Conference wahoo::fishing

    Hi Thomas,
    
    I had the chance to get a guide and do some fishing on Lake Marion,
    S.C. during this past April, and maybe you can learn something from my
    experience. I too had some literature and it listed about 20 guides, 
    with their specialties i.e. Striped Bass, Largemouth, Catfish, etc..
    I chose someone who did guiding on a part time basis and was charged
    $120 plus gas. We met at the Lake Marion Truck Stop and put his "boat"
    in at Polly's. I should have known when he told me to operate the
    trolling motor that something wasn't very professional about his
    services. In short, we did not catch a single fish. He took us to only
    2 places on this huge lake, and one of them was 40 yards from the dock
    we put in at. He did not have a fishfinder and we were using a borrowed
    boat because his was in the shop.
    
    My recommendation is to choose a professional, someone who does it full
    time. Be sure to ask if they have references and if they are Coast Guard
    licensed. I would say that your probably looking at $150 to $200 for
    this type of PROFESSIONAL service, but hindsight tells me it would have
    been the wiser thing to do.
    
    One other thing. If your going to be in the Greenville area, you should
    call Tom Sloan, he's in the DTN. As a fellow DIGITAL employee, I'm
    certain you could trust his services to be very accomodating---he
    too guides on a part-time basis and he told me to call him if ever I
    had the chance to be in his neck of the woods.
    
    Good luck and tight lines!
    
    Jack

    
    Hiya Jack,
    
    Boy sounds like you had quite the outing on Santee.  Thanks for
    replying and relating your experience.  I have booked a trip with
    the Canal Lakes Resort guide by the name of Bubba Watford.  I didn't
    ask whether they had electronic depth sounders (I assumed that all pro
    guides had them).  I'm going out next friday June 8 and I'll let you
    know how I made out.  The cost is 150.00 (for 3 people) gas and bait.
    
    Thanks again
    
    Thomas

    I've asked this before, can anyone out there update us on Santee,
    this is one of our considerations for this year's spring trip.
    
    Anyone familiar with the action at Santee during March?
    
    -donmac  

    To answer the questions I posted in the previous reply, I got ahold of
    the DECie mentioned in .1.  Tom was kind enough to share some
    information with me.
    
    It seems that March is close to prime time down on Santee.  The
    striper and largemouth action is supposedly quite good during March.
    
    Based on that, it currently appears that our #1 destination for our 
    annual trip south (see topic 1304.27) will now be Santee-Cooper.
    
    After a couple of days if for some reason the fishing isn't up to par
    we may decide to head down to Kissimee.
    
    We currently have 4 noters heading down and a few others interested. 
    
    donmac
    
    

    Roland Martin's early show this week was on Santee.  Our trip is
    sounding better all the time.  They were saying how the lake is
    experiencing another "bass explosion" like it did in the 70s.
    
    The last explosion was credited to the amount of wood cover available.
    
    Now they're saying an increase in hydrilla is providing the recent bass
    boom.  Roland and friend were fishing weightless worms over the
    hydrilla, caught a few 6lbers, looked like fun to me.  
    
    His friend was a guide on the lake and they posted his number at the 
    end of the show.  Might end up giving him a call while we're down there.
    
    -donmac
    

    Donmac just called from Santee-Cooper.  The fishing is really good.
    On their first day, they landed 4 over 5lbs and 1 over 6lbs.  The
    second day they didn't break 4lbs, yesterday they were 4 and 5 lbers.
    Today they've caught one 4lber and one 5lber, AND the day is
    only 1/2 over!
    
    Tim Lucia, Marshall and the LEGEND, they're having a great time and 
    are glad that you're NOT there.
    
    Cathy
    

As indicated from Cathy's previous response, our trip was a great success.

As mentioned earlier, we had arranged a guide for our first day on the water.
Our guide, Jack Harrison, was a real character.  Fishing was real slow for the
better half of the day, but in the late afternoon he put us on a pattern that
put hawgs in our boat for most of the week!  We put all of the bass we caught
in the livewell and at the end of the day (after the sun went down), put 
them all on a (quality) stringer to hold up for a photo before releasing them.

When Harbormaster and I held up that stringer we got a fair amount of attention
from the other fisherman.  We had a total of 9 fish if I recall, 4 well over 
5lbs, one was well over 6lbs.  The others hovered around 3-4lbs - the smallest
was probably 2.5lbs.

The harbor master and I each broke the 5lb mark again throughout the week,
with quite a few 4lbers.  Bass below 2lbs were a rarity.  We didn't have
a day where we caught TONS of fish, just a fair share of QUALITY bass 
most days.

Towards the end of the week the fishing did die off for a couple of days for
everyone when they dropped the lake 6 inches - I actually got skunked on
that day, but Harbormaster landed a nice one.

We camped right on the water.  We left the boat in the water all week, fished
probably 10 hours a day.

One day I set the hook and the rod bent in half and my drag started screaming.
After a few minutes of chasing a fish with the trolling motor I got close
enough to see it... I laughed and told Harbormaster to drop the net and grab 
the video camera.  It was a HUGE gar.  When it saw the boat it decided to
go other way and again tore off tons of line.  After a few minutes I managed
to get it close to the boat again.  I tried to "net" it myself.  I slipped
the net around its head and ran out of net... The thing was close to 4' long.
Luckily, the gar managed to free itself from the leverage of the net - 
otherwise I have no idea of what I would have done next.  That was the best
fighting fish I've ever caught.  I have heard that they are often "dead
weight" - this fish was far from dead.

We fished for bass with artificials only.  We did use some minnows for
crappie - and didn't do too well - but we only did that for an hour or
so on a couple of days.  Never got around to going after the big cats or 
stripers - it wasn't the best time of year for either species and we were
not in the best location to go after them - and the bass had us quite
entertained anyway.

I did loose a prop to a cypress stump.  Luckily I had a spare.

The weather was great - in the 80s and sunny all week.  Rain was 
predicted for the day we left.  It was fairly windy all week, but
the pattern we were fishing was a wind pattern so it suited us fine.

Overall this was our most successful trip south yet.  Next year all of
the WIMPS who backed out of this years trip will probably go and 
screw it up!!! 8^)
    
    -donmac

    Oh yea, there was one other minor casualty on the trip, I broke a Daiwa 
    rod on a hookset.  Don't know if there was a fish on the other end or 
    not - I suspect it was just the lilly pad that I was left with.  The
    rod should not have broke, I was holding it properly.  I mailed it back
    Daiwa the day I got back - I'm hoping they'll replace it (I'll post the
    results in one of the manufacturers and/or rods topics).
    
    donmac - waiting for mid western prop repair to call back with an
             estimate on the other minor casualty 8^)