1/4/07

Striper and catfish action good; largemouth fair
By Terry Madewell

Little has changed in the past week in terms of overall fishing success based on reports from anglers. The catfish action is perhaps a bit better and the striper action seems to come and go. The cloudy, rainy days if you dared venture out, seemed to produce some good striper action.

The largemouth bass fishing remains fair in area lakes and a couple of nice fish have been reported taken from large ponds recently as well. Some fishermen are beginning to use live bait for the big bass in the upper reaches of the lake. Some crappie and white perch continue to be taken in both lakes Marion and Moultrie.

The good striper fishing reports continue to be received from the Goat Island area down to the dam on Lake Marion. Plus, some reports are being received from around Lake Moultrie as well. “Follow the gulls” is common advice to most fishermen for early and late in the day fishing success.

When the fish are schooling, use bucktails, swimming minnow lures such as Rattletraps, or top water lures for good action. A lot of the best striper catches are being reported taken on live bait; specifically shad or shiners. Fishermen are drifting the bait through the schools of forage fish where the stripers are feeding. Use your graph to find the large schools of bait and keep the bait just a bit shallower than the depth the fish are marked on the graph.

Fishing for largemouth bass is only fair, but some good catches are still being made if you work hard and fish long. Spinner baits, plastic worms and jigs are all producing some fish action.

The crappie fishing news remains fair with the best catches being made in deep water around submerged brush piles, using small blue, green or chartreuse jigs. Live bait is also good with small-to-medium sized minnows producing catches.

The catfishing action is good and some big blue catfish, and flatheads as well, have been caught recently. In fact, some good action on big blues is occurring at Lake Wateree as well as at lakes Marion and Moultrie. One angler had several fish with one 34-pound blue cat caught last week. Cut shad and cut white perch are producing good action on the big blues. All of these lakes have produced some excellent catfish action during the past week. Look for the best fishing action to be in or near deep water.

Coastal fishing is still good for redfish using artificial lures as well as live bait. The speckled trout action is fair, though that action is slowing a bit. Trolling has been a good method to locate the fish recently.