in the 80's whoa! joe drose told me he used to fill a cooler in a couple hrs yrs ago. well my mouth is watering again.

 

[walleyehed]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Thanks to the both of ya!!! I was thinking maybe one of you would be a good guide-I'd pay of course-I just would like the opertunity to fish there.<br />We have some pretty well-known cat haunts in Kansas, but mostly river from bank, and I prefer the boat method and I really enjoy drifting for cats. We have a few small reservoirs in western KS, and SW Nebraska that we frequent, and our catfishing is to catch a few white bass, cut them into strips about 1x1x3, tie sinker (3/4oz) to bottom of line and tie in a swivle 2ft above sinker and use 2/0 snelled hooks. Night always seems best and I'd say the ave size we catch would be 5-8lbs., once in awhile a 12 or 14, with a 19-1/2lb channel being my biggest-Iknow...thats pretty much "bait" in your parts...<br /> Planning a trip to Texoma in early November, I might try next spring at Santee, and see if I can get hooked up with one or both of you guys.<br />Meeting new folk is half the fun!<br />Thanks again to you both!<br />Best wishes-N-big fishes

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Catfish not to cause any hard feelings or to say the comercial boys don't share some of the blame for hurting the catfishery but you mentioned what I feel actually hurts it more in your post. I hate cutting and pasting but here is what I and many other local anglers feel has caused a decline and I will explain this more after I repeat parts of what you said out of your own personal experience with what has to be the buisiest guide on the lake. "i've been with a guide out of canal lakes resort (JP clark), and i've been with a guide out of harrys fish camp (Joe Drose) twice" and "if you go with Joe, he will call it a day after the cooler is full" and "its a big friggin cooler, last time i went with him we filled it with 20 cats" and " joe drose told me he used to fill a cooler in a couple hrs yrs ago"<br />Okay here is the problem as I see it years ago when you looked for a catfish guide there were only a handfull now almost every marina and boat ramp have several that operate out of them. Many (not all) have this we don't come back till the cooler is full autitude. Many of them make 3 to 4 trips a week at least with many of them making 7 a week. Lets say that 200 days a year is average and use the above numbers and such that Catfish has experienced. 20 fish a day times 200 days a year equals 4000 fish a year per guide. As catfish said these are those big coolers so these are usually fish that 20# is considered a small one but lets use that as an average weight which means that it is 80,000# of catfish per guide a year. Conservitive estimate is that there are 40 guides doing this so that means 160,000 fish per year with an average weight of 3,200,000# of catfish a year that is harvested from the lakes by people who come in and hire a guide. I consider this a conservative estimate of just what the catfishing guides and thier clients take home this does not include the influx of anglers who have taken trips with guides as Catfish (no offense I use you to illustrate my point) has watched carefully and learned how to do it themselves and bring thier own boats from Iowa, Wisconson, Texas, Ohio or any of a number of places. (BTW I listed state tags I saw one afternoon at one boat ramp recently with trailers behind them that would haul a pontoon the #1 catfishing craft) We have no way of knowing exactly how many fish visiting anglers actually take home but I bet it is a lot more than all the comercial outfits combined. I am not agianst keeping fish for a meal or two but I feel something has to be done not only about the comercial harvest but the recreational harvest as well.

 

[catfish1]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

peterfishbuster: sounds like your in support of a locals only fishery! did i mention that on my last guide trip there was 4 of us with the guide (20 fish divided by 4 is 5 fish each) or did you assume it was just me. you know what they say when you asss-u-me its rare that a guide will have just one person, and if so they wont be filling that big friggin cooler! that 20 fish day was the best day i ever had there and besides i dont see anything wrong with takin home a bunch of fish twice a year, after all i do buy a license to support SC's restalking program. the only people i see down there abusing the fishery is the local trot liners (1000's of them) baited daily (they even chum around them because its legal to chum) but im not telling you anything you dont already know. but hey, the DNR says its legal and they set the limits, so why dont you give them a call, the problem is within the state not outside of it. there's no need to blame the guides and the out-of-staters, if you want to do some math just count the # of hooks on those trot lines and multiply it by 1000's per day. (most out-of-staters use fishing poles), definately when their with a guide.<br /><br />ps. its still some killer whisker fishing and im still going next month and i will be bringing home what i catch. unless its a 50lb'er, then it will be released. <br /><br />walleyehed: i'd be glad to hook up with you at santee! just let me know when your ready. go here for some good info about the area. www.santeecoopercats.net <br />joe drose: www.santeecoopercats.com

 

[trollhole]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

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[Fishbusters]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Nope you missed the point. We had the commercial anglers and locals fishing the lakes when we had a bunch of big fish and everything was fine. When I and several others noticed a decline was when Santee Cooper really hit the map as far as a catfishery. There was a time when it was considered the top place to go catfishing (and for most still is) and was advertised as such. We have a big influx of thousands of visiting anglers strictly catfishing just like we did when Santee was the striper heaven (and we see what happened) but we have had little to no change of regulations regarding catfishing recreational or commercial. Santee cannot support the number of anglers it now receives due to the increase in visiting anglers. When you come down look at boat registrations, license plates and how many people either camping or staying in the motel with you are from out of state. In fact the originators of the website you mentioned are from NC and in it's infancy only had one voice from the local area I don't know how it is today. I said at first that I was not defending the commercial anglers as I feel they have a lot do do with the decline as do local anglers. I also do not feel that individual visiting anglers bear the blame but taken in total they are a big part of the whole problem. And whether or not you fished alone or with 100 people that day the fact remains that your party is only one of many and while I don't begrudge you taking a few fish occasionally just like I do but something needs to be done to reduce the overall numbers taken by ALL anglers. I also feel many guides would benefit from a self induced catch and release policy or self imposed limits which I find many do not and will keep everything caught and some even keep them when anglers do not want them "giving" them to a friend who is a commercial operator. As far as license fees and such goes I also feel that is a joke because SC does not charge much in comparison to other states for a non-resident license and we really don't have much of a restocking program at least for catfish. I know all this sounds like I am against visiting anglers but that is really not the case in fact I like traveling as much as many others do. What I am against is the lack of concern I see from visitors, those whose livelihood is supported by them and many locals about the dwindling resource. The attitude of I bought my license I am going to keep all I can to take home will only hurt the resource and cause the reason you came (the chance to catch a big fish) to be impossible to accomplish. Of course not only visitors have this attitude locals do as well and it is just as bad.

 

[catfish1]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

i dont think i missed the point at all! the DNR dont stock catfish, they do stock fingerling stripers, the anglers are not the problem! the anglers were there long before the commercial fishing was introduced, and it will take many years to see the effects of commercial fishing, it doesnt happen overnight. now what is going to be a more likely cure? to stop commercial fishing, or to stop the weekend fisherman? if you had to remove one which is it going to be? yes i agree the DNR can and should do more! but like i said the problem is within the state, not the visitors. its not fair to compare yesterday to today, you can do that with any lake in the US that doesnt stock much. the fishery will decline! the non-res license in SC is cheaper than any state i've been to. and they can raise the cost (non-res & res) to fund the restocking of the lakes, and i'd be happy to pay it. but they probably wont! so why is that the visitors fault? <br />you say you dont mind visiting anglers! but you refer to them alot. i've read every word of what you wrote, (also the party boat regs) and agree with some. but i think you dont like visiting anglers! i have no hard feelings, in fact i'm still up for some coffee. we'll probably have something to talk about now! <br />i'll keep you posted as the time nears

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Catfish if I did not like visiting anglers #1 Would I have given you any advice about fishing this time of year for example what to look for in fishing the canal? #2 would I have accepted the offer to meet you in person? I don't have a problem with any angler (except certain idiots and we all know one or two LOL) What I was addressing was what I and many others perceive caused a lot of the problem at Santee. As far as I can recall their has been a commercial fishery at Santee and I can ask my father if he can recall a time when their was not one. I can tell you about 15 or so years ago the number of visiting anglers pursuing catfish skyrocketed. Before then there were very few catfish guides and those only offered it as a side when bass or striper fishing was slow. What really got things going was the 109#some odd ounce world record blue was caught. (since them broken) The fish was reported as being caught in Santee Cooper (funny thing it was caught in the Tail Race Canal which is not actually part of the lakes but rather the canal below the lower dam). About the same time catfishing was starting to come into it's own. In-Fisherman and many other magazines reported that Santee had huge catfish and possibly fish that could break the record. With all this hype and hoopla people started planning trips to Santee, fellows that only offered catfishing as a side were now booked for trips, many guides converted from other species to catfish to meet the demand for guides in fact it was a time that you had to book a trip with a guide based on when he was available rather than find one that could take you out when you wanted to go. Around that time I was catching and releasing many big catfish a trip several of them were upward of 50# (unknown how much bigger they bottomed out the scale) but now I have to fish hard to even catch a few half that size. I still hit a monster every now and again but not like I did then. I am just speaking from personal experience and I blame the lawmakers not the DNR for their lack of action. Commercial fisherman do share the blame for the decline in the fishery but quite a few years ago some regulations came into effect that helped protect big catfish (not what they want for market anyway) from being harvested namely this was a hook size restriction. Also the number of hooks on a commercial trot line was lowered as was the number of total lines/hooks a commercial angler could have out. On top of that many commercial operations closed up shops due to increased competition from catfish farmers. Yet still the number of catfish especially bigger ones continues to decline. I don't have all the answers but I do know that ALL ANGLERS commercial, local and visiting are to blame for the demise of Santee. If more of them were as concerned as I and many others are and either practiced a selective harvest, C&R or forced the lawmakers (who make the regulations not the DNR who enforce them) to do something then there would not be a problem. BTW Lawmakers IE state government only listen to those who have the biggest pocketbooks which happen not to be local anglers but business that rely on tourism (guides, marinas and such) and commercial operators.

 

[catfish1]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

sorry peterfishbuster, i do agree with you! on 98% of it, and it would be nice for the state to start stocking catfish or at least put a limit on the catch, unfortunatly catfish in most states dont have limits on them. i keep what i catch when i go down there, it aint that much, at best i'll catch 4 fish 10+each a day, thats a good day! i like eating catfish, i keep what i catch so i dont have to pay for the fish that came from the commercial fisherman. and i go twice a year. if i lived down there i wouldnt be keeping every one i caught, but i live here where the hatchery truck has a line of cars behind him waiting for him to stock fish. catfishing plain sucks here! i cant tell you how many times i've been out to the lakes here fishing for catfish, in the 13yrs i've lived here i've caught maybe 15 catfish only one broke the 10lb mark. when you posted my words in your reply and were saying that i was part of the problem, i didnt like it. because you were using me as an example, whether you meant to or not. <br />you gave me the canal info and the offer to meet up, before i was telling walleyehed about the guides. <br />ps. sorry for any misunderstanding, and hope your going to come over for some coffee and maybe some fishing

 

[catfish1]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

peter, i would also like to tell you about some things i have witnessed down there that did not sit right with me. at harrys fish camp one time i saw some local people at the cleaning station with about 30 catfish all were between 5" and 10" long, i even commented to them. the reply was the smaller the better. <br />another time i was at harrys i was staying beside a couple guys that were not from that area, they were setting trot lines, and comming back every morning with several large cats. just throwing them on ice, they had about 4 large coolers in the back of the truck, they said their trot lines were at some place called log jam. <br />another time at harrys there was this guy not from that area but has a trailor set up there, he'd go out in the morning, and early evening, and always came back with at least 8 good size fish on each time out! this bone head would come back in, and offer them to people staying there at harrys. so i do feel your pain! and understand what your talking about, and would "never" want to see it get as bad there as it is here.<br />of course one upside to it would be, nobody would be comming to visit santee anymore. lol

 

[walleyehed]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Jeeezzzzzzzzz, guys....I hope this ain't all over me asking about coming down to go fishing..<br /> I just thought it would be neat to get the opertunity to latch onto a big cat, and I might add that if I was so lucky to hook up with one, when and if I landed it...Picture quick and back in the water........Didn't mean to stir the bottom here, or make anyone mad.........

 

[catfish1]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

walleyehed, nobodys mad. at least i hope not!<br />hey, if i got a 50lb'er i'd release it also. i take a video camera with me and usually will document the hole thing, my brother can do some commentary so good you'd think you were watching offshore angler or something. hey, did you check out that link? i joined just so i could see what was going on down there, but like peterfishbuster said. alot of the guys on there arent from that area! (its true) but there are some that are and there is some good fishing info.

 

[walleyehed]

Re: santee cooper "blues"

Yea, I went to the link......there is alot a stuff on there!