ChrisWilliams

Moving from the North to the South has humbled me the past 2 years, my local lake Santee Cooper is my nemesis. I went from 20 fish days up north to 1 or 2 fish days in SC. My friend is taking us to Guntersville, last thing I want to do is drive 6 hours to get skunked. I can fish open water fairly ok, if I see something clearly pronounced on my electronics, I’m not good at chasing bait or catching subtle details On my electronics. Is there any good shallow water patterning during early summer? Sorry for getting long winded.

I moved to SC from NH a couple of years ago. The boat ramp to the lower lake (Marion) is a stones throw from my house. One thing I’m good at is patterning a new lake I’ve never been to before. Santee Cooper being my home lake now, I struggle there. I’ll fish all day and get skunked or maybe catch 2 fish, no ,after what I do and how I do it. On the flip I did catch the two biggest bass of my life on Santee Cooper, a pair of 7 pounders back to back in the same weekend, so I was off to a good start. I went up to lake Murray blindfolded and caught a dozen fish both days, come back home and..... I get skunked the following weekend. I’ve been moving around the lake, and fishing every technique possible for what the conditions offer. I’ve been frog fishing a lot, been chasing the shad, fishing the cypress trees like a mad man, spent countless hours at the hatchery. I’m not a fan of picking of beds, so I really don’t fish spawning season. The locals don’t like talking to me, maybe because I’m a northerner And I’m not interested in catching catfish lol? What do y’all do, or what advice can you offer. Don’t need to be spoon fed, just pointed in the right direction.

My first reel was a used Quantum 1310MG Crank’N reel. It was a 3.8:1 ratio on a 5’6 Pistol grip Shimano fighting rod. I used it for worm fishing and used to have 20+ fish days on the regular, way before my local lakes where pressured beyond pressured. I ended up pulling it out and cleaning it up along with a couple of my quantum US300 tour edition reels. I was a Quantum fanboy as a teenager. Brings back memories with my father money couldn’t buy.

Tackle warehouse and bass pro is wiped out at the moment. There’s a local shop in town where I live. He has plenty of the Mach Lews combos, p-line floroclear, and senkos. That’s about it.