— Catastrophic rains and recurrent flooding often made for a rough fall and early winter for Lake Murray fishermen, but probably nobody had it worse than crappie anglers.  The first round of flooding in October eventually caused SCE&G to open the floodgates, and this caused the current to suck away much of the brush they […]

— Lake Murray bass were late getting into a winter pattern this year, and according to veteran tournament angler Captain Doug Lown it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that fish started setting up the way they typically do in the winter.  However, anglers would have been unwise to expect that to last very long […]

— The March 5 Carolinas Bass Challenge Santee Cooper tournament is in the books, and Santee Cooper bass fishing is living up to its reputation – in all respects.  Plenty of big fish highlighted the tournament, with two fish over 9 pounds being caught (including a 9.53 pound beast), and a 32.55 pound sack at […]

In the BFL tournament on Lake Murray this past Saturday many of the top anglers were fishing a shallow crankbait, but as is so often the case it turns out the winner was doing something completely different!  I caught up with the Gamecock Bass Fishing Team’s Hampton Anderson of Anderson, SC today and he was […]

IMPORTANT site changes coming.  Effective March 1 only customers of the Angler’s Headquarters tackle store will have access to our fishing reports.  Read more here.  It appears that the winter is winding down on Lake Murray, but it seems that the bass never really got into a traditional winter pattern.  Veteran tournament angler Captain Doug […]

IMPORTANT site changes coming.  Effective March 1 only customers of the Angler’s Headquarters tackle store will have access to our fishing reports.  Read more here.  It’s winter in South Carolina, which this year means highs in the 70s one week, lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s the next, and then the crazy […]

Who says South Carolina bass won’t bite when it’s freezing cold, snowing, and windy? On January 16 in the Next Level Fishing open tournament 27 teams competed, with two teams bringing in 28+ pound bags and 9 teams catching 20+ pounds.  The tournament big fish was 8.43 pounds.  It was inevitable that tough conditions yesterday […]

Readers of this site know that during the colder months the Lake World bait shop frequently repeats the mantra that to find striper on Lake Murray fishermen should follow the birds.  Tournament bass fisherman Andy Wicker of Pomaria says right now that is also good advice for catching bass on Lake Monticello, and at this […]

The word is getting out that the hawgs are feeding on Lake Murray!  In the Next Level Fishing tournament this past Saturday two teams weighed sacks over 28 pounds, with Reed McGinn and Andy Wicker winning first place with 28.43 pounds and second place going to Hampton Anderson and Zack Woodam with 28.31 pounds.  It’s […]

It appears that the long autumn on Lake Murray is finally over, and veteran tournament angler Captain Doug Lown says that a couple of factors are combining to move bass out of their fall habitats and into a winter pattern.  First, water temperatures are finally dropping, and in one week official water temperatures at the […]

Veteran Lake Murray tournament bass angler Captain Doug Lown says that unseasonably warm water temperatures have kept fish shallower than usual so far this December, and temperatures last weekend were in the 58-59 degree range.  With several warm days surface temperatures are now pushing 61 degrees, and bottom temperatures are around 60 degrees.  As a […]

For the early winter Lake Wylie bait guide I interviewed professional bass fisherman Bryan New – an angler who has amassed over $160,000.00 in career winnings.  Bryan has been fishing the FLW Tour as a co-angler for four years, and each year he has qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup.  In 2014 he won the […]

On any list of successful Lake Murray tournament bass fishermen over the last 30-plus years Captain Doug Lown’s name is certain to be at or near the top.  An exhaustive listing of the particular tournaments as well as tournament trails that he and fishing partners have won during that time would take pages, but even […]

A few weeks ago Lake World (803-957-6548) reported that they had never seen a fishery change as much as quickly as Lake Murray striper fishing did after the October floods, and with another significant round of rain it should be no surprise that they have seen another first.  Guide Richard Hall at Lake World says […]

Lake World (803-957-6548) reports that they have never seen a fishery change so much so fast as Lake Murray did after the recent rains, and as a result of the massive inflow of water striper have scattered out and dispersed from the dam to the elbow area.  Anglers are trying a bit of everything to […]

Lake World (803-957-6548) reports that striped bass fishing is very good on Lake Murray right now, and of course anglers are catching fish on live blueback herring as well as on plugs and bucktails.  However, the hottest bite in recent weeks has been on massive 3-ounce Ben Parker Spoons (available at Lake World), and in […]

Predictably for late summer, Lake Murray striped bass are mainly grouped up on the lower end of the lake.  However, Lake World (803-957-6548) reports that some strange things are happening and early in the morning anglers have been catching striped bass on free-lined live herring. Still, as is typical for this time of year down-lined […]

Even though tournament angler Andy Wicker only lives 10-15 minutes from his home body of water Lake Monticello, particularly in the spring he does so much tournament fishing on other lakes that he doesn’t get to fish it as much as he would like to. That changes in the summer, though, and he gets to […]

While Lake Murray may be better known for its striper fishing than its catfish fishery, Captain Chris Simpson (864-992-2352) reports that anglers on his boat have been filling up coolers with channel catfish this summer. The key has been anchoring on points and humps and fan-casting out dip (stink) baits, cut herring, and shrimp in 5-25 […]

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 […]

A casual observer could make the mistake of thinking that today was an ordinary day of college for University of South Carolina junior Gettys Brannon, an advertising major at USC and one-half of the bass fishing team that also includes Patrick Walters. Gettys had to go to classes, and when he wasn’t in class he […]

The first time I went fishing with crappie tournament specialist Will Hinson of Cassatt was a warm-weather trip where we targeted crappie around brush and bridges. There were multiple other boats as well as bank fishermen in the same general areas we fished, and I noticed that we out-caught the other fishermen 10 to 1 […]

Lake Murray is at 358.08, and surface water temperatures at the dam are in the low to mid-50s. Further up temperatures as high as the upper 50s have been seen, with temperatures significantly warmer on the north side of the lake than the south side (because of the sun’s angle). White Perch: Excellent. Lake World […]