Fishing on Santee-Cooper in South Carolina.

[Ky Grady]

I've been fishing for the big catfish in Santee-Cooper for the last 30 years. I trailer from Kentucky to South Carolina usually during the fall and winter. They will range from the big ones in the 70-80# class, some bigger, and down to 2-3#. Santee-Cooper is actually Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie on a map which are joined together by the diversion canal, the Santee river flows out of the upper lake and Cooper river flows out of lower lake, hence the name.

Here's a few pics from last year and the maiden trip of my new to me 228 Grady. My friend caught his personal best last year, Looking for bigger for him this year.

Well for some reason I can't upload and the pics. I'll try later. Here's the only one that loaded.

 

[Ky Grady]

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[Ky Grady]

 

[Seafarer228G]

Great pics John! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Halfhitch]

Wow, that's some serious catfish. What is your secret bait?

 

[Ky Grady]

Wow, that's some serious catfish. What is your secret bait?

No secret. Whatever they're biting on!!

 

[trapper]

Hi Ky, Haing never fished for catfish, and those are some biggies, How to you prepare them for eating? Are they a white meat fish like our cod here? Could they be smoked? Quite curious! Cheers, trapper

 

[Ky Grady]

Hi Ky, Haing never fished for catfish, and those are some biggies, How to you prepare them for eating? Are they a white meat fish like our cod here? Could they be smoked? Quite curious! Cheers, trapper

Hi Trapper. We fillet them out then chunk them into nuggets for ease of cooking. They are a white meat. Need to trim all the red out or you will get that fishy taste. Never tried smoking, always deep fried.

Thought I had some fillet pics on here, must be on phone, I'll post later.

 

[Ky Grady]

Wow, that's some serious catfish. What is your secret bait?

Small white perch, menhaden, shad are the bait of choice.

 

[Fishtales]

some nice fish there....