Sticking With the Plan

Sometimes catching fish isn't high on my list of needs when I arrive at a lake (even if it's what I'd like to do the most). Often, I need photos or information about locations or some seasonal technique, much more so than I need to catch fish.

Last Friday was one of those days. I needed details about 10 specific spots on Lake Moultrie for the first installment in a series of stories I'll be writing for South Carolina Sportsman. We needed to run to each spot, which were scattered all over Moultrie's 60,000 acres, to get photos and GPS coordinates, and with the wind blowing hard, getting from one spot to the next would be a gradual process.

We did intend to do some fishing, with hopes of getting fresh catfish photos. I told Kevin Davis that as long as we got the spots, it didn't matter to me whether we fished prime areas along the way or did all the necessary work first and then fished a while.

"We'll visit our spots and keep and eye on the graph. When we see fish on the screen, we'll put some lines down," said Davis, a Santee Cooper guide who is also the co-owner of Blacks Camp.

So off we went with notepad, camera, layers of clothes, stout tackle and fresh bait. Just as expected, it was very slow going, and circling the lake took a big part of the day. Defying expectations, the fish did not show up on the graph in the regular winter holes - places where they had been concentrated only a few days prior. Davis resisted dropping lines and drifting through the areas where the fish were "supposed to be" and stuck with his plan.

Instead, we continued working through our spots, ever watching the graph, and it was a good thing that we did. Davis ended up marking a bunch of cats in an area that normally doesn't begin holding fish for another month and that he dosen't normally fish in January. We put down baits and began drifting, and it wasn't long before Nathaniel was doing battle with a Santee Cooper blue.

Despite very limited fishing time and a bite that was "off " based on other guides' radio reports, we ended up putting five cats up to 25 pounds in the boat and got lots of great winter catfish photos in addition to the stuff I needed for my "spots" story. Nothing like setting a good plan and sticking with it!

Local Information

The most familiar of all fisherman's greetings came from the boat across the river:

"Catching anything?"

The answer was no, and Nathaniel and I weren't terribly confident about that changing. We were fishing new water and a river I new little about, except that trout were stocked in it during the winter - and it didn't look very "troutish" as far as we could see. We'd fished a half hour or so, both from the bank and by wading, and hadn't had a strike.

I told the friendly inquirer that we'd never been there before, so we were somewhat clueless.

He pointed downstream and directed us to follow the riverside path to the rapids. "You should catch them there," he said confidently. "They stocked three days ago."

Armed with that information and knowing our afternoon time was short, we immediately offered our thanks, stepped out of the stream and followed the footpath, peeking through the woods periodically until we spotted shoals instead of a flat river.''

The first fish came on Nathaniel's first cast into the more interesting looking section of river, and we ended up catching about 10 and missing about as many in maybe an hour or so of fishing.

I'm thankful for the other fisherman's help because the shoals were farther downstream than I probably would have ventured without knowing they were there, and that definitely was where the fish were concentrated.

Piranha Soup

Right up there with fine catches, camaraderie and scenery, something that often stands out about my travels is the food I get to sample. Like the weather, being memorable can be a good thing or a bad thing; however, it's usually good, and it could be anything from a shore-lunch sidedish to an especially tender steak.

One of my very favorite foods from all my travels has been piranha soup, which I've had the pleasure of eating both times I've been peacock bass fishing in Brazil (both several years ago). The soup's flavor is delightful, and I suppose the same basic soup would still be very good with a different type of fish providing the meat. However, there's a novel appeal in eating piranha. I suppose I'm not unlike my boys, who become especially fond of eating fish every time we bring home shark from the farmers market.

I also like Cajun-spiced gator and bear jerky. Given the choice, though, I'll take a hot bowl of piranha soup.

Spinner Magic

I've had the pleasure of spending several days astream with Jim Bedford, and each time I have learned things that have made me a better angler. Having just finished Jim's new book, Spinner Magic, I feel a little like he and I just stepped out of a stream. As avid a trout, steelhead and salmon angler as I have ever met, Jim loves to share his decades of experience, and his book overflows both with passion and with practical information that assumes nothing and digs deep into every aspect of fishing weighted spinners.

As you read Spinner Magic, there's no doubt that it's the product of tens of thousands of hours in coldwater streams. The pages are packed with real-life examples and photos from Jim's own experience and with insights you simply don't come across any other way. If you've ever fished with someone in a favorite stream and seen the excitement as you approached his favorite hole in that river and he told of great fish that have come from that hole and laid out exactly how it needed to be approached, you have some sense of what it's like to read Spinner Magic.

If you'd like a signed copy of Spinner Magic, you can order them directly from author for $14.95. Jim Bedford, 1804 Wood Street, Lansing, MI 48112. For more information, you can e-mail him at gairdneri@comcast.net. Copies can be ordered on line from the publisher, Frank Amato Publications, Inc.