Santee Cooper has been known for decades as the Catfish Capital of the World. Here I have 19 confirmed World Records on fish up to 100.5 lbs. I have caught 4 fish from 90 lbs to 100.5 lbs here. I truly believe when fishing Santee your next strike can truly change your life.

We catch BIG FISH year round here. I weigh and record my fish everyday. I have caught, weighed, and recorded an average weight over the last 6 years straight of 45,000 lbs of fish each year. THERE IS NO BETTER SEASON OR TIME OF YEAR TO CATCH BIG FISH HERE!!!! WE CATCH THEM YEAR ROUND! There is just different style fishing per seasonal changes! All we do is just change what depth water, and style of fishing depending on the time of year! Change with the seasons and you too will clearly see the difference in your catch weights TOO.

When you come to Santee fishing you need to come prepared with the right equipment. Big Catfish demand the best equipment. Most medium weight fishing equipment can handle just about any size fish as long as you are in clear open waters. Clear and open is NOT Santee Cooper. People tell me all the time “ I hooked up on a monster and never turned it around”. You want a monster catfish, come prepared! Dream shots of fish 80 to 100 lbs don’t happen everyday. But when it does you want the best chance you can get! Your equipment is the only thing between you and that MONSTER Moby Catfish!

The upper lake called Lake Marion literally has a tree or stump every 4-10 feet apart. It was never completely logged out. Hurricane Hugo came threw and broke 99% of the trees off just under the surface. The Lower lake, Lake Moultrie is different. It has more open waters in it with a lot of under water humps with stumps in the shallows.

The first thing I EXTREMELY recommend is a GOOD DEPTH FINDER AND GPS SYSTEM. I use a Lowrance 113 CHD Graph myself. It has a Great Contour map showing water depths, and by being a GPS (Global Mapping System) I can go find were I want to fish in the deep darkest night, or even in heavy fog. Winter and spring we have heavy fog banks come in.

By knowing how to use a GPS I can go out fishing, and come back in safe fully threw the fog. IT can save your life by having one, but, will definitely improve your fish catch! Buy one that you can afford. It doesn't take the most expensive graphs out there, But as you spend more on it, you get better details on it!!! Have one when you come!

There are 2 main different styles of fishing at Santee Cooper that really produce fish, and that I recommend.

1: is Drift Fishing dragging your baits across the humps, riverbeds, and open waters.

2: is Anchored Down Bottom Fishing or some like to call it Flat lining.

If you are coming to go Drift Fishing I am a 100% true believer in 1 particular outfit. It is a Shakespeare 8 foot Ugly Stik Tyger Downrigger Rod. Put a Pflueger Trion 66 reel. No one can convince me that there is a better outfit in the world than this one for drift fishing at Santee Cooper. We have put 2 fish in my boat over 90 lbs and numbers of world records in the boat with this outfit. This outfit will work for Drift fishing and Bottom fishing depending on how it is rigged.

Spool the reel it with 25-30 lb test line. For drifting you need to rig with a slinky weight attached to a 36-inch leader of 60 Lb test. I Demand myself Fluorocarbon leaders! Put a 2 ½ inch cork little over half way to the hook and the hook I use is a Gamakatsu 5/0 Octopus Circle hook. All Colors of hooks and corks!

As far as bait goes, we use very form of bait from bream, white perch, shad, heron, shiners, mullet, crappie, and carp. I use all of them at times. Mostly I use the readily available baits they sale in the bait shops like shad, shiners, or heron. Size does not matter much. The bigger the bait is does not always produce the bigger fish. All my world records came off baitfish not over 4 inches long! I always cut my bait drift fishing. I have 7 world records on flathead catfish and they all hit cut bait. Bottom fishing sometimes I use live. But most of the time I cut it.

When Drift Fishing I always want to be drifting up, or down a hill, across a riverbed, and when the fish get in to the big flat areas I make long drifts across the flats.

The object of drift fishing is to COVER A LOT OF GROUND. Putting your bait in front of the most fish. Sometimes we make drifts as long as 7 miles in a day. If we are catching fish the whole way we don't stop and start a new drift. We run out of bites we go back and start a new drift. As long as we are getting bite " YOU NEVER LEAVE BITING FISH!"

Anchoring Down and Bottom fishing takes different equipment than Drift Fishing. We have put 2 more fish over 90-100.5 lbs in the boat doing this style fishing. On the more open waters I use a Shakespeare Ugly Stik Big Catfish Rod, Topped with Shakespeare Tidewater size 20 reels. I spool with 30-60 lb test line using everything from a 1 ½ oz to as much as 4 oz of lead sinkers on a Carolina Rig (Carolina rig is a 1-2 foot long leader of 60 lb test with a Double Barrel Swivel on one end and anywhere from a 7/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook to a 10/0 Eagle Claw 084 style hook on the other end. The weight is above the swivel on the main line coming from the rod so it will slide up and down the line).

We bottom fish everything from 2 feet deep water to the deepest we have here about 60 feet. Depending on time of year and seasons. The key is DON’T SET OVER 30 MINUTES IN ONE PLACE UNLESS YOU ARE CONSTANLY CATCHING FISH. When the fish bite slows down and quits, MOVE! The bait is the same for bottom fishing as well as drift fishing.

When we Bottom fish in the spring we fish from 2-15 foot deep water. Thru the summer every depth for the fish are scattered. In the winter we fish on deep ridges, humps, and break lines, and riverbeds.

Now Bottom Fishing in the rivers, canals, and in the heavy timber is highly recommended.T he Shakespeare heavier Ugly Stik Tyger Rod topped with a Tidewater size 20 reels. Spooled with 60 lb test line only and TIGHT DRAGS! Same Carolina rigs apply here. You want this heavier rod and bigger line for the abrasion resistance against the lake structure. You will need the heavy backbone of these rods to be able to pull the fish out from around the heavy structure, and threw the heavy water currents. IF YOU GET THAT DREAM SHOT ON THAT MONSTER CAT IT WILL TAKE THIS HEAVY EQUIPMENT IN THE STRUCTURE!

Now once you catch that big fish there a alot of controversy over Keep It, or Release It! Now as far as Catch and Release is Concerned, I am told by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources that the people fishing with rod & reels cannot impact these lakes. As far as big fish, if it is your biggest fish you ever caught and if you want to keep it, KEEP IT! IT’S YOUR FISH, IT’S YOUR DECISION TO KEEP IT OR THROW IT BACK. It will not hurt the system if you keep it. Keep what you can eat and release the rest is my motto. Leave some for seeds.

Most people only get to come here to fish a few days a year to fish, so don’t think you going to impact the lake by taking your fish home. Now if you fish like I do close to 300 days a year that is a different story. First of all, What can you do with all that fish! As long as it is being eaten, I personally see no problem.

But now I can tell you from experience. Those big fish are not good to eat in my opinion! Up to 40 lbs the fish are good eating. After 40 lbs the physical grains of the meat are so large that the meat gets tuff, and grainy. I prefer the 15-35 lb fish to eat myself.


Before hurricane Hugo we fished much different because the ecosystem was different. The fishing styles we used then don’t work so well anymore. The ecosystem took a huge changed after Hugo. So I had to adapt with the changes, or go by the way side.

I have fished at Santee Most of my Adult life. I have been guiding since 2000. Because of learning the habits of the fish I chase, and adapting to whatever style of fishing it takes I CATCH FISH EVERYDAY.

The only thing that has changed is were I fish, what methods I use, and the style of fishing I will do. The earth is forever changing and all water systems change as they get older just like people. From the first day a lake is built and flooded mother nature starts right then trying to reclaim it Flood water moves a lot of dirt, and silt with it filling in and changing bottom depths. I have seen bottoms wash out deeper, and seen them fill in making them shallower.