11/22/07
Thankfully, in our world, fishing is good
By Terry Madewell

While we may not be thankful for the low water right now, this Thanksgiving we can be thankful for good fishing. Even with ultra-low water and difficult access, the fishing is still good. The fish just move to different areas. I suppose as long as the water is wet and deep enough, they don’t care.

Overall fishing news from around lakes Marion and Moultrie has remained consistently good over the past week, which is good news for the Thanksgiving season. The news on the striped bass is improved and some good catches are being made on stripers. In addition, the largemouth bass action is still good with a few good-sized fish being reported caught. A few anglers scratched out good catches of crappie and “Mr. Consistent,” the blue catfish, is still being caught in decent numbers.

The bream fishing is fair, with some fish being caught. But overall, the size and the number of fish are down considerably. Most likely it will early next spring before we see a lot of these fish caught.

However, some good catches of white perch are also being made now in the open water areas of the lake.

The largemouth bass fishermen are working their lures slower to get more bites. Fewer top water action reports have been received, but the worm and jig are beginning to produce very well. Slow-rolling a spinner bait has also been productive as well as the stop-and-go retrieve using a shad-colored crank bait.

The striper action has improved. The fish have been schooling early and late in the day, but some of the best fishing seems to have been by drifting live bait. Shad are good live bait, but shiners will work very well if you can’t get shad. Find the areas where the baitfish congregate and drift your lure or bait at the depth the shad are schooled. Generally the stripers will readily move up a couple of feet to take your offering so most angers will lower the bait no deeper than to the top of the baitfish depth.

The catfishing for the blues is still good with fish being caught around the 18-25 foot depth. A few big fish are being hooked as well as numerous fish in the 3-10 pound class. Cut bait is still the best choice for most anglers and live shad, shiners, bream or white perch have produced fair action on the big flatheads. Some good action on smaller channel catfish on stink baits and worms has also been reported.

Crappie fishing is still good by fishing submerged brush piles in 12-22 feet of water. Live minnows, in the medium to larger size have produced good catches for several anglers. In addition the blue and chartreuse jigs have been reported as good crappie catching lures. The small one-sixteenth ounce lure size has been most productive size for the jigs.

The fishing along the South Carolina coast continues to be very good for redfish as well as speckled trout. Gold spoons are taking the reds in the shallow flats at low tide and chartreuse jigs with red heads are working well on the trout. Both are also being taken with mud minnows.