Bushy Park Landing is an interesting spot, one of those places people always hear about but usually don’t have a clue how to find. The landing, hidden from the masses at the confluence of fresh and saltwater on the Cooper River, straddles County Road 503 north of the Naval Weapons Station and east of Goose Creek.
Bushy Park has boat ramps on either side of the road’s causeway. One ramp provides access to the Cooper River just above the official salt/fresh water dividing line.
The other ramp angles into the Bushy Park reservoir, which is fed by Fosters Creek and the Back River. This beautiful body of water supplies Charleston Water System with its majority of fresh water for residents.
Put in at this freshwater ramp and you’ll be gliding through dark, deep, clean and fresh water inhabited by largemouth bass, catfish and alligators.
The shore will be lined above with lush vegetation and wading birds, and below with vast mats of hyper-green hydrilla.
Put in on the “saltwater side” and you’ll notice familiar coastal sights and smells, namely marsh grass and pluff mud.
The water on this side isn’t particularly clean. In fact, it seems at times to be not exactly water and not exactly mud - something in between.
Whatever it is, you probably won’t be gliding through it, unless you’re in a canoe, kayak or seriously shallow-drafting motorboat.
If you’re in a john boat, bass boat or center console, you’ll most likely be plowing ahead as your trimmed-up outboard motor spews a jet of watery mud from the prop.
For years, silt has been filling in the channel leading from the landing to the main body of the Cooper River. It’s become a notoriously difficult landing to use, at least on the Cooper River side.
But efforts are now under way to get a handle on the problem. Just don’t expect a quick fix.
Berkeley County officials plan to fund a feasibility study this year that would lay out the best options for dredging at Bushy Park.
"It’s a problem, and
That is a foresure.The landing has needed to be dregded for years., it is my favorite landing by far.I think it is also a saftey issue,which has been stated many a time here. Just hope it happens while I and all the others can still enjoy it.
I can remember as a kid when there was no landing on either side just dirt , there was a metal drum anchored about 100 yards off from the salt water side we would swim to and back as kids while my dad and mom would fish and crab. The road was a dead end about 50 yards past the landing before all of the plants were built , those were the good old days.
Keep the Stars and Bars flying.
205 Scout SportsFish
150 Yamaha 4 stroke
15 ft War Eagle
40 Yamaha 4 stroke
Alright, so I always shoot between the white buoy and the red buoy when I’m coming in and out in low water.
Does anybody know if it’s deeper closer to the red or the white?
Does anybody know what the yellow buoys are marking? There are 4 of them on the left side as you head out to the river. I’ve always wondered what they are there for.
Semper Fi
18’ Sterling
115 Yamaha
Big Ugly Homemade Blue Push Pole
would be nice if they went up there and did that! i seam to all ways to get stuck there at low tide,also wile we are on the subject of dredging i was out last Friday and the cost guard stop us and told us to stay out of the way there was a big dredger running up and down the cooper, we were headed back in to the ramp under 526 when they stopped us.we were in between the training sub and the bridge when they stopped us it was all most dark. i wanted to hang around and see it but the wife said no… so i went strait in. any one seen it done before? how do they do it?
It’s there, across from the papermill and port. Lots bouys and pipes, they must pump it up on shore. Nothing really to see. I always take it easy around that thing, you don’t know, those pipes could be just under the surface.