Lake Murray is at 358.1.

Striped bass: Good. Lake World (803-957-6548) reports that striper are definitely in the area of the dam and starting to move into a typical summer pattern, but the results of the recent Lake World striper tournament attest that that is only part of the story. Fish were caught all over the lake, with good reports coming from Crystal Lake and someone even fishing up the river. While the primary pattern is probably starting to be down-lining (especially on the hottest days), Lake World advises not to give up on free-lines early in the morning. And the winning angler in the recent tournament caught a five-fish, 42-plus pound limit by fishing cut bait in one area all day long. Finally, there is some schooling activity and anglers can have success by throwing plugs, including blind casting off points just like a bass fisherman.

Catfish: Good.  Captain Chris Simpson (864-992-2352) reports that the channel catfish bite has picked up. Anchoring on humps and points and fan-casting dip bait, herring and shrimp from 5-25 feet of water is catching good numbers of 2-12 pound channel catfish.

Bream and shellcracker: Good. Lake World reports that a lot of the spawning activity seems to be over, but the shellcracker fishing has been good in 4-10 feet of water with worms on the bottom.

Crappie: Good. Lake World reports that crappie fishing has been very strong over the right brush in only 4-10 feet of water with minnows.

Largemouth bass: Fair. Captain Doug Lown reports that bass fishing on Lake Murray is entering a summer pattern. The first couple of hours of the day anglers can fish buzzbaits up shallow, and fishing shakey head worms off rocky points should also produce some bites. After 10:00 or 11:00 it gets very tough to catch fish, and about the only option is to try fishing deeper brush with something like a Texas-rigged worm. As always on Lake Murray there are numbers of fish following schools of blueback herring, and accordingly there are some anglers using specialized techniques to target suspended bass feeding on this bait.