Santee 3/11 and 3/12 Report

[Crappie Buster]

We had our SCCA club tournament on Santee this weekend. Fortunately for me, I was able to take Friday off of work and head down for some prefishing. The absolute worst part of tournament fishing is the prefishing aspect. When you find fish you have to leave them and save them for the next day. That is difficult to do anywhere and especially at a place with quality fish like Santee.

My partner long lined, and I pushed jigs in the shallows. My dad joined me Friday and we hit the road at 5:00 AM. After several detours we made it to the boat ramp and were greeted by a beautiful morning. It was warm, very little wind, and the scenery was awesome. Santee is one of the prettiest places on the planet. Standing timber and flooded cypress trees line the banks with plenty of grass.

We found fish in about everywhere place we fished. We would catch a few fish in an area and roll the poles up and search for more elsewhere. The goal was to try and find a place to catch 7 Santee-worthy slabs on Saturday. With all the moving, we didn't catch a lot of numbers but we did catch some quality fish with the biggest going a little over 2 lbs. It was a great day on the water. We found the best depths to be 6-8 FOW fishing 3-4 foot down in most cases. No colors were better than others for us, but the Rooty Tooty Jigs out fished all other brands of baits by a long shot. They accounted for half of our catch.

We headed back out Saturday morning at 4:00 AM with a plan in place. We pushed jigs to start with and switched over to trolling mid-morning. The big fish I found Friday made a move on us. We caught more fish pushing, but the size was down with most going about a pound. We pulled the plug on the pushing operation and broke out the trolling poles about 11:00 AM. The bite was slow for us, but we managed to catch some very nice fish trolling. While trolling we caught both white and black crappie with some quality fish representing both sub species. We managed to catch 2 fish over 2 lbs with the biggest going around 2.30. It turned out to be another good day of fishing, but our tournament results weren't good at all. For some reason we lost every white crappie we caught in the livewell. The blacks were as lively as they could be, but all the whites were dead within 10-15 min of being boated. 3 of the white crappie would have went to the scales for us, and they cost us about 1.5 lb. We ended up weighing 10.5 lbs.

It was frustrating, but that's part of it. It was still an enjoyable couple days on the water. We caught plenty of fish and caught some nice ones so I can't complain. Inkdabber's report shows just what kind of fish are in Santee. It's one of the best crappie fisheries on the planet.

For those who are waiting on the the spawn, you better hurry up! The fishing is wide open RIGHT now! Go get the big hens while you can.

[Crappie Buster]

I believe we finished 7th in the tournament. Brushpile won the tournament with 16.81 lb and had big fish of the event with a 3.48 lb monster! Congratulations Blaine!

[Eatmorecrappie]

Congratulations on 7th Derek! That's some nice fish your holding. How long of a ride is it say from Murray? What is a good landing to let out? Thanks for the report and pics.
Also congratulations to Brushpile!

[Inkdabber]

Awesome detailed report, the fishing definitely exploded this weekend. Looking at the pics, I know where you were fishing. The fish in that area moved to the banks over the last couple of days. Y'all still done well, and I can't agree with you more about the beauty of Santee Cooper. No place gives me more joy, and it is in my will that my cremated ashes are to be dispersed within its waters. A big congrats to Blaine (BrushPile) on a fantastic stringer of fish, anchored by that 3 1/2 pound monster.

[BigDawgg]

Thanks CB, great report and love the pictures. Congrats on 7th wish it would have been higher for you.

[burdawg]

Congrats on a great trip...I'm sure you will fondly remember this trip in the years to come.

[sinkermaker]

Congratulations on your seventh place finish. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Crappie Buster]

Awesome detailed report, the fishing definitely exploded this weekend. Looking at the pics, I know where you were fishing. The fish in that area moved to the banks over the last couple of days. Y'all still done well, and I can't agree with you more about the beauty of Santee Cooper. No place gives me more joy, and it is in my will that my cremated ashes are to be dispersed within its waters. A big congrats to Blaine (BrushPile) on a fantastic stringer of fish, anchored by that 3 1/2 pound monster.

I think we were following you around and didn't know it Tim. I saw you on two occasions Friday and when we arrived at the landing Saturday I saw that Green Tundra. If nothing else, it made me feel like I was in the right spot LOL and I can see from your report that I was!

[Inkdabber]

It would of been the right place a week ago, or if the wind would of been blowing. I didn't know your boat, and didn't realize it was you until I had passed by. I knew you guys were in search mode, and didn't want to get in your way or I would of stopped and chatted.

I think we were following you around and didn't know it Tim. I saw you on two occasions Friday and when we arrived at the landing Saturday I saw that Green Tundra. If nothing else, it made me feel like I was in the right spot LOL and I can see from your report that I was!

[strmwalker]

CB,
congrats on a nice finish and some good fishing !!! glad you got out there and caught a few good fish and did well in the Tourny !!! now that shirt color probably caused you about 6 pounds alone !!!! down in them parts of the Great State of South Carolina they like the Garnet and Black !!!!