First Fish of the Morning - Santee Cooper Catfish

"That's what we want!" Capt. Brett Mitchell said as one of his catfish rods bowed hard. I scrambled to the rod and pried it out of the rod holder, and the fight was underway. Five minutes later, Mitchell slipped the net under what turned out to be a 27 1/2 pound Santee Cooper blue 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.

 

Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: No. 5 - Santee Cooper Lakes, South Carolina

Time I've spent on the Santee Cooper Lakes spreads across three decades, going back to college days, and I've enjoyed dozens of memorable days fishing these two big South Carolina lakes. Favorite days, were I to attempt to pick a dozen or so, undoubtedly would include days catching flatheads, largemouths, stripers, blue catfish, crappie and bluegills (at least). Opportunities are diverse at Santee Cooper, and it seems that every kind of fish that lives in these lakes is plentiful and grows big.

For folks from other places, the Santee Cooper Lakes are Lake Marion and Moultrie (locally called the Upper Lake and Lower Lake), which are connected by a canal and impound the Santee and Cooper rivers through some complex engineering. The two lakes are distinctive, and each has its own character, but because they are connected and operated together, they tend to be viewed as a single massive (170,000 acres) fishery.  The lakes are fertile and offer highly diverse forage and extensive habitat, resulting in world-class fisheries for multiple species.

Santee Cooper first gained fame as the original home of landlocked striped bass when anadromous fish got trapped during the lakes' construction in the 1940s and ended up surviving and making spawning runs up the rivers. Big catfish are probably the lakes' current largest claim to fame. Folks travel from all over the country to sample Santee Coopers's legendary catfish, and many guides stay busy year-round with catfish trips. Blues and flatheads draw the headlines, but Santee Cooper holds claim to the world record channel cat, and channels still provide a fun opportunity for fast action at certain times. Santee Cooper is also famous for its giant shellcrackers and bluegills, highlighted by a former world-record shellcracker that came from the canal that connects lakes. And then there are the bass and the crappie, which are the main reasons why many anglers travel to these waters year after year.

Fishing is the main attraction for me, and I could go on and on about Santee Cooper angling opportunities. My fondness for the lakes extends far beyond its fisheries, though. I appreciate the variety of settings, from vast swamps at the upper end of Marion and around both lakes to the flooded forest in Marion's main body to the wide open water of Lake Marion. With that comes diverse wildlife, including gators, ospreys, wading birds and much more.

I also enjoy the atmosphere throughout Santee Cooper Country. These are fishing lakes first, and both are serviced by several true fish camps, where an angler can get a cabin or motel room, buy fresh bait and the tackle needed, hire a guide that goes out of the camp's docks, launch a boat and hang out in the restaurant to enjoy big servings of down-home cooking and hear plenty of fish stories.

I've spent many hours in the Black's Camp restaurant, enjoying catfish stew and a burger or a dinner buffet while gleaning wisdom from veteran guides.

Really, the biggest challenge about planning travel to Santee Cooper is figuring out when you would most like to go, which area you want to visit, and what species you want to target. Santee Cooper Country is a great resource to help with the planning. The website provides loads of great information, and if your plans allow you to travel through the town of Santee between 8:30 and 4:30, stop by their visitor center to look around and talk with someone in person.

#VistSanteeCooper

Sharing Santee Cooper Country

My first Santee Cooper Country adventure was nearly three decades ago with a college buddy, and I remember well my first Santee fish, a bass I caught from near the boat ramp at Santee State Park. That's another story for another time, but it was the start of a major fishing chapter, and one that thankfully continues to be written!

I wouldn't try to guess the number of days I've spent on Lake Marion and Moultrie, which together make up the 170,000-acre Santee Cooper system, but it has been a bunch. I've fished from swampy upper end of Lake Marion to the deep water near the spillway at Lake Moultrie and have spent days catching slab crappie from brushpiles, wrestling flatheads out of submerged timber, drifting for heavyweight blues, pulling bass from cypress knees, slip bobber fishing for giant bluegills and shellcrackers, chasing striper schools and more.

I've also gotten to share Santee Cooper's wonders with my son, Nathaniel (now 19) and a few other friends, and this week I get to do likewise with my 13-year-old son, Asher. We leave dark and early tomorrow for Black's Camp, which is the basecamp where I have spent the most time at Santee Cooper over the years and is one of my favorite destinations anywhere because of the fishing, the food, the fish camp atmosphere and especially the people.

The event officially starts tomorrow at dinnertime, but Asher and I will leave way early so we can have part of the day free to explore fabulous backwater areas in kayaks before kickoff. On Wednesday and Thursday we'll fish with guides, and both weather and the recent bite will dictate species targeted and approaches. I attended the same event a couple of years ago, and schooling stripers and blue catfish served up fabulous action. On Friday morning, we'll venture out in the kayaks one more time before starting toward home.

Of course, between time on the water, we'll enjoy great meals with many fishing industry friends and simply enjoy getting to spend time in Santee Cooper Country.

Fishing with a Longtime Friend

Terry Madewell just held tight when I scurried to get the first catfish bite of the morning. Same as he did when he first introduced me to Santee Cooper catfishing 25 years ago. Same as he always does. Terry will tell you it's a business move. He wants photos. And in truth it never takes long for his camera to start clicking. I contend, though, that bigger factors are Terry's natural graciousness and his desire to see other people catch fish.

Terry and I spent yesterday with Linwood Thornhill, a legendary Santee Cooper guide who has guided on these lakes 15 years longer than I have been alive, and we had an outstanding day. We caught about a dozen cats up to 25 pounds in the morning, and then spent the afternoon catching about 50 stripers from schools. As good as the fishing was, though, I'd have to say that my favorite part of the day was just spending it with Terry, who is a friend and a mentor in this industry.

When I was just out of college and working for the South Carolina Waterfowl Association, Terry took me bass fishing on Lake Marion and answered questions about outdoor writing all day long. I still remember many conversations from that day. Terry also introduced me to several Santee Cooper catfish guides, and set up trips with some of them so we could fish together. It had been too many years since we fished together, though.

Terry's notepad and pen are never far from him, and he's always asking questions of guides, pros and other anglers, and taking notes for stories. He's also an avid fisherman himself, and he lived in Manning for many years, and I'd guess that with the exception of a few veteran local anglers like Linwood, Terry knows about as much about fishing these lakes for all species as anyone out there. He doesn't boast his knowledge, though. He just sits back and listens, has fun catching some fish and seemingly has even more fun watching everyone else catch fish.

For information about the Santee Cooper Lakes, check out Santee Cooper Country.

Jug Fishing Lessons

Between living in Georgia and being a big catfish fan, it would seem like I should have some experience fishing jugs for catfish.

Nope.

Until yesterday morning, I'd never done it before. Let me tell you, though, I'm hooked. It will not be the last time. Beyond being wildly efficient, watching for jugs that are standing or bobbing or swimming and then running them down is incredibly fun. When you grab the line, you don't know whether the fish at the other end will weigh 3 pounds or 30 pounds.

Of course it helped that I got to go with Tony Adams, who is knows Lake Eufaula catfish like few other people and has a refined jug fishing system, and with Eufaula mayor Jack Tibbs, who is also am expert on the lake. It didn't hurt that we had perfect weather and the fish were really biting.

Tomorrow night brings another first -- bow fishing, and I'm definitely looking forward to giving that a try!

Monster Appointment on Friday

 

Tennessee River Monsters has been on a great bite this week,
with 10 cats over 40 pounds in four days. Photo courtesy
of Tennessee River Monsters

Monster time begins Friday afternoon.

That's when I'm meeting Capt. Scott Manning of Tennessee River Monsters to fish the fertile waters of the Tennessee River for monster cats. He's been on them this week -- 10 that weighed more than 40 pounds in four days -- and nothing about weather or likely generation schedules suggests that the bite should change. Rain chance is 40 percent every day between now and then, with scattered afternoon thunderstorms possible, so that is the biggest question mark right now.

Tennessee River Monsters specializes in heavyweight blues and flatheads, plus trophy stripers, on the Tennessee River, between Knoxville and Chattanooga. From what I've seen, we'll use oversized baits for overgrown fish, so any fish that bites is apt to be that monster we're looking for. We'll most likely begin in the afternoon and fish through the evening and on into the night.

I'm an "everything that swims" sort of fisherman, and every style of fishing has its own appeals. Big cats rank high on my favorites list, though, and it's been too long since I've gone after them. I also don't have a blue or a flathead on this year's species list. Most importantly, I really need to freshen my big cat photo files and I'm excited to learn more about how Capt. Manning likes to fish.

I'm also excited about the likely opportunity to play with a new camera. I say likely because it is supposed to arrive tomorrow. More on that to follow, though.

Santee Cooper Cats & Smoky Mountain Trout

My next two fishing adventures will take me in totally different directions, but neither is terribly far from home. The biggest common denominator, I suppose, is that both are highly favored places for Nathaniel and me to visit.

Come Monday, my truck will be pointed toward Cross, S.C. for a visit to Blacks Camp in the heart of Santee Cooper Country. A family-run fish camp with friendly folks and great Southern cooking, Blacks is located at the mouth of the Diversion Canal, which connects the waters of lakes Marion and Moultrie. And rumor has it that the blue cats are tearing it up in the canal right now.

Cross has a decidedly Lowcountry feel, with moss-draped tupelo trees, huge gators, tea-colored waters and straight rural roads with little along them besides farm houses, country stores and old churches. Beyond its famous catfishing, Santee Cooper is the original home of land-locked striped bass and has produced a couple of former world record shellcrackers. Yet some anglers would reasonably argue that the best fishing is for largemouth bass, crappie or even bluegills. I'm pretty sure we will do some catfishing. Beyond the cats, we'll see what's biting best.

A day and a half after we return from Black Camp, Nathaniel and I will again get in truck, but this time it will be pointed north, and we'll be going uphill instead of downhill. Destination is Townsend, Tenn., just across the Great Smoky Mountains, where the rhododendron should be blooming and the trout should be feeding well.

We're actually headed to Townsend so that Nathaniel can play dulcimer music on the Pickin' Porch at the Wood 'n' Strings Dulcimer Shop on Saturday, June 1. However, we can't go to Townsend without fishing for trout in the cool clear waters that tumble down the steep slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, though, and I should focus my fishing thoughts on Santee Cooper for now.

Wilson Blue Cats

We got the week of North Alabama fishing started with blue cats on Wilson Lake. Less water was running through Wilson Dam than guide Brian Barton would have preferred, but we still managed to connect with half a dozen cats in half a day. We caught our fish on cut skipjack, fished directly beneath the boat and suspended just off the bottom in 50 to 60 feet of water.

Tomorrow's fishing starts early with the first light smallmouth bite below Wheeler Dam. Word has it they're hitting topwater lures and YUMBrella rigs. Big promise for major fun.

2012 Species List

For no reason other than fun and curiosity, I decided that this year I would keep try to keep track of all the different species of fish I catch. I say try because I could forget for a while (although I will seek to stay updated) and then miss something as I'm thinking back. I might also catch a sunfish or something else that I can't positively identify by species.

It' easy so far: blue catfish, black crappie & largemouth bass. Come Monday, I hope to expand with a few more northerly species as I'll be fishing in North Dakota.

Maybe some day I'll try to compile a life list, sort of like birders do. I'd miss a few, I'm sure, for the same reasons listed above magnified by four decades of fishing. It would be kind of cool to have such a list compiled, though, and to officially add to my life list when I catch some kind of fish for the first time. In February, I might have the chance to catch a splake, which would be a definite first, and I have to think I'll catch something for the first time in Costa Rica in March. If I do ever get such a tally compiled, I'll blog about my findings.

Santee Cats & Crappie

When I finished 2011 with a little largemouth from a pond near home, I sort of wondered what my first fish 0f 2012 would be. Turns out it was a catfish -- specifically a blue catfish -- and it came from Lake Moultrie, better known as "the Lower Lake" by folks in Santee Cooper Country. Nathaniel and I spent a fun day on the lake yesterday with Kevin Davis, owner of Blacks Camp. We split the day in half, catching catfish in the morning and pulling big crappie off deep brushpiles in the afternoon.

The crappie were using brush along the edge of a hump in nearly 30 feet of water. It is cool fishing because from above the surface it looks like you are in the middle of nowhere, but the boat positioning and depth control must be precise. Davis relies on his electronics, marker buoys and trolling motor to keep the boat where it needs to be. He uses two-foot "pulls" of line off the reels to place minnows and jigs at just the right depth, which normally means barely above the bulk of the brush's branches.

Next stop, North Dakota, for walleyes, perch and pike through the ice. That is unless I find myself back on the pond or waist deep in a trout stream some time in the next week or so!