Lake Moultrie reports

[Doug158]

Sounds like it was a good trip Mike congrats

[chrisblue]

Good report Mike.I like the fightin blues picture.If that and the scarred up male blue yall got aint proof enough that they spawn up thru July on Santee then I dont know what is.Its got to be drawing to a close soon though, especially down there.Its gettin close to being over here in the upstate.

All in all, sounds like a fun and eventfull trip.

[catfishrus]

Thanks fellows...we had a good time. Learned a few things too....never ask a man with false teeth for a tooth pick(he wont understand)...lol. Chris here is another picture of the fighting fish when we first seen them. First time I seen cats fighting ...I didnt know what they was doing...its been years ago when my dad and I was bass fishing. I must of been 10-12 years old and two came to the top right in front of the boat as we was trolling in front of angles landing. So you dont get to see that kind of action very often..at least I havent. I do remember drifting at night back in 2006 and something busting the top of the water beside of the boat one night...scared me pretty dang good that night. Just wonder if we didnt drift up on two fish that night...I thought it was a gator busting beside of the boat but we was in the middle of the lake when it happened. I dont know what that was for sure.

[catfishrus]

Fished saturday,sunday and monday night.....saturday night fishing was slow...landed 9 cats biggest 20-22 lbs. Sunday night we fished pretty hard into daylight teh next morning and landed 23 cats...biggest 30,28,25 with one small flathead. Monday night we fished until 10.30 and caught 10 cats biggest 20...seen some heat lighting coming up from the upper lake and we got skeered and run....lol. I know that lake will hurt you so we took the safe approach to the canal and then listen to the radio...they didnt say anything about bad weather but still you dont never know for sure....we packed it in for a sandwich and got some good sleep and to make our ride home today. Saturday night was a tuff night according to the guides I listen to on the radio...most of them was struggling which matched our fishing. The spawn is coming to a end for the most part and I look for better fishing in the coming weeks. All our bigger fish had scares...some healing ...some still bleeding. I seen a good stringer of fish come in last night....a good sign.....I talked to kevin at blacks monday morning...he reported catching a 50 lb flathead that morning. So fishing is picking up.

[Doug158]

Good to hear looks like we will be headed that way next Thursday night when the wife gets off of work hopefully they will be biting for the tourny

[chrisblue]

Its good to hear things are starting to pick up Mike.I'm gonna try to get down there soon.

[catfishrus]

I forgot to add....I got spooled sunday night. I had my rods out and we was drifting along. Had one go down pretty good...I jumped up and set the hook and the line broke. Sounded funny like the rod broke or something....I thought dang it! I looked down and all my line was gone. I forgot to click it into gear and let all the line off. I know you drift fisherman can relate to that. I done the same thing last week and caught a 15 lb blue....that will wear your arms out with a 7000.

[chrisblue]

I forgot to click it into gear and let all the line off.

Man if I had a dime for every time I done that.

[Wyliecat]

"....I forgot to click it into gear and let all the line off....."

Did that yesterday drifitng on a 5000.....LOL!! Noticed it when I hooked a fish....luckily it was small and the knot holding the line to reel was strong!!

[Bill_Monteith]

Originally Posted by catfishrus

I forgot to add....I got spooled sunday night. I had my rods out and we was drifting along. Had one go down pretty good...I jumped up and set the hook and the line broke. Sounded funny like the rod broke or something....I thought dang it! I looked down and all my line was gone. I forgot to click it into gear and let all the line off. I know you drift fisherman can relate to that. I done the same thing last week and caught a 15 lb blue....that will wear your arms out with a 7000.

Nice story...one question.

What makes you want to drift fish anyhow?




Good luck
Captain
Bill Monteith

[Bill_Monteith]

Originally Posted by chrisblue

Man if I had a dime for every time I done that.

Hows the fishing at monty?
Heading that way.

I need to talk to you.
If you see my toon from hell as It has been called.the village idiot would like to talk to you.

Its good for you.
I need some help with guests.
Too many calls for monty when I cant make it..You interested in taking some of them ?

Its hard or me to make it out everyday,getting new hip soon and will be down for a few weeks or more.

Thanks
Captain Bill Monteith

[catfishrus]

Originally Posted by Bill_Monteith

Nice story...one question.

What makes you want to drift fish anyhow?




Good luck
Captain
Bill Monteith

Bill I drift fish at santee 99% of the time......I just like to drift fish while Im down there (ruff water mainly)....I feel like Im covering so much more ground drift fishing...esp. right now with the spawn going on and coming to a close. Ive caught some nice fish at santee drifting in previous years including flatheads...so I have faith it will work. Now fishing here on the yadkin...I like to anchor when we got current and conditions are right for it. I feel like I stand a better chance at a trophy fish anchored over drifting. There are days even here when drifting is more productive. You fish a lake like you have at wateree for so long...you can tell within the first hour weather or not you need to be anchored or drifting. Every lake seems to be a different environment which brings on different styles of fishing for me.

[chrisblue]

You interested in taking some of them ?

Preciate the offer Bill but I got about all I want right now.Its rough goin back and forth to Monticello day in and day out.

[Bill_Monteith]

Originally Posted by catfishrus

Bill I drift fish at santee 99% of the time......I just like to drift fish while Im down there (ruff water mainly)....I feel like Im covering so much more ground drift fishing...esp. right now with the spawn going on and coming to a close. Ive caught some nice fish at santee drifting in previous years including flatheads...so I have faith it will work. Now fishing here on the yadkin...I like to anchor when we got current and conditions are right for it. I feel like I stand a better chance at a trophy fish anchored over drifting. There are days even here when drifting is more productive. You fish a lake like you have at wateree for so long...you can tell within the first hour weather or not you need to be anchored or drifting. Every lake seems to be a different environment which brings on different styles of fishing for me.

Thanks for the info.

I just cant seem to enjoy it in freshwater.

Bill

[catfishrus]

I understand that Bill....it dont work as good for me on other bodies of water when comparing to santee...santee is just a special place that I like to drift. Always got some wind down there at some point in the day...if not...my fishing stinks. I see guides back drifting with their big motors on the pontoons...I havent figured that one out myself but I know it works...Ive seen the results of it. I may try to anchor some next week before the NCCATS tourney. Im not going to make it this weekend...had a couple hot jobs to come in ...so working hard so I fish next week. them fish need a rest anyways...I think I was about to catch the last blue out of santee last weekend... Just kidding Im not that good and I dont any of us will live long enough to see that fish. Good luck to you fellows that are fishing this weekend.....I got to do the nasty....WORK!

[Bill_Monteith]

Originally Posted by catfishrus

I understand that Bill....it dont work as good for me on other bodies of water when comparing to santee...santee is just a special place that I like to drift. Always got some wind down there at some point in the day...if not...my fishing stinks. I see guides back drifting with their big motors on the pontoons...I havent figured that one out myself but I know it works...Ive seen the results of it. I may try to anchor some next week before the NCCATS tourney. Im not going to make it this weekend...had a couple hot jobs to come in ...so working hard so I fish next week. them fish need a rest anyways...I think I was about to catch the last blue out of santee last weekend... Just kidding Im not that good and I dont any of us will live long enough to see that fish. Good luck to you fellows that are fishing this weekend.....I got to do the nasty....WORK!

Thanks I thought it was just me...But wateree is not all that any hoot.Most the biguns been taken out it seems.

We tagged over 200 fish over 40lbs in 07 and 08 and most of them have been caught and reported to us.

Not sure of the small amount of blues being able to come back in a few yrs/.

With the onset of white perch overflow it doesnt look good for crappie and blues in wateree.

Old well
Thanks for info
Captain Bill

[catfishrus]

Fished friday morning and then friday night into saturday morning and then fished the NCCATS tourney saturday night. Friday morning...we took my aunt out for some catting ...she never caught anything big ....so it didnt take much to get a laugh out of her. The fishing was tuff....while she landed a PB blue at 10lbs friday morning. She had a good time but she was too tired to make the trip friday night so dad and I took off without her. We caught two fish estimated around 20lbs each friday night....fishing was still tuff. I wasnt exspecting much for saturday night. I told dad santee had been tuff on us this year...I felt like not even fishing the event but I had put so much time into getting ready and we was there...might as fish it and make our donation. So we did. We went to our flathead hole after dark. Made a long drift coming into it. Dad picked up a small flathead and we culled 5-6 small blues....I told him we wasnt event going to put a fish in the livewell until we had at least a 20 lber....and we didnt. I made a few calls and nobody I talked to had even caught a fish...so here we go to thinkiing maybe we released the winning catch already.....lol. Well we drifted into our honey hole and low and behold I had a rod get the smack down hard...drag peeling too. I told dad to get the net! Landed the fish....nice flathead...first good one all year for me. Our excitment went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs right then. I told dad..."we going to wear this spot out tonight"...and we did. On the second pass I picked up a 22 lb blue....felt pretty good then. Made another pass...drifted a little farther than we noramlly do....bam rod down and I landed another flathead at 30 lbs. That all happened around midnight and the talk on the radio fish was feeding when we caught our fish but the bite didnt last long....our fish stopped and the radio went to trash talk to keep everybody up for the night. I knew we had one flathead at 30 and a bigger one...I knew the bigger fish was between 40-50 lbs but didnt weigh that fish. Both of them was post spawn flatheads with scares on them that was healing...so I knew they was slim fish. Well we weighed in with 69 lbs and took home second place. I baby set them two fish all night long....I took it very slow coming in and I wasnt about to go to the weigh in early....I wanted to keep the livewell following right up to the point of weighing in. So we came to the landing at 7.30 with plans of leaving the boat in the water until last minute. Our hopes was running very high after listening to the radio through the night. I got out to go get the cooler to transport our fish to the scales to only meet a team with a 86 lb blue at the scales. I walked back to the pier and told dad we had been beat. We loaded the boat and headed to the scales. We finished second in that event. First time we ever made it into the money in this event. Third time was the charm for us. Looking back from the previous years...we been beat when we shouldnt of been beat and now we done good when we shouldnt. Do I feel bad for those who talked about catching good fish before this event....in a way I do but I been there. The highs and lows of tourney fishing is just amazing for me. Maybe it was the prayer I said that night setting on the water. I made some more great memories with my dad and we had a good time.

P.S. The biggest flathead came off a white perch head and the other hit a herring about 5-6"long. We tried bream without a bite.

[catawbacatfishclub_catman]

Great report and congrats on the 2nd Place finish,that was a good 2 fish stringer yall had.Maybe you will be fortunate enough to move up a spot next year.I know that dont help much now,but something to look forward to in the future.Havent heard yet but How many Entries did they end up with?And what was the winners share?Congrats again

[jerry9497]

allright thats a great finish for half the dream team

[chrisblue]

Congrats on the good finish Mike.Cant complain about that weight out of 2 fish.