Imagine a lake. A massive lake filled with stumps and trees.

Rod Wall boats a crappie
near the trees.

Imagine a lake. A massive lake filled with stumps and trees. Imagine a lake surrounded by forests and swamps. Imagine a trip to Santee Cooper.

Santee Cooper Lake offers over 450-miles of shoreline. Damming the Santee and Cooper Rivers created the two lakes known as Moultrie and Marion. Together, the lakes known as “Santee” or “Santee Cooper” provide a huge biomass. Over 12,000 workers cleared over 170,000 acres. (That is a LOT of stumps!)

The vast swamp around the lake provides the “nursery” to Santee’s fishing success. The millions of bluegill fry provide food to bass and crappie. Larger bluegills are the mainstay of the catfish population. The shad population provides even more protein for the larger predators. Both nesting and migratory birds enjoy the food base.

Ospreys are fun to watch too.

Humminbird technology comes in handy on big waters.

Where do you begin? A call to Carolina King Retreat is a good start. The boat-ramp, comfortable cabins, and dockage for your boat are all here.

You can plan your fishing trip and navigation with Navionics. Click this link to see how to use your laptop to pre-plan your route. Just plug the card back into your Humminbird and your route is ready. (Cool!) This angler would be inclined to boat some bluegill and head out for big cats this summer. You could anchor up in a likely spot or cover some water, drift fishing. Hook up your bluegill with a Team Catfish Hook.

Cats grow to 80-pounds or more on Santee

In the fall, it would be tough to ignore all of the migratory ducks. However, the Bass and crappie will be feeding heavily. Try fishing various depths. Again, your Humminbird has a temperature gauge, so be sure to use that advantage.

The winter will offer fishing similar to early fall and summer fishing. Go deep first and work in. Jigs like the Road Runner and Rockport Rattler in the quarter-ounce sizes may be the way to go. Try the eighth-ounce size first. Tip with a Mid-South glow tube and a minnow. Slow down your presentation as winter progresses.

Braxton bags another crappie.

As spring begins to awaken, try lighter jigs in shallower waters. The crappie spawn should begin as the dogwoods start to bloom.

The growing moon in May signals the bluegill-bedding season. Try small Road Runners or even Stubby Steve’s bait on size four Tru-Turn hooks.

It sounds like we should fish Santee year’ round.

Blessings, tj

South Carolina’s Santee Lake

Whitey’s Santee Catfish

This old angler has made far too many trips over this lake. The I-95 Bridge offers a painful tease of what Santee Lake offers. Last week’s outdoor writer camp was the drug this angler needed.

Brandi and Whitey Outlaw hosted this fine event. They insured we were well fed and kept busy. Busy? I shot over 300 frames and a pile of videos. (You will see the videos on CrappieNOW.com soon.)

Kent’s Road Runner and Mid South Tube combo work well.

B’nM Poles, Crappie Masters, Driftmaster Rod holders, Humminbird, Vicious Fishing, Minn Kota, Mid-south Tackle, Tru-Turn Hooks, Road Runner Lures, Crappie Pro, Rockport Rattler, Fatheadz Sunglasses, Lucas Marine Products, and Carolina King Resort sponsored the event.

Santee’s biomass provides food for many species.

A heavy workload beckons, so some photos will have to speak for me for now. Look for more to come soon.

Blessings, -tj

For them, the boat ride was more fun than the fishing.

Benjamin and Lily admire a crappie.

The wind pushed the boat to and fro’. Fishing today would be some work. I quickly positioned the boat behind an island. I needed a plan “B”. The whitecaps on the lake resembled a washing machine.

I idled over to a large cove. The numerous small points and docks looked good. Whether they would bite would be a concern. An easterly wind has always been slow here.

Today was special. Grandchildren Benjamin and Lily were aboard. At ages, six and eleven, spider rigging could easily be a circus. I reduced the pole count from eight to six.

We began our first recon down along the break. Port poles would be 10-12 feet deep. Lily’s poles would troll in 7-9 feet of water. My hope was Benjamin would pick up crappie and catfish. Lily’s would be in the crappie and bluegill zone.

18-minnows later, we had two crappies. What bites there were, were extremely light. We began to work our way back. The wind showed no mercy as it whipped around the cove.

The kids donated another 24 minnows to missed fish. All those free meals reminded them they had skipped breakfast. It was time to go. They munched on potato chips as I buttoned down B’n’M Poles and stowed the Driftmaster Rod holders.

We met a head-on sea as we reached the main-lake. I backed down to 4000 RPM. I was thankful for the posh seats on the boat. The kids giggled and laughed all the way to the dock.

Blessings, -tj

Be a better angler, fish with your friends. (Lily pad crappie)

Russ and another
Pymatuning Lake Crappie

It was a pleasure to fish with B’n’M pro, Russ Bailey last week. We had been looking forward to fishing Pymatuning Lake, for a year. I spotted some lily pads as we fought the wind on a point. Russ headed that way and readied his signature jigging pole. He said; “Sam Heaton’s pole is great for light bites in deep water. But I think this stiffer pole is better in this cover.” Lesson learned.

The best color was a white-body on a chartreuse Road Runner head. The wind started to blow into the pads. The water looked like mud. We both changed jig colors and began to catch them again. Lesson relearned.

“Dang” I thought aloud. “What?” “If the wind would lie down we could use a push pole.” “Why would you use a push pole TJ?” Russ asked. “This water is only three feet deep. A push pole is much quieter than any trolling motor.” I replied. Lesson learned.

My 1/16th oz. Road Runner got hung in the pads more often than Russ’s 1/32nd. His smaller hook, found less trouble. He was clearly out-fishing me too. The crappie preferred the slower descent. Lessons learned.

The wind began to howl. We put away our poles and headed for the dock. Forty crappies visited our boat in just a few hours.

Get out there and take a friend fishing. Switch it up. Park your boat and go with them. You will learn something on every trip.
Blessings, -tj
Video! Lily Pad fishing with Russ

A funny photo from Jeff Samsel

Jeff sent an e-mail this week, with gracious thanks for what I do to make his job easier. What was I doing in the photo? No, I was not napping. I was hiding so Jeff could get a spider-rigging shot on Shenango Lake in Mercer County, PA. There is more to this story. However, I just wanted to share Jeff’s photo for now.

Insert funny comment here. Photo courtesy of Jeff Samsel.

Blessings, -tj

Fishing for the sake of just fishing

I’ve managed to turn fishing into work. Really. Ninety-percent of the time; fishing is all about “got to bag this photo”, “got to get picture fish for tomorrow’s shoot”, etc. Yesterday was about, just fishing. Fishing for fun. No pressure for photos or content. Our only worry was to get back to the office by lunchtime. In our search for spotted bass, we found crappie in eight to fourteen feet of water off of deep points. While they appeared to be scattered, we caught and released plenty. We could’ve filleted them and had a fish fry. Nah, that would be too much work.
Blessings, -tj

Ron’s Road Runner
Black Crappie

What size hook is it?

The angler on the phone says, “Yeah, I need size fours for my Shad Assassins”. “So you really need ‘four-ought”, right?” I ask. “Uh, yeah.” Either this person is too tired to say, “Ought” or he’s clueless. There is one heck of a difference between what he said and what he needed.

To that end, let us review how hook sizes work.
Regarding sizes below one-ought, (1/0) the larger the number, the smaller the hook. The opposite is true above size 1/0. The quick photo below really simplifies things.

Daiichi octopus hook sizing is pretty easy

Now on to circle hooks.
Hook manufacturers will never agree on circle hook sizing. So forget the sizing. That’s right. Throw the numbers out the window. Look at the gap between point and the shank. Will it fit the lip of the fish your are fishing for? Will it allow room for the bait you are using? Then you may be looking at the right size for you.
Tip: put the card from your hook package in your tackle box. Now drop the the hooks on top of the card. When you get low, pull the card and take it with you to your favorite tackle retailer. That’s much better than guessing!
Blessings, -tj

Zorro is back.

Buyrl quickly proved that
Zorro Lures still work.

Stan Sloan left a legacy. His famous Zorro spinnerbaits are first to come to mind. Sloan won the first tournament ever held by B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott. Sloan was also the first angler to move his trolling motor to the front of a boat. In 1971, Mr. Sloan’s design of “The Aggravator” spinnerbait enabled Bobby Murray to win the first Bass Master’s Classic.

Sloan passed in 2008 after a long battle with cancer. He worked every day in the lure plant until his death.

Late in 2009, anglers Buyrl Shirley and Ronnie Rogers purchased the Zorro Bait Company. It was my pleasure to meet Shirley during a trip to Center Hill Lake. The day began in a comfortable cabin at Edgar Evins State park. The spacious cabin is really a split-level condominium. (I cannot wait to go back.)

I met Shirley at the dock and we ran to a nearby point. It was not long before he bagged a massive smallmouth on one of his lures. We quickly moved to another point and began to pick up some spotted bass. Writer, Nathaniel Samsel joined us mid-morning to catch a few spots of his own.

At lunch, I could not help but think about selling those Zorro spinnerbaits in our family tackle shop, nearly forty-years ago. Samsel asked why I was staring at my sandwich. I tried to explain the irony and could not find the words.
Blessings, -tj

Use your clock to catch more fish.

Jeff Samsel follows
the fish that will bite.

Last week’s blog was about appealing to more of the fish’s senses. This week’s tip is about you. The more techniques you pack into a trip, the more fish you will catch.

A typical spring or summer pattern we fish follows.

1. We start the predawn with soft, twitch-baits like the Shad Assassin or Skippy Fish lures for spots and bass. The waters have had all night to cool. This means the fish will be shallow. As the sun rises, it heats the atmosphere. This pushes cool air down too.

2. The water starts to warm and fish begin to move deeper. We break out the Road Runners in the 1/8th oz. size and pick up more fish.

3. This bite may slow by 10 o’clock, so we have some choices to make.
a. We can switch to Texas rigs to fish deep for more bass.
b. Switch to ultra-lights and cast Road Runners on the bluegill beds.
c. We could spider-rig crappie on the deeper brush-piles.
d. Take a nap and return to night fish for cats.

Do you see a pattern? We are versatile. Because we are not married to a certain technique, we can adapt as fish move. Since we love to catch any fish, we can move to fish that are more responsive.

Ron and I call it “Fishing by the clock”.

Obviously, a versatile boat with plenty of storage for all these techniques and tackle is handy.

Blessings, tj

Do you want to catch more fish?

Road Runner with a Baby Shad and a Blood Red Stubby Steve’s is the bomb!

It is easy. Simply appeal to more of the fish’s senses. Take a Road Runner Lure for example. While a jig is just a jig, the Road Runner offers flash, vibration, sound, and sight. The contrast of the blade also augments the sight.

Fish have ears so they can hear the blade turning. Vibration should not be confused with hearing. The lateral line of the fish, senses vibration as a separate sense.

Now let us consider “thought”. Okay, let us use “response” as a better term. A fish looks up and sees the blade turning. The sight may remind her of “bait fish feeding” or the gill flash feeding signal. (I am eating and you are not.)

Another sight-based response is “profile”. The original Tiny Shad by Bass Assassin or the Bobby Garland Baby Shad and the LFT Live-Baby Shad are great examples of profile baits. To fish, this simply triggers a baitfish response.

What two senses are we missing? Smell and taste. This is an easy problem to solve. Scent additives like Juiced up Bait and Stubby Steve’s are readily available.

Now all of the senses are covered. What are you waiting for? Go fish!

Blessings, tj