Thanks For All The Tips And Advice On Santee Cooper

[Hanover_Yakker]

Unfortunately, I realized when I got there that I had left one whole tray of takle sitting at home that would turn out to be a critical error.  As for the event, I didn't fair as good as I would have liked.  I had planned on getting there early on Wednesday and pre-fishing a couple areas.  Mother Nature had other plans, because the night before I got there a cold front moved in and brought with it 25-30mph all day.  I could see white caps in the Diversion Canal and out on the main body of water on Moultrie.  Several other kayak anglers and boaters came in reporting minimal success.  I decided to wait until the following day.  Thrusday brought the brunt of the cold front with overnight lows below freezing and winds in the 20mph range.  I fished in and around the area at Blacks Camp with nary a bite.  Few had success as well.  The Hatchery was okay, but day 1 of the KBF Open found 29 people with no fish to turn in on their scorecards.  I ended up pedaling about and helping out more than actual fishing.

 

Day 2 on Friday brought with it milder conditions with temps in the 60's later in the day and calm winds, so I went to the Rim Ditch at the Hatchery and fished hard for 4-5 hours.  I threw at every laydown and bed with only 3 bites to speak of.  The first bite was a complete miss on my part from not paying attention.  The second bite missed was more about the buck bass guarding the bed not taking the bait completely.  The third one is the dreaded "one that got away" story.  I found a laydown that had 3-4 trees crossed over one another, so I decided to go big or go home.  I tied on a 7/0 EWG Gammy with a 1/8oz tungsten weight and threaded on a 10" PTL Ribbon Hinge worm.  First cast into the back of the laydown was perfectly placed.  I worked it up and over the laydown cross point and let it fall to a rest.  A couple subtle twitches and I felt a sold 'thunk".  I knew the fish didn't have it all, so I let it take it a couple more times and saw the line subtly move.  I reeled down and gave a nice firm sidesweep hookset and felt the hook drive home.  My MH rod bowed over and then "pop"......the dang fish snapped new 30lb. PP braind clean!!!  I was so ticked, uuntil I learned that my buddy had fished the same laydown not 30 minutes before me and had the same experience.  On somewhat of a good note, my buddy from NOVA was fishing near me and landed his personal best at 23 1/4". 

 

Saturday brought with it air temps in the high 60's and some wind, but we were fishing Mark Deschene's VIP Adventures, so we were all a little excited.  60 kayak anglers were licking their chops at the chance to qualify for the top 15 to move on.  We were placed in two groups of 15 anglers on lakes 5 & 6.  Many of us had no prior knowledge of the place and those in the know wouldn't even share the location.  They had the upperhand, but I stuck to my guns and fished my way.  Several fish were caught on all manner of presentations from lipless cranks, billed cranks, soft plastics, swimbaits, etc.  All of my fish were caught on texas-rigged soft plastics.  I had 8 fish total, three of which were dang crappie.  They were slamming my 5" stick bait like it was a minnow.  I ended up missing the top 15 by a few inches of total length between two fish, but I did get to see a 7lb. beast get pulled in by one of the SC natives that knew the lake already.

 

Since I missed the cut on Day 1, I opted to head home a day early.  I had thoughts of getting up and trying my luck back at the hatchery for some casual fishing, but I just couldn't get out of bed for some reason.  I ended up oversleeping, so I finally bagged it and called it.  I got some breakfast, took a shower and hit the road.

 

When I look back at the event, the most consistent bite was on medium cranks and lipless cranks deflecting off of stumps in varying depths of water.  It made me realize that I need some serious work on my crankbait skills and learn to get over my fears of working cranks against wood.  I guess my fear is directly tied to the fact that I don't have a plug knocker and I fear that I will lose my high end cranks.  Looks like I know have a point of focus for the coming year, and a new rod to add to the arsenal, since I don't have a crankin' setup.

 

In the end, it was an awesome event and one that I plan on going to again next year.  Thanks again to all of the folks that shared some information with me via the numerous PMs I sent over the last couple of months. 

[Siebert Outdoors]

Sounds like a good trip!  Congrats. 

[Hanover_Yakker]

Thanks Mike - I tossed a few of the Siebert Outdoors bed bugs but got no love from them, but I'll be trying them again here hopefully later this week at Briery Creek!

[paul.]

losing big fish always bites but you can't let it eat you up.  it's the ones you don't catch that keep the fire burning.  cool report.

[roadwarrior]

A plug knocker is mandatory if you are going to successfully fish crankbaits.

The BPS version works great.