One of my favorite fishing outings, and one I try to make at least a few times every year, is a hike-in wading trip on the Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River to fish for Bartrams bass. I’ve only made two trips this year, and the season if quickly passing for the way I like to fish, so that might be it for 2022.
Jeff Samsel Fishing
Sunday, November 6, 2022
Chattooga River Bartrams Bass
One of my favorite fishing outings, and one I try to make at least a few times every year, is a hike-in wading trip on the Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River to fish for Bartrams bass. I’ve only made two trips this year, and the season if quickly passing for the way I like to fish, so that might be it for 2022.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
First Fish of the Morning - Santee Cooper Catfish
We were drifting for blues on the Lower Lake, as Lake Moultrie is most often called in Santee Cooper Country. Photos for un upcoming article on Lurenet.com and fishing fun were the primary objectives. The latter was a given, spending a day on the lake Fishing With Brett. And with the first fish of the day -- a quality catfish -- having been caught, photographed and released before 7:30 a.m., a successful photo day was secured early.
Drifting is a highly efficient way to find actively feeding catfish and is very effective on the open waters of Lake Moultrie. Most catfish anglers drift with cut herring or other baitfish. Mitchell mostly drifts with cut chicken breast, favoring its durability and having found it extremely productive.
We ended up catching about 20 catfish (plus a few big longnose gar). The first fish of the morning was the largest, but the catch included a few in the 10- to 15-pound range. We caught the most fish and the best fish on the chicken, but actually switched to herring after lunch because we ran out of chicken and caught several more catfish on the cut baitfish.
Most cats were blues, with one channel in the mix. Blues are predominant in the open waters of Lake Moultrie and the main fish caught by drifting. It's always fun drifting and watching rods at Santee Cooper because any time one goes down the fish at the other end could way 5 pounds or 50 pounds.
Want to fish Santee Cooper? Blacks Camp can take care of all your needs.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Don't Overlook Chattooga River Bass
When folks think about fishing the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River, trout normally come to mind. That's reasonable. This river supports an excellent and diverse trout fishery, and trout are certainly the sport fish most associated with clear, cold mountain rivers. However, the lower portion of the Chattooga also offers fun fishing for Bartrams bass, a type of black bass that was only recently identified as a distinct species.
I've been wading the lower Chattooga for river bass from time to time for many years, and when I first started fishing for them, they were believed to be shoal bass that simply didn't grow as large as the ones in the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. After that, they were separated from the shoal bass and re-classified as Coosa redeye bass. More recently, biologists have identified the redeyes in the upper Savannah watershed as Bartrams bass.
Whatever you want to call them, these are feisty river bass that are fairly plentiful from the lower end of the primary trout waters (around Highway 28) all the way to where the river backs into Lake Tugalo. There's no hotspot or even a prime section, from my experience. They are nicely distributed through the lower river, and different stretches will be good on different days. I pick my spot most days based on the section of river I want to see that day.
Because of Wild & Scenic River protection, most access to the Chattooga calls for a least a bit of walking. That's OK, though. The remoteness is a major part of the fun. Several hiking trails or boating access points on both the Georgia and South Carolina banks lead to places you can get in and wade. Because of rapids and remoteness, wading the lower Chattooga River calls for significant caution, and is best done with a fishing partner. Generally speaking, this fishing is best suited for fairly low flows.
I keep my river bass fishing very simple, wet wading in shorts and a tee-shirt and carrying a small backpack with a handful of lures, drinks, snacks and a few extra items, like pliers and sunscreen. Various lures will catch these bass, but my definite go-to is a Rebel Deep Teeny Wee-Crawfish, which matches common forage and can dig down in pools or grind along gravel bars.
Bartrams bass aren't big. A 12-incher is somewhat noteworthy. However, they are big in spirit and very fun to catch.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Nothing to Tell
Photo, which was taken by Tim Mead, was from a super fun day last winter on Wilson Creek in Western North Carolina. Not many fishing days look like that one in this part of the world. A few photos from that trip just caught my eye when I was looking at files on my computer.
I suppose it's because there's nothing to tell that this blog doesn't really say anything. Let's hope the next one will be necessitated by a good fish story that needs telling!
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Autumn Farewell
Friday, November 8, 2019
Northern Nevada Discovery
Blogger note: I wrote this in a plane on the way home from Nevada in June, and connection problems kept it from posting. Then I got distracted from my blog and never got around to trying again. So instead of reworking something, I'm posting what I meant to put up more than four months ago, with an intent of making the next post much sooner!
My most recent post expressed confidence that by week’s end I would add Nevada to the list of states where I’ve caught at least one fish. Make that more than 100 fish, most of which were big cutthroat or rainbow trout.
Before this week I had never fished in Nevada and really hadn’t heard much about its trout fisheries. Having spent time on three lakes and having learned about several other rivers and lakes, I’m convinced Nevada has some of the most overlooked trout fishing in the nation. The trophy cutthroat fishery at Pyramid Lake is truly world-class, and both other lakes we fished produced steady action from fat rainbows.
Along with yielding fabulous fishing, all three lakes offered stunning scenery, with surprisingly few other anglers around us.
I fished all week with Denis Isbister, host of Wild Fish, Wild Places, and we caught most of our fish on Tasmanian Devil Lures. Denis has fished these waters all his life, and enjoys opportunities to share favorite places. I’m thrilled that I got to be the recipient of that sharing this week!