Thread: Very Memorable Morning at Santee Cooper

A few weeks ago Charles and I met with Matt (mattbowen61990) to talk crappie fishing. To give you a little inside information, Charles likes crappie fishing, but absolutely loves bream fishing. In our conversation with Matt, this came up and he told Charles he should get up with Captain Joe Dennis down at Santee Cooper. Charles called Joe and set up a two-day panfish trip. He invited my father and me to come along with him.

We met Capt. Joe at 5:30 and was on the water by 6:15. The next hour is one that none of us will ever forget. We caught 38 crappie in 41 minutes. Three times I double-netted slab crappie caught by Pop and Charles. There were schools of threadfin shad swimming around and every few minutes a group of stripers would explode as they went after the shad. For every three crappie we caught, we probably caught one blue cat. The gars were spawning and 3'-4' long ones were swimming around us the whole time. Carp were also busting the water doing their acrobatic thing. We caught white perch and yellow perch,along with a white shad. The area we were in was less than an acre and the fish activity all around us was incredible. All three of us have fished our entire lives and never have we experienced anything like what we just saw and heard.

With 38 crappie in the cooler, we now went after bream/bluegill. We went downstream a little ways and tied up to fish with crickets. It didn't take long and we found the big copper-nose bluegill. That was pure fun and we put 22 bluegill and redbreast in the cooler. Loaded up the boat at 11:30 with our limit for the day. Grabbed some lunch, took the fish to a gentleman that cleaned them for us while we napped.

On Friday I had to go downtown for a meeting, so I did not get to fish. The front that came through on Thursday night hurt the fishing and they were not able to get the large crappie and bream that we did on Thursday. The bottom picture is from Friday and you can see the size is down. The cooler in the picture is a 48 quart, so those are some nice crappie in there. You can't see the bream, but they are in the bottom.

A big thanks to Charles for including us on the trip. Pop started fishing Santee Cooper back in the '50's and it was nice to take him back down there for the first time in many years. Truly a trip I will never forget.

PS. I included an article about a trip with Capt. Dennis from earlier this year.











Another Santee River angler catches 4-pound crappie
Dusty Wilson - March 15, 2016

A little over six weeks ago, guide Joe Dennis of Bonneau thrilled his client with a crappie angler’s dream, a 4-pound slab harvested from the Santee River. Last Friday, March 12th, he repeated the procedure and put angler Art Fields of Charlotte in the hot seat this time. While slow trolling live minnows, Dennis’s party boated five crappie over 3-pounds before bellying up to the main course, another trophy just over 4-pounds.

Dennis (843-245-3762), who runs J Hook Charters, didn’t waste any time getting the fire started. Although the approach was slow, the action was fast.

“This time of year, when the fish are in the Santee River, it’s a high pressure zone,” he said. “The dumb fish get caught quick, and after a few weeks all you have are the smart fish. They are very picky to presentation, line size, and the size of the bait. They want it really slow.”

As they inched along a creek mouth emptying into the river, Dennis and his party encountered a rapid succession of 3-pounders on the drop from 8- to 18 -eet, catching five in about 15-minutes. With 6 rods lining the gunwales of Dennis’s vessel, each with a red No. 4 Eagle Claw hook and minnow, weighted by a pair of No. 1 split shots on 6-pound line, the crew had their hands full. But, before the bite subsided, Fields hooked to a fish of questionable origin.

“We actually thought it was a striper, because we had already caught several,” said Dennis. “When he got it up, the fish opened its mouth and we thought it was a big largemouth because the mouth was so big.”

When the fish was positively identified as a monster crappie and the odds were that a 4-pounder was on the line, the tension rose as Fields’ wife, Julie, manned the net. But, after a few attempts to elude capture, the fish was safely landed and Fields had his largest slab to date.

This all happened within the first hour of the trip.

To keep the ball rolling, Dennis’s clients cast 1/32 and 1/64-ounce jigs as they trolled, downsizing from 1 ½-inch chartreuse grubs to ¾-inch micro jigs to combat heavy fishing pressure. However, tipping the jigs with a small maggot proved to be too much to resist, and the anglers cruised to a triple-digit day of crappie fishing.

I can't remember if it was Charles or Pop that caught the shad, but it did give a good fight. I was amazed at the strength of that fish. If I remember correctly, Charles went on a bream trip with Capt. Blake back in January. Charles's goal is to catch bream consistently year round, not just when bedding.

We are trying to work in a fly rod trip to the Cashie sometime this summer. There's a guy down there that Charles has met who wants to take us out with him when we can work it out.