Fishing remains good for catfish, largemouth

With unusually warm weather last week and some cloudy, rainy, but warmer days, the fishing actually was very, very good for most species. While the water temperature is usually quite a bit colder by now, we’re still enjoying very good fishing on some species that have normally slowed a bit by now. With the warmer water temperature there is increased metabolism compared to the end of December in most years. But let’s enjoy it while we can.

As is the typical pattern for this time of year, the best fishing for catfish, particularly the blue catfish, has been to find where there are big schools of bait fish, anchor and fan cast around the boat on the lower end of Lake Marion. In Lake Moultrie, most of the successful catfish anglers have been drift fishing, with most of the catches coming from deep water along the drops and ledges.

The blue catfish are being taken on cut bait with shad and herring being best baits, however white perch are also producing well. The flatheads are being taken on live bream, perch and shiners, along with fresh cutbait. Some good catches of channel catfish continue to be made, partly because of the less severe water temperatures, and these fish are being made using red worms, night crawlers, stink baits, minnows and small chunks of cut bait. Most of the catches are on the flats with some of the larger fish being caught adjacent to deeper channels.

The largemouth bass action is still very good, particularly around heavy cover in fairly shallow water. Fishermen are slowing their lure presentations down because of the dropping water temperature. In essence, they don’t chase baits as actively as they have in the past when the water temperature was warmer. The bottom bumping “shaky head” lures continue to be very effective on the upper end of Lake Marion according to reliable reports.

Plastic worms and spinner baits worked around isolated patches of cover have been productive on large fish as well. Some fish are also being taken around the eel grass as well with slow moving lures. Some good catches are also being made in the larger creeks such as Wyboo, Potato and Taw Caw creeks as shad begin to filter into the larger creeks.

In the lower end of the lake, the fishing for stripers has been very good and the action has been best from the dam up to the Taw Caw Creek area. They are being caught on live bait drifting, as well as casting buck tails, swimming minnow lures and top water lures early and late in the day when schooling. While a number of small stripers are being caught, some legal keeper-sized stripers are being caught as well.

Fishing along the South Carolina coast continues to be extremely good for redfish and some very good catches of speckled trout have been reported as well. The redfish are being taken on artificial as well as live bait, or frozen finger mullet and trout are being taken on green grubs and live bait such as mud minnows.