Fishing the Skinny Water at Santee

With the wind expected to howl on Friday, I decided to load up the jon boat and jig poles and try to find a few fish shallow. I started out fishing a few brush with limited success. Once the winds got cranked up. I headed into a shallow bay full of trees and pads/grass and started dabbling my jigs around the structure. First tree I stuck it by produced a chunky little bass. The next couple nothing, the jig got thumped on the fourth tree only to have me jerk and miss. I pitched back in and a solid big black buck crappie commenced to pitching a fit on the end of my pole. After a good tussle, I lost him at the boat. It's tough fishing when your using an 11 foot pole, with only two feet of line hanging at the end of it fishing under trees in 20 MPH winds, but it was fun! Not every tree held a fish, but enough did that my attention was focused the entire time I was on the water. Along with 3 bass and a couple of jack fish, many fish were lost, but a nice limit was kept, and the fish were a beautiful glossy black when caught. The cooler shot doesn't do them justice, but the ones I'm holding up get my point across. Water temps reached nearly 68 degrees in that shallow flat, nearly every fish was caught in two feet or less of water around standing, live trees. Pink and blue jigs in 1/32 ounce weights were best, vertical jigging was the method used.

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One of the first fish caught on the day.

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You can really see the beauty in this one.

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The cooler shot.

It's always fun catching shallow fish. Congrats on that nice mess of males.:)

Ink,
that's a nice box of fish !!! their colors are awesome thanks for sharing !!! as always congrats on quality fish !!!

Always enjoy your posts. Havent been to santee for anything other than gator hunting in 7-8 years, but your pictures (2nd one) always bring back fond memories even though we never had the success you do.

Awesome catch and colors on those crappie. Shallow water fishing is hard to beat when they are that size. Congrats.

Now this is how to report a day on the lake (better than I went fishing here's a pic don't know why some folks bother). Great report and pics thanks. Makes me miss fishing on santee for sure.

way to go Ink thanks for the pics and report

Great report. I think I discovered your secret (the double glasses method). Hey, if you got longer arms you wouldn't need those glasses! Man those are some huge fish.

Thanks guys, that's one of the worst things about getting older, my eye sight continues to get worse with every passing year. Unfortunately born with short arms, reading glasses are now required. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonesz2

Great report. I think I discovered your secret (the double glasses method). Hey, if you got longer arms you wouldn't need those glasses! Man those are some huge fish.

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Nice mess of fish Ink. Love the tux he is wearing :biggrin

Seems like no matter the conditions you have the solution! Nice catch and great report. Love those fish when they turn color!!

nice catch, Ink....glad to see ya still in hot pursuit. Those fish do a have a beautiful color to 'em. Would like to see a video of them hogs darting around with 2' line on a long pole...would be interesting.

Beautiful mess of fish, congrats on the day! Sure is alot of fun catching fish with the jig pole in that shallow of water!

Good Show !

Very nice!!!

seems like the wind didn't bother you too much with them hogs, grats on a fine catch, and thanks for a great report.

They don't get any prettier than those fish! Congrats on an awesome outing and thanks for sharing the very entertaining report! I always enjoying reading the results of your trips.

Great report Tim. The color of the fish is really something. I plan to come down with the guys you met last year around the middle of May. Hope they are still biting then,