4/10/08
Fishing still excellent for bass and crappie
By Terry Madewell

Just like last weekend, the rain we had over this past weekend will likely have a big impact on our fishing. Certainly the long-term picture is good with a bunch of water for the lake. However the short term was some tough fishing conditions over the weekend and odds are good we’ll be fighting some unstable water conditions this week. That will likely impact some of the shallow water fishing success that had been very good. But for fish like catfish, it might even help the fishing.

The top news on lakes Marion and Moultrie this week is still the excellent largemouth bass fishing. The largemouth are still being caught in good numbers and sizes and most of the action is in the shallow water. Look for this action to continue over the next few weeks.

The crappie fishing action was still very good until the weekend and there were few reports while all the rain was pouring down. Some fish were being caught in shallow water as well as in the mid-depths. Minnows and jigs are both producing good action.

The shellcracker fishing is still good and the bedding action during the upcoming April full moon should be excellent. The big bream are also now beginning to bite better, so look for this action to improve over the next couple of weeks as the water continues to warm.

The largemouth bass action is being enjoyed on a wide variety of lures, much the same as the past couple of weeks. Fishermen have enjoyed good success with top water, spinner baits, crank baits, plastic worms, jigs and other lures to produce some really outstanding catches.

Some stripper action has been reported around the lake, but again, the changing water conditions may have an impact ton this fishing.

The catfish action is still very good with reports of plenty of catfish action in the shallow water. Catches of blue catfish in the 15-35 pound class continue to be reported. Multiple fish in this size class have been caught by anglers in a day of fishing and some much larger fish have been caught as well. Much of the action has been in fairly shallow water, however, some big blue catfish are also being caught in depths down to 20 feet and even deeper, based on some reports. The blue catfish action is best using herring and shad and for channel catfish, night crawlers have produced some good catches. Live bait has produced best for the big flatheads.

Fishing along the Carolina coast continues to be very good for redfish using mud minnows as bait. Some flounder action is now being reported in the Georgetown to Charleston area. In addition, very good reports of bottom fishing action continue to be received on black sea bass, snapper and grouper. A few dolphin and Wahoo have also been caught offshore.