macfish Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 Hi, I'm a new member to the forum but I've been reading for a long time so I thought I would try to get some info. I'm headed to Santee, SC on March 12th for a month. We rented a condo on Lake Marion just above the I95 bridge and I'm looking for any advice I can get about the Bass fishing. Should be a great time to be there depending on the weather. Recently retired and we're going to look at real estate there and in the Charleston/ Summerville area because we have several friends in there but no serious bass fishing folks. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Mac Quote
Al Wolbach Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 Hey Mac, welcome to the site. I think you will love the area. Fishing advice about that area is hard to come by on this site, just not many on here from that area. The weather there in March is iffy like much of the south and April may be really hot, makes for hard planning. Several guys on here are planning trips to Santee-Cooper in April but can't really help with fishing advice. Sorry. If you are interested in hiring a guide I can suggest someone, don't have the info handy now. I was stationed there in the 60's and 70's for about 9 years total. We lived in Summerville and Goose Creek. Still love that area and wish I had retired there. I still visit that area a couple of times a year. Summerville has grown so much I'm not sure I would settle there now, just to many people, not the slow, small lovely town it once was. You may want to look in the Monchs Corner area. My last visit it did not appear to have grown as much and is only 10-15 minutes drive to Summerville. Didn't mean to ramble. Good luck..........Al Quote
Buckeye1955 Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Made a trip down there in April a few years ago and stayed in the state park cottages. Mostly fished the black swamp they called it, the flooded timber just out off the cabins there. Didn't set them on fire, but did catch a few on spinner baits and crank baits. Be careful in that area as the water depth changes dramatically once you leave the marked channels and there are stumps everywhere. A good GPS is a must back in there. You can really get turned around. We marked the park and used that to find our way back out. The trees were also absoutely infested with snakes. We kept having them swim up and try and climb on the boat. Had to thump on them with the rods and oar. Got snagged on a tree and was working on getting the lure loose and one stuck his head out of the branches just above my lure. Left that one there! We asked around the local bait stores and most of the locals were into catfish and shell crackers. Didn't seem to be many local bass folks. Quote
bweave09 Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Anyone interested in Santee-Cooper should give guide Brett Mitchell a call to set up a trip. He is a friend of mine and wins virtually every tournament he fishes there. Check out his website, fishingwithbrett.com and take a look around. He said that he is booked all weekends in March and April, but still has weekdays open. His phone number is 8033797029 and tell him Broc Weaver sent you. He is a really great guy and volunteers as the coach/mentor for Anglers @ USC, The University of South Carolina's official bass fishing team. You won't be disappointed Quote
macfish Posted February 19, 2011 Author Posted February 19, 2011 Thanks to all for the responses. I'm not thrilled about the "infested with snakes" thing, but I'll keep it from the wife. Not sure if I'm going to hire a guide or not, but I will talk to Brett about it. It's such a huge place I would like to explore the area within say 10-15 miles of where I'm staying (near the I95 bridge). Up here in CT we don't have anything even close to the size of this place but I'm sure there's good bass cover everywhere. We did take a Nature cruise out of the State Park 2 years ago and there was so much good looking cover that it would be hard to decide where to start. If there are any more comments from anyone I would appreciate it. Thanks again! Quote
Al Wolbach Posted February 19, 2011 Posted February 19, 2011 Infested with snakes and no one mentioned alligators.................On a positive note the town of Santee is beautiful and the people are very friendly.......................Al Quote
Al Wolbach Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 Someone gave me a tip about fishing Santee-Cooper regarding the snakes(not sure who). The advice was to place a portable radio on the bow facing the direction of travel. The theory is the snakes hear you coming(because of the radio) and drop into the water before you get to them. When you are slowly fishing in the swamp you actually sneak up on them without the radio. I don't know if this works or not but I'll know after my next visit in April. For you young guys- I don't think this works with I pods(lol)....................Al Quote
macfish Posted April 24, 2011 Author Posted April 24, 2011 Anyone interested in Santee-Cooper should give guide Brett Mitchell a call to set up a trip. He is a friend of mine and wins virtually every tournament he fishes there. Check out his website, fishingwithbrett.com and take a look around. He said that he is booked all weekends in March and April, but still has weekdays open. His phone number is 8033797029 and tell him Broc Weaver sent you. He is a really great guy and volunteers as the coach/mentor for Anglers @ USC, The University of South Carolina's official bass fishing team. You won't be disappointed Broc, Just a follow up since I returned from SC. I took your advice and booked a couple of trips with Brett Mitchel and was very happy with him and the results. Plan to fish with Brett again this fall when I'm back mostly for deer hunting. My friends that went with me were also happy and will probably book him in the future also.He has top notch equipment and knows santee well. The fishing was very good, pretty much hit the spawn/ post spawn except for 1 week of rain and cold which kind of shut down the bite and us. Quote
Al Wolbach Posted April 24, 2011 Posted April 24, 2011 Hi Macfish, glad you had a good time in South Carolina. Do you still plan to retire there? If so, did you find an area to live? I was there last week and had a great time. Weather was great and so was the fishing.............Al Quote
macfish Posted May 13, 2011 Author Posted May 13, 2011 Hi Macfish, glad you had a good time in South Carolina. Do you still plan to retire there? If so, did you find an area to live? I was there last week and had a great time. Weather was great and so was the fishing.............Al I would already be there if the wife wasn't stuck on the home we have now. We're looking into a condo at the place where we atayed in Santee as a vacation spot for our use and maybe a little word of mouth rental to pay the taxes. If I did re-locate there it would be in the Summerville/ Goose Creek area or Aiken. We've looked at a few but wife can't pull the trigger. Quote
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