Pine Bluff Preview

While I was in South Carolina last week, I got a chance to sample the offerings of a new fishing club that is being developed on property that fronts the Edisto River near the town of Ridgeville. Kevin Davis of Black Camp on the Santee Cooper Lakes thought a trip the Pine Bluff Sportsmen's Club property would yield good photo opportunities, and he was most certainly correct. Limited time only allowed us to fish one of the five ponds on the property, but a few hours on a single pond yielded a terrific mixed catch of crappie, bluegills and bass, including the largemouth in the photo above, which provided quite a surprise and a test to my ultralight gear when it attacked a 1/16-ounce Road Runner.

The club and the complete management plan are still being developed, but the ponds, which are restored sand mining pits, have been maturing over the years and already provide outstanding fishing opportunities. No doubt I'm hopeful to get back out there to spend time sampling more spots!

Spotty Start

My fishing year is off to a very spotty start in a couple of different ways.

First, I simply haven't fished that much. I've made trips to Florida, South Carolina and Alabama to fish a bit and gather content, but for a couple of different reasons, two of those got cut short and only amounted to one day on the water. I haven't done much local fishing on days between trips, so to say my fishing time has been spotty, when compared to a normal year, would be an understatement. Plans, as of now, are to fish all next week and plans are brewing for several other angling adventures, so by theory, that is about to change.

Second, you could say my early efforts have been "spotty" because all the bass I've caught this year have been on a Cotton Cordell Super Spot. A handful of saltwater fish fell to different offerings while I was in Florida, but all of my bass have been on a Spot.  That's not too surprising, I suppose. A Spot is a fabulous early-season bass lure and one I throw quite a bit during late winter and early spring. That said, assuming next week's fishing plans remain in tact, I'm going to try to add a little variety!

Simple Surf Specks

I was mostly at the beach to capture coastal scenes and for the sake of finding proper backdrops for some needed lure photos, but of course I had to make a few casts in the best looking spots. I found two spots that held extra promise, and one of the two delivered.

The first was a short jetty with a nice tidal flow washing across the end and a couple of solid eddies. It looked great, but I was unable to make anything happen. The second was a steep section of beach right at the inlet that looked like it should be notably deeper than surrounding waters and that formed a big back eddy. It was toward the low end of an incoming tide so a lot of stuff that looked like it could be good at times was high and dry, making the deep hole seem extra promising.

On either my second or third cast, my Paradise Popper X-treme shot out of sight, and I set the hook into what turned out to be a 13- or 14-inch speckled trout. Knowing trout are seldom alone, I repeated the cast and got the same result, except with a slightly larger fish. Although it didn't turn out to be an every cast thing, I caught five or six and missed about the same number over the next hour or so, despite changing things up a few times in hopes of getting other types of photos. Eventually the bite died, which I attributed to the tide having risen quite a bit.

The following morning I did some kayak stuff in another area, and when I finished that I realized it was close to dead low tide. If I scurried back to my spot at the end of the island, I could catch the incoming tide right from the front and possibly extent the bite. It worked perfectly, with the fish biting about twice as long and me catching about twice as many trout.

None of the trout were huge, but that was fine with me. There's just something fun about fishing alone on the beach with very simple gear, identifying a spot that seems like it should produce and finding success.

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

Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: No. 7 - Lake Jocassee, South Carolina

I'll just warn you up front that if someone who has visited Lake Jocassee tries to tell you about the lake, it's going to sound like hyperbole. You'll surely hear a few terms like "gem" or "crown jewel," and adjectives will likely include "beautiful" and "spectacular." It's tough to not sound trite with words that often get tossed around so freely, but in Jocassee's case, they all fit, and in all honesty, no words do the scenery justice.

Straddling the Blue Ridge Escarpment and fed by mountain rivers, 7,500-acre Lake Jocassee is steep sided and crazily clear. Maximum depth is 350 feet, and it's nothing on this lake to be within easy casting distance for the bank and sitting over triple-digit depths. Jocassee's rocky shores are mostly forested, with minimal development, and virtually all major tributaries enter the lake over waterfalls or big, crashing rapids.

Lake Jocassee isn't just a pretty face, though. Despite its relatively small size, this lake holds claim to more state record fish than any other South Carolina waterway. South Carolina's state record smallmouth bass, spotted bass, redeye bass, brown trout and rainbow trout all came from Lake Jocassee. Beyond the cool-water species it's most famous for, Jocassee holds a small number of big
largemouths.

I won't claim Lake Jocassee is easy. Because of its extreme depth and clarity, it can be a tough nut to crack, and some of the best fishing calls for specialized approaches like deep-water trolling and night-fishing. I've been fortunate to have gotten to spend time on this lake with some very good anglers, and I'd definitely suggest hiring a guide if you're able to do so.

That said, Lake Jocassee is one of those places that warrants a visit whether or not you can get the fish to cooperate. Of course, once you've seen it for yourself, you'll be stuck with the dilemma of trying to describe Lake Jocassee to friends without sounding cliché, and my guess is that you wont' find words to it justice!

Devil's Fork State Park offers good boating and shoreline access, lodging, camping and supplies. For guided fishing, check out Jocassee Charters. For area information, visit Upcountry South Carolina.

The Ice Edge Pattern

Given yesterday's low of 9, a current temperature of 18 and more of the same forecast for the rest of this week, I can't help thinking back on a crazy cold day of fishing in the South Carolina Upcountry and wondering if the "ice edge" pattern has developed on any local streams.

It was a little less than the three years ago on the same morning that the Bassmaster Classic launch was delayed on Lake Hartwell because boats were frozen to trailers, and I was fishing the delayed harvest section of Chauga River with Bruce Stanton, who was visiting from Arkansas for some Classic-related business.

We both saw more ice than we'd ever before seen on a trout stream in the Deep South on that day, and that ice actually turned out to be the key to the day's pattern. Over time, Bruce and I figured out that the trout were sitting under the edge of the ice, right on the bottom, and feeding in the adjacent current. Once we solved the pattern, we did surprisingly well that day by casting Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs upstream and close to the ice and drifting or hopping them along the bottom, parallel to the edge of the ice. The water was clear enough that we saw several trout come out from under the ice to grab out lures.

One added challenge that day was keeping ice off our lures. I've often dealt with ice in rod eyes and even on reels, but the air was cold enough that lures were icing up between casts, especially if we moved a bit between casts. The ice hampered the appearance and action of our lures, but even more importantly, it sometimes covered hooking points! I'm almost certain that both of us missed a couple of fish that day because of iced over hooking points.

I am admittedly curious what kinds of ice lines have formed on local streams this week and whether fish are using them, but I might not be quite curious enough to go find out first hand. Next week I supposed to be warmer!

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.

A Most Memorable Bass Strike

Do you have favorite fish strikes etched in your mind - ones you remember as if they occurred 10 minutes ago? One of my favorites recently came into my mind, although I'm not sure what triggered the memory of a fish I caught 25 years ago.

The setting was a small lake in Barnwell State Park in the South Carolina Lowcountry. I suppose I had found a bit of free time while traveling somewhere by car and had stopped by the park, which I'd never been to before, to rent a johnboat for a couple of hours and try fishing the lake. I'm pretty sure I only had one bite, but that's no complaint. The bass was a good one, but not a giant (maybe 6 pounds). The strike itself was the memorable part.

I cast a weightless worm through a gap between two clusters of reeds and line draped over a strong strand of spider web between reeds. As I started reeling, the web strand held strong, keeping the worm high so it was skimming the top. Suddenly the surface bulged, like a folded piece of paper, about 6 feet from the worm. The bulge surged toward the worm, and the worm disappeared in an eruption. I set the hook solidly and connected.

Since I was alone and this was long before the era of cameras that shoot good selfies, when I released the fish, only a memory. It was (and is) a good memory, though!

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.

My Frist Santee Cooper Cast

With plans to travel to Black's Camp on Lake Moultrie today, I can't help but think about the first cast I ever made into the Santee Cooper Lakes. It was more than a quarter century, but I remember it almost as if it was yesterday.

It was an early spring morning, my second semester in college at the University of South Carolina, and I was with James Helms, a friend from South Carolina who had been building the Santee Cooper legend in my mind since the previous fall, when we met. James had a boat at school, so we'd fished Lake Murray together several times, but this was our the first opportunity we'd found to take a whole Saturday and fish Santee Cooper.

It was right at daybreak, and James had just launched the boat about halfway up Lake Marion (I believe at Santee State Park). While he parked the truck, I cast a Texas-rigged plastic worm into the fabled waters from the riprap bank. About two lifts into my presentation, I felt that telltale "thump, thump," paused a moment and set the hook solidly. A few minutes later I was unhooking a thick-bodied, 2 1/2-pound Santee Cooper largemouth.

If you fish much, you probably can guess the rest of the story. We fished from dark to dark on a perfect spring day, hitting some of the most beautiful bass waters you'll ever see, and didn't get another bite!

Ice Edge Trout in the South Carolina Upcountry

"I've never seen that before."

I'm not sure how many times Bruce Stanton and I said that or something like it today, always related to the cold and its effects. It started with crunching through a wide rim of ice just to get to open water. The snowy banks and icy river reminded me of pictures I see of fishermen targeting brown trout and steelhead in Pennsylvania and New York and were not what I'd expect to ever see in South Carolina.

We also saw trout rising, something I've not seen with the water and air as cold as it was today. I guess they were eating miniscule midges or something in the surface film because we never saw any bugs come off the water.

The next "never seen that" was major icing on lures. I'd seen plenty of ice in rod eyes (had to clear that about every four casts much of today) and on reel spools and bails on other trips, but never on lures that stayed submerged much of the time. Our lures got so icy so quickly that we couldn't fish hard baits as effectively as normal, and even with jigs we had to clear the ice off the hooks every now and then. I'm pretty sure a couple of fish I missed today were because of a hook that was iced over and lacking a sufficient point.

On the positive side, we ended up utilizing a pattern that I certainly had never seen. The fish were holding right along the edges of the ice in the big pools, seemingly using the ice as cover and ambushing baits in the modest adjacent current. Once we figured that out, we were able to aim casts upstream and close to the ice line and work Lindy Watsit Jigs and Fuzz-E Grubs close to the bottom and close to that edge and found good success by doing just that.

I suppose it's not surprising that we had the river to ourselves, considering a starting temperature of 12. Fishing was good, though, and it was a fun day on the river. And in truth the extremity of the conditions for this part of the country and all the ice only added to the adventure.

For more on one of my favorite areas to play, visit Upcountry South Carolina.

I've Fished Everywhere, Man. I've Fished Everywhere

Deadwood, South Dakota; Buffalo, New York; El Salto, Mexico, Bartow, Florida...

OK. I haven't fished everywhere. It sort of feels like it, though. I've been running a lot since the first of the year, especially for the past few months, and have gotten to fish in a huge variety of settings for  many different kinds of fish. Best I can recall, I've caught fish in 13 U.S. states, plus Mexico, so far this year. The current species tally stands at 23.

Excepting a trip to South Carolina to cover the Forrest Wood Cup in a couple of weeks, I have no travel plans through the end of August. That could change, but it's OK with me as it doesn't. As much as I enjoy fishing other places, I sure miss being home when the trips come one after another. Plus, I don't get to spend much time fishing around here. If plans stay as they are, I'll likely slip out several days to fish trout waters in Georgia or the Carolinas, local ponds and maybe a big lake or two with a local fisherman.

Plans change quickly when opportunities arise, though, so I won't make any bold statements about where I will or won't be fishing over the next few weeks.

Species 19 & 20

Yesterday's swing to the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River yielded Nos. 19 and 20 for my 2014 Species List. No. 19 was a redeye bass. Redeyes are regionally distinctive black bass that look and act like mini smallmouths. No. 20 was a chub. Spend enough days casting in mountain rivers, you'll eventually find your chub most years.

I've noted before that while I've caught lots of pond and stream fish in from Georgia this, none of my list fish, which are the first of any given species in a year, have come from my own state's waters. This year's list now includes fish from nine states, but none from Georgia! Yesterday was the closest. The chub actually might have even been in Georgia when it hit. I was wading on the SC side of the border-straddling river, though, and I don't even know if my  cast crossed the middle (or exactly where the line runs in that area) so I still had to record it as a South Carolina fish.

I don't know what species will make the list next, but part this weekend's fishing plan in Wisconsin is to go after salmon, and any salmon species would add to this year's list.

New Year Fishes

And so we begin anew. New friends, new places, new fishing adventures and almost certainly a nice dose of time enjoyed with old friends on favored waters and around familiar fish camps.

So where will this year's fishing adventures take me? Many, many unknowns there. I don't even know where I'll spend my first fishing days of the new year. The soonest solid plan puts me on ice in Pennsylvania in a week and a half (as much as an ice plan is every solid), but I may travel to South Carolina between now and then, and it's certainly not impossible that I steal a day or part of a day to visit a pond or a trout stream close to home.

Looking at my calendar, at appears 2014 might include quite a bit of fishing in the North. Confirmed travel plans, as of now, have me fishing in seven different states, and those seven include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York.

The seven states with the set plans don't include Georgia, but I'm fairly confident I'll spend at least one day fishing around home some time in the next 52 weeks. I suppose the same could be said about both Carolinas.

Fishing dreams and a trip I hope to make include a big western swing, possibly in September. The Walnut Valley Festival takes Nathaniel and me to Kansas most Septembers, so assuming we make that trip this year, I may work around the notion that we'd already be more than halfway to the Rockies and make some trout fishing plans. That would mean a lot of driving and gas and a pretty long block away from home, but I sure could use the material we could gather on such a trip, and I've never spent time stream fishing in the American West.

The trout trip, like most 2014 fishing plans, remains a big maybe. Whatever waters I get to discover, species I get to target and folks I get to meet, I'm looking forward to it, and I'm grateful for each opportunity ahead.

Tagged Trout in the Lower Saluda

The video below tells you all you need to know, so I won't waste words explaining, but I wanted to pass along word about improved trout habitat in the Lake Murray tailwater in South Carolina and a new tagging study that's being cunducted by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and is just getting rolling. If you fish the Lower Saluda and catch a tagged trout, be sure to report it. SCDNR video.

New Fishing Agreement Between Georgia and South Carolina

From Ellicott Rock, where the Chattooga River exits North Carolina, to the mouth of the Savannah River, where the big river meets the Atlantic Ocean, water forms the entire border between Georgia and South Carolina. Whether as a tumbling trout stream, Piedmont impoundment, twisting river or marsh-bound tidal flow, the water along the border provides plentiful fishing opportunities that are shared by anglers in both states.

Realizing the mutual benefit of this shared resource, Georgia and South Carolina have long operated under a reciprocal fishing agreement, which allows anglers properly licensed by either state to fish anywhere on the border waters, whether by boat or from the bank. Recent changes in South Carolina's fishing laws called for a re-working of the agreement, with some changes in Georgia's sport fishing limits. The new agreement goes into effect July 1 (this Sunday).

"Anglers as well as state officials on both sides wanted to continue the fishing license agreement and keep fishing regulations as similar as possible on border waters," said John Biagi, Chief of Fisheries Management for the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. "To minimize confusion, Georgia sport fishing regulations will largely mirror South Carolina laws on border waters."

New limits for water on either side of the border include a combined 10-fish limit for stripers and hybrids in lakes Hartwell and Clarks Hill (Thurmond), a five-fish trout limit and a 10-fish white bass limit. It's worth noting that limits for crappie and bream are not unified, with larger harvests permitted in Georgia waters.

For details, visit the regulations page at gofishgeorgia.com.