Fishing slows with cold, catfishing good
The cold weather hammer had to drop sometime and it finally has, but the overall impact is not necessarily a bad one. As in all of nature, there are reasons for change and we need a certain amount of cold weather and colder water temperatures for various reasons including those that are fish related, but also for vegetation in and around the lake and numerous other things.
This first offshoot of cold weather has caused the fishing action to have slowed a bit with the big chill that came through. Overall, the news has still been decent on the catfish action, with some striper reports coming in as well. A few scattered crappie reports have been received and the largemouth fishing is still fair to good.
As is the typical pattern for this time of year, the best fishing for the catfish is for the blue catfish species. The key is to find where there are big schools of baitfish, then 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, perch and herring being best baits. The flatheads are still being taken although that action is slower and are being caught on live bream, perch and shiners, along with fresh cutbait. Some good catches of channel catfish continue to be made and these fish are being caught occasionally when fishing for blues or when targeted by using red worms, night crawlers, stink baits, minnows and small chunks of cut bait along the drops and ledges in 20 feet of water.
The largemouth bass action is still good, particularly around heavy cover in fairly shallow water. Slow your lure presentation for best results as the water continues to get colder. Fish are cold blooded and their metabolism drops as water temperatures go down, so they are less active and mobile. But they will still feed. In essence, they don’t chase baits as activity 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 Taw Caw, Wyboo and Potato creeks as shad begin to filter into the larger creeks.
In the lower end of the lake, some reports continue on stripers being taken on live bait, as well as some action in the Diversion Canal. 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.
Fishing along the South Carolina coast continues to be extremely good for redfish and some excellent catches of speckled trout have been reported as well. Cold weather is great for both these species and 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.
