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.