Santee Trip

Im from Durham, NC and me and dad are planning a trip down there for the 27th and 28th of this month. I was just wondering if any of yall had heard anything about big cats being caught in the canal. We will be staying at canal lakes and will most likely be fishing mostly in the canal. We aint been there in about 5 years and i was wondering if there have been alot cats being caught down there yet. We had thought about fishing stump hole swamp but have never fished it before and didnt know where to fish, so we decided to stick with the canal like we always have. Thank you

I fish the Stumphole area but not much for catfish, even though we have caught a few on cut bait, mainly white perch. It is quite a haul from the canal area to stumphole, by boat or car. From what I have read the catfish bite is good at the canal and I sure wouldn't make the run to Stumphole if I was near the canal.
We got some guys on here that have recently fished that area for catfish,so hopefully one of them will hop on with some good info for you.
SeaRay

Being there just two days I believe I'd just fish the canal. We used to drift in front of Harry's Fish Camp and do quit well back in the day. Somewhere I always wanted to catfish but never tried was around/under the steel bridge outside of the town of Santee.

Try in the upper lake just out of the canal, their are some island their, try some water in the range of 5 to 10 foot, the blue and flathead will be feeding in these waters early and late in the day. Lots of luck Tommy Vaughan

Been there several times, but never fished much in the canal. I always enjoyed the deeper open water bite the best. I feel sure it's not too hard to find a blue cat most anywhere on that body of water... depending on time of year... as long as your bait and presentation is right. We always caught between 200 to 400 lbs in the (several) three day trips that I've taken to Santee. I would love to go back... Had a blast too!!! Good luck to you.