4/19/07

Fishing still excellent for bass
By Terry Madewell

Another wintery blast this weekend, along with dangerous winds, played havoc with the fish last Sunday. Saturday, however was good for fishing and some good catches were made of most all species of fish. Hopefully by this weekend we’ll be back to some very good fishing news again. It seems like every time the fish really start cranking up, we get a cold blast from the north.

Good catches of big crappie were getting better with much more consistent reports before the big wind and cold front last Sunday. The largemouth action has been great and there have been some striper caught. In addition plenty of big catfish have been hooked as well.

We’ve had many largemouth bass reports of outstanding catches with just about every lure that’s fishable in shallow water producing good fishing action. Plastic worms, spinner baits, jigs and grub, crank baits and even top water lures are producing good action. Most of the fish are being taken in relatively shallow water, in depths ranging from the surface down to six-to-eight feet of water. Plenty of big bass are being caught right now too.

Drifting minnows or trolling jigs has provided action that is more consistent now than it was a week ago. Limit catches of big fish are being taken throughout both of the lakes right now.

Striper action is heating up too and several good catches have been reported. We’ll have to see if the rains create problems up the river. Success is being reported on herring and cut bait. Look for this to steadily improve as water conditions get better.

The catfish action is excellent right now in the lake and in the rivers. The blue catfish action is best using herring and shad. The channel catfish are being taken on smaller cut bait and night crawlers have produced some good catches as well. Live bait is best for the big flatheads and a few big fish have been taken recently.

The shellcracker and bream fishing is good and improving. Crickets have been best for the bream and worms for the shellcracker. Both species have begun to really improve in the past week.

Fishing along the South Carolina coast continues to be excellent for bottom fishing for black sea bass offshore. Inshore, the action on redfish using mud minnows as bait has been good.