Navigating Santee Cooper

[adbassfishing]

I am planning on going to Santee this Friday for the first time in my boat. I've fished as a co-angler twice so i have a very basic understand of the lake. Does anybody from that area have any tips or a map for navigation?

 

EDIT: And when I say navigating I don't mean which creeks are where and such. There are area's you can ride in safely and area's you cant, just looking for some help on how to tell where to ride. I will mostly be fishing around Church Is. area.

 

Thanks

[Tim Gamble]

You’ve got some lanes you can travel but there’s pretty much the possibility of stumps anywhere out there. I have trails on my gps that I follow but you still must be careful as the level fluctuates

[J Francho]

You really have to know Moultrie well to navigate it.  Marion has a marked running lane, but stray outside it, and there will be trees just below the surface.  I love it there. Lots of big fish.  I stayed at Black's Camp when I was there.  We didn't run on plane anywhere we didn't see locals running.

[adbassfishing]

17 hours ago, Tim Gamble said:

You’ve got some lanes you can travel but there’s pretty much the possibility of stumps anywhere out there. I have trails on my gps that I follow but you still must be careful as the level fluctuates

Yeah ill probably just go slow when i'm not in the channel. My buddy told me to go to ducks pond, which i think is near the hatchery so it might be a long slow ride ?

17 hours ago, J Francho said:

You really have to know Moultrie well to navigate it.  Marion has a marked running lane, but stray outside it, and there will be trees just below the surface.  I love it there. Lots of big fish.  I stayed at Black's Camp when I was there.  We didn't run on plane anywhere we didn't see locals running.

The area i plan on fishing in on Moultrie. i have a navionics chip for my graph so hopefully that will help. I'll just have to drive careful and slower than i normally would.

[J Francho]

Good luck!  I love that place, as treacherous as it is. 

 

Here's a buddy's 8.5 from there.

 

[Tim Gamble]

If you travel to the duck pond be aware of what the wind is doing. A north wind makes it very rough in that area

The west side of church island has a clear area near the bank. There are a couple of marked stumps so be aware of them. If you put in at Spiers you can quickly idle over to church island 

[adbassfishing]

8 hours ago, Tim Gamble said:

If you travel to the duck pond be aware of what the wind is doing. A north wind makes it very rough in that area

The west side of church island has a clear area near the bank. There are a couple of marked stumps so be aware of them. If you put in at Spiers you can quickly idle over to church island 

Currently weather shows thunderstorms with a 12mph SW wind, not ideal lol. I think i am just gonna put in Spiers and fish around church island. I don't wont to cross any big water if there is gonna be bad weather. Thanks for the help!