I am going to start fishing Santee a lot more in the future and had some questions on Lake Marion. I am interested in the area above interstate 95 from the state park to low falls. I have a 21 foot champion bass boat with a 150 Johnson GT on it.
I was wondering where a good landing would be to use for someone who is unfamiliar to the lake. (I do have a map) Somewhere that I could get around in a 21 foot boat without it being too terrible until I learn the lake a little better would be great. Also and Bass fishing advise would be appreciated as well. I live about an hour away from the state park near DT columbia. Thanks.
Putting in at Low Fall’s would be your best bet. Its only a couple hundred yards or less to the river. You can run them river with no problem until you get to where the you run out of bank on the left going down river. Just watch for floating degree floating during high water. Once you get down to where the river end and the bank on the left runs out, you have to be careful even if you are running in the marked channel, its not that deep most places even when the water is up. There are a bunch of logs that get hung up on the bottom in that area.
Be very careful with the water down. It’s bad enough when the water’s up. Try to get another boat to go along with you in case of trouble. The cell phone service is usually very undependable.
I’ve fished a few tournaments down there as a co-angler with guys who were supposed to be familiar with those lakes. Score three for the stumps or under water logs.
We hit one stump with the trolling motor and busted one boater’s transducer.
Also with a different boater hit something with the back corner of the boat while on plane. Got lucky that it didn’t hit the big motor or it would have been very bad. On the same day we got hung up on a stump and might still be there except for a good samaritan who threw us a rope and helped pull the boat off of a big cypress stump. I have also seen many stumps hit with the big motor while idling across at the railroad tressle near Low Falls. And as stated above, even the marked channel isn’t guaranteed stump and/or log free. Might be a good idea to get a cheap aluminum prop that will cost less to replace than stainless steel.
Jacks creek ain’t bad either but be careful for the sunken swamp. There is some nice fish in that area. Work the trees… For the next two weeks. Give the rising water a chance to acclimate Santee Cooper. They may drop the level 6 inches overnight.
If you feel compelled to speed all over the place and don’t know the Lake, The area above I-95 is not for you. Take it easy and be satisfied to learn small portions on each trip. Low Falls is considered the upper end of Lake Marion with the river channel spilling out, in numerous areas, in to Lake Marion, so you can use the channel as a highway to travel to adjacent portions of the Lake. It is a beautiful part of the lake with all kinds of structure that produces good catches at different times of the year. It is well worth getting to know, but you have to be patient while you put in the time to learn it. CB’s suggestion about Jack’s Creek is good; it is pretty friendly to new people, but you can suddenly find yourself in the middle of a stump field if you get off the main channel. Poplar Creek (State Park)is pretty safe, but gets its share of fishing pressure. Stump Hole landing is near some pretty good fishing, but its not friendly to new folks. Like wise on the other side of the lake, Pack’s and Elliot’s require extra caution, but are pretty good on the fishing side. Travel carefully and expect to ‘nudge’ a few stumps. The difference between nudge and damage is about 5 miles per hour.
Fishing Lake Marion is like the old Joke about the guy who was searching for his keys under the street light because the light was the best, not because it was where he lost his keys. You have to get into those rough areas because that's where the fish are located, not because its the easiest to access. Sorry, pretty elementary....but the gist of my diatribe is focus on small portions of the system rather than running all over the place. Human nature tells us "the bass are always biting better on the other side of the lake". While learning Upper Lake Marion, you just can't give into that instinct to run all over the place looking for that ideal spot.
Thanks for the advise. I am still doing repairs to my house from the flood but next weekend I’m going. I am not a speedster especially not at that lake. Thanks. I will look for jakes creek and im gonna put in at the state park.
I live in New York and make the drive to SC a couple times a year to fish Lake Murray with my brother. We were thinking about fishing Lake Marion this spring but these post don’t sound very promising.
JZO, If you’re staying near Murray, then Monticello, Clark Hill and Russell will be as close as Santee and all are very good largemouth lakes.
Monticello is fairly small, but has had a lot of big bass caught from it over the years. Murray has been, and still is, relatively muddy since the flood in October. So is Santee.
Last Saturday in a tournament on Murray it took over 27 lbs. to win. Winners had two bass over 7 lbs.
SPOONMASTER, Thanks for the information and this will be my third trip to Murray and we appreciate all the help we have received from the folks on this site.