2/8/07

Fishing action slowed by cold rains
By Terry Madewell

There hasn’t been a lot of news from lakes Marion or Moultrie over the past few days. The cold rain, wind and other factors have combined to slow the pace of the fishing down. There are still a few anglers making decent catches on largemouth bass and a few on crappie. However, it appears we’re in a bit of a lull right now. But the good news is that typically by mid-to-late February, which is right around the corner; things begin to get really good in a hurry for several species.

Also, with the daytime high temperatures in the 40s and lows in the 20s, the air temperature is certainly not conducive to warming the water temperatures right now. Some fishermen have said they’ll be trying the catfish to see if the blue cats will begin to bite around the big pods of shad. I do know that we’ve had excellent action of this type in February in the past, although it typically happens before now. So that’s one potential you might try.

Otherwise, the normal fishing patterns for largemouth, crappie and striped bass may produce a few fish for the next couple of weeks.

The crappie fishing had actually started improve before this last winter blast. The crappie fishing action is still confined to mostly deep water. The fish are beginning to congregate in good numbers and when you find one you can sometimes take a limit from the same general area. Most of the crappie action seems to be around the mouths of the major creeks. The best results on crappie have been by drifting the mouths of the larger creeks, along the ledges and drops, with live minnows or small jigs. A second productive method has been to troll the drops and ledges with small jigs or minnows and when a school of fish is located, work that area repeatedly. Most of the fish in these patterns have been taken in the 16- 22-foot depth range.

Some reports of largemouth bass being caught on lakes Marion and Moultrie have been received. The action is decent if the weather is even a bit cooperative and the opportunity to catch a really big fish is very good. With changing water conditions, however, you need to be mobile and stay on the move to find the fish.

The striper news is still quite slow with no reports being received; however the action should begin to perk up in the upper end of the lake within a few weeks. Some reports of action from Lake Murray have been received, but that’s not red hot either.

Fishing along the inshore coastal regions has continued to be good with some very good catches of speckled trout having been made using mud minnows as bait, along with jigs and shrimp-shaped grub bodies. Some redfish have also been taken on gold spoons in the flats. Very good reports of bottom fishing action on black sea bass, snapper and grouper have been received.