The week was not bad considering there was a full moon. You had to pick and choose your times to fish, and the best bite seemed to be in the middle of the night. Catches of 15-30 fish were possible anchored. Baits varied and seemed to change daily with threadfin / gizzard shad being prefered most days. Main lake water temps were around 60 degrees, and the South Fork was around 68 degrees. Water up the Catawba remained 56-58. The backs of the major creeks were muddy from the inflow of rainwater, and most of the lake is stained. Good current was present all week from the rains as Duke Energy moved water through the Catawba system. The lake remained about 7"-8" above it target elevation. All ramps are now open at South Point Access area.
I fished Saturday night with poor results. We left buster boyd around 9:45 and went south. The wind felt a lot worse on the lake than it did in the parking lot. I could NOT get anchored in the wind. And the wind wouldn't stay a constant direction so there was really no getting out of it. I was drifting 2.5 mph with two good anchors dragging the bottom in 8' of water. You just have to laugh at yourself when it's like that.:smile2: We fished till around 1:30 I think. Only managed one fish, a 3 lb bull head. Caught him near the bridge, fishing shallow. We were using fresh shad but it just wasn't hardly manageable in a pontoon with that wind. The water was around 58 to 60 mid lake. The only fish I marked were south of buster boyd about a mile near a cove that always hold fish for some reason. They were around 20' deep. Couldn't fishem though, too windy there.oooh: It was fun anyway.
We fought the wind Friday night, but managed to get anchored up in a covethat was protected and caught a few small ones. Like Wyliecat said Threadfin was what they wanted.
Wylie Catter, you need to order you one of those ten foot drift socks from that lady down at Santee-Cooper. Those things are the ticket for high winds on a pontoon.
The store at Black's Fish Camp had a couple of them at $98.00 each. Said the lady stood behind them for life, if you tear it, she will fix it.
Tim here is the link to the lady's web sight that makes the drift socks. Jim http://www.carolina-girl.com/
