Fishing action is good for catfish and bream

Fishing action remains good throughout lakes Marion and Moultrie. Blue catfish, bream and largemouth bass are the best species to fish for right now, but some good catches of crappie are also being made in both lakes.

The catfishing action is good on both lakes and has been especially good in the Diversion Canal during the past few weeks. The action is very good for blue catfish as well as the channel catfish and the flatheads. The blue catfish are biting live, dead or stinky baits but white perch, herring, shad and bream are all producing good results right now. The white perch, cut into big chunks, have been really good baits for the larger catfish and the stink baits have produced excellent results on numbers of good-sized fish of both blue and channel catfish varieties. Some reports from the Canal indicate that the Doc’s Catfish Getter Stink Bait is the best bait for numbers of blues and channel catfish in the 2-8 pound class with several big catches made recently. The flathead action is good based on recent reports. The flatheads have been caught are biting live bait fished in the deeper areas of Lake Marion.

The bream fishing remains excellent with big catches of hefty bream being made throughout the lakes. The fish are scattered and found around heavy cover, not much bedding activity has been reported recently. Some very big shellcracker continue to be caught around the Diversion Canal area. The fish should congregate around cover as well as the areas where mayfly hatches are occurring. The mayfly hatches have been noted to be scattered throughout the lakes, and offer prime targets for taking plenty of big bream. Crickets and worms have been very good baits, but small beetle spins and flyrods and popping bugs late in the evening have produced outstanding results for several anglers.

Reports have continued to filter in regarding largemouth bass and fishermen are scoring in shallow water around heavy cover and around the ledges near deeper water. Mid-lake humps in Lake Moultrie have been productive and the creek channel ledges in Lake Marion have been a favorite target of many bass fishermen. Plastic worms, either Carolina or Texas rigged, as well as spinner baits and deep running crank baits have been productive.

Nocturnal crappie action is good using lights along the deep drops and some crappie fishermen have made excellent catches in this manner, plus you can beat the heat as well. Minnows have produced the best results. But fishing brush piles in 12-20 feet of water by day is also producing plenty of crappie.

Fishing along the coast remains excellent for many species right now with flounder, black sea bass, whiting and redfish being among the most noted in recent reports. Surf fishing for a variety of fish species has also been good recently, according to several reports. The dolphin fishing has been excellent when the weather allows fishermen to get offshore.