12/6/07
Fishing news still good on local lakes
By Terry Madewell

The fishing news has changed little in the past week, based on a few reports received. There are reports of decent fishing for several species of fish. The low water conditions continue to make it difficult to get on the lake. And as noted before, use extreme caution if you try to motor fast to a surface feeding school of stripers, or anywhere. Stumps and logs you’ve never had to worry about are now lying in shallow water waiting to knock off a prop or rip a hole in your boat. As we always should, wear a life jacket in this cold-water time of year.

The striper fishing continues to be active throughout area lakes. In addition to Marion and Moultrie, lakes Murray and Wateree have also boasted some excellent reports recently.

Largemouth bass action continues to be good with crank baits and bottom-bumping lures producing. Crappie fishing is also good using minnows and jigs in deep water. The catfish action is still good as well, but very few reports of bream being caught have been received recently.

The few reports received indicate striper action is good early and late on schooling fish, using buck tails or top water lures. Fishermen using live bait are also making catches during that time as well as during the midday. Find schools of stripers using your sonar equipment and drift live bait through the school of fish, at or just above the depth you mark the fish on your graph.

Both Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie are doing well in the largemouth bass department. A wide variety of lures have been productive based on recent reports with crank baits and plastic worms and jigs topping the list. However, some anglers have made good catches on spinner baits as well. As the water temperature drops some anglers use live bait for the big largemouth bass as well.

The crappie fishing news is good with the best catches being made along the drops in deep water, 8-20 feet deep. Fish your bait or lure around submerged brush piles. Green, blue or chartreuse jigs or small-to-medium sized minnows seem to be producing best results.

The catfishing action is still good as well for flatheads and blue catfish. Live bait such as perch, bream and shad are producing flathead action and cut shad is producing best on the big blues. Look for the best fishing action to be in or near deep water.

The news from along the coast is that there is excellent fishing for trout and good fishing for redfish. Both are known for good cool and cold weather action. Artificial lures such as gold spoons on the shallow flats are producing good catches of big redfish. Green jigs and live bait are producing the trout action.