Thread: 26 Years of Fishing Experience for Lake Murray, South Carolina.

Good info about Murray. especially for somebody like me that has never crappie fished there. Thanks for sharing. Looking forwards to more on this post.

Well it confirms my experience. I went yesterday to Rocky Creek, putting in a SCEG ramp 3. A friend had caught some nice crappie and some perch pushing a pound up there Wednesday. We long lined for about 4 hours and were seeing what we believe were suspended fish around 8 to 10 feet in 20 FOW. We caught 1 nice crappie and 2 perch that pushed a pound each, along with 4 stripers about 12 inches long. We tried a variety of jigs, some tipped with minnows which accounted for all but one fish.

I learned to Crappie fish in Georgia in the 70s and we could catch a double limit of 100 fish quite often simply trolling 1/32 oz. Hal flies on 4# test, just one rod each for the 2 of us. I have never been able to make that work on Murray. Other lakes I have been able to at least catch a decent mess, but not Murray. The only times I have caught several fish in one trip at Murray was over brush piles.

Good information about crappie and Lake Murray. Thanks for post Kit and be sure to post some fishing reports.

This past year crappie fishing on murray has been terrible! Before they pulled the water down a year or so ago, we killed the crappie in the winter time, if the striper weren't doing much schooling we would crappie fish, you can search my post from that time and see, we put the crappie in the boat! But since then the crappie fishing has been terrible, this last winter I give up on the crappie and just striper fished all winter, the striper fishing is a lot better now. We done real good with the striper this year. Hopefully next year the crappie fishing will be better.

Originally Posted by SeaRay

Well it confirms my experience. I went yesterday to Rocky Creek, putting in a SCEG ramp 3. A friend had caught some nice crappie and some perch pushing a pound up there Wednesday. We long lined for about 4 hours and were seeing what we believe were suspended fish around 8 to 10 feet in 20 FOW. We caught 1 nice crappie and 2 perch that pushed a pound each, along with 4 stripers about 12 inches long. We tried a variety of jigs, some tipped with minnows which accounted for all but one fish.

I learned to Crappie fish in Georgia in the 70s and we could catch a double limit of 100 fish quite often simply trolling 1/32 oz. Hal flies on 4# test, just one rod each for the 2 of us. I have never been able to make that work on Murray. Other lakes I have been able to at least catch a decent mess, but not Murray. The only times I have caught several fish in one trip at Murray was over brush piles.

I could not find anyway to add to or delete, so I guess I will have to behave Lol! I fish at Lake Murray exclusively and love the lake, but over the years adjusted to it. I do not like to long line troll, spider rig or all that mess, but I do love to be mobile and go exploring all the time so I dock shoot for crappie. If I catch a dozen good crappie in a day doing that I figure that is a good day. There used to be a much nicer crappie fishery but when they destroyed all the hydrilla that ringed the lake this really cut down on the crappie as the white perch(which have no limit and DNR wants you to catch them) and now with the catfish population really growing to great numbers I think they the cats eat many crappie. The open water blue cats habit the same areas and there are now lots of catfish. But the hydrilla did really provide habitat for the crappie and we used to just fish the edges of it on points in about 18 feet of water and catch many of them. Now yes they tend to be as all lakes without grass and do hold more in open water suspended over some kind of structure.

However fishing is supposed to be fun, have lots of action and keep you interested. So I use two rods, one with a fire tiger or white roostertail in 1/8 ounce and one rod rigged with a crappie jig. I shoot a dock and then throw the roostertail between docks and around docks, then shoot the dock. This catches crappie, big bull Bluegill, and bass and the occasional chain pickerel that steals your roostertail. Along with this comes a few stripers and lots of white perch. So at the end of a day if you wish you will have a cooler full of fish. This past week I caught six nice crappie one day, and four the next but had 24 big brim the first day and a limit of 30 the next day. Some nice bass one pushing 9 pounds hit the crappie jig shot up under a dock so that technique catches all fish just like the roostertail. I gave up on that trolling stuff, I will end up taking nap....besides I like to explore the docks and be moving and always go a different place all the time......Cheers!! Kit

I did a lot of dock shooting too. Got to where I could skip a jig almost to the back of a dock just barely above the water. I have not done that on Murray. What area would you recommend? I was thinking maybe Bear Creek since it has a good number of docks and deep water too, but I normally fish the Lexington side and would prefer that side.
I have tried shooting around and under the boat slips at a couple of Marinas with no luck. That was another pattern that produced in other lakes, but not Murray. I also caught a lot of crappie around bridge pilings in other lakes. Cast past the piling, watch the line as the jig sank, and when I saw a slight bow in the line, set the hook. Had to really watch the line closely. Can't make that work either. Maybe the fish painted some kind of warning sign under my boat that only fish can read???

Originally Posted by SeaRay

I did a lot of dock shooting too. Got to where I could skip a jig almost to the back of a dock just barely above the water. I have not done that on Murray. What area would you recommend? I was thinking maybe Bear Creek since it has a good number of docks and deep water too, but I normally fish the Lexington side and would prefer that side.
I have tried shooting around and under the boat slips at a couple of Marinas with no luck. That was another pattern that produced in other lakes, but not Murray. I also caught a lot of crappie around bridge pilings in other lakes. Cast past the piling, watch the line as the jig sank, and when I saw a slight bow in the line, set the hook. Had to really watch the line closely. Can't make that work either. Maybe the fish painted some kind of warning sign under my boat that only fish can read???

Could be there are no signs but the fish want steak!! I used to scuba dive a lot and we went to Silver Springs in Florida and all of these people fishing were anchored trying to catch fish. I got a couple pill bottles and wrote a note in the bottle, we do not like worms we want steak and used a zip tie to their sinker and then yanked the line. So maybe they want steak.......Grin!

Bear Creek is my favorite creek arm, it has deep water, shallow water, creek channels, docks, brush, it is a lake within a lake. Three coves hold crappie the first two as you go into Bear Creek on the East side, deep water docks. Then on up to Stinking Creek to the east on the south side those docks about two thirds of the way in against the south bank.

Crappie are tuff on murray if you expect numbers, I can shoot docks all day and if I catch a dozen I consider it a good day. Open water Black Crappie are found in Bear Creek also, so if you like to troll that works sometimes.

Yes you have to work at it on Murray for Crappie. Did not used to be like that, but it has changed. Kit.

Thanks, I will break out my "shooting rods" that was always a lot of fun. I am not interested in big numbers of fish either. 6 to 8 nice size ones for fillets is fine for me, of course catching more is always fun, but after cleaning 100s of Oscars in Florida last month I've had my fill of cleaning big numbers for a while.