i dont know much about the saluda,but i can tell you for a fact that populations in the edisto,ashepoo,and combahee have increased little by little year by year,dnr has done tests every year for atleast the last five years in the combahee,and they are definately coming back.the savannah river has had a big rebound as well,and if they can keep the fish in the river and out of the frying pan,they will be ok as well.i fish the santee from time to time all the way down near the sanpit river,and i can tell you the fishing has been extremely good 2 years in a row.i know for a fact there has been alot of stripers in the combahee all along,but the there was a huge decrease some years ago that they have been rebounding from ever since.as someone said on here,the eggs have to be able to float in current for 48 hours straight without obstruction.this has been a difficulty for them im sure.the good news is santee died such a horrible death,the pressure on the fish has decreased dramatically,atleast in this area.and most of these people i see at the landings look at us funny when they ask what we were fishing for,and we tell them stripers.even in the combahee there isnt alot of pressure thankfully.plus,alot of people cant find them anyway.they might read about it in fish and game and go try it.when they dont have immediate results,they return to trout fishing.
willy,
A recent article in South Carolina Sportsman told everyone in the state what a good striper fishing area the “ACE Basin” is. They had maps of the exact spots I fish. One of my buddies and his son was featured in the article. Now I know they need to sell magazines, but I think the striper population in these rivers are a fragile one. I would like to see less “advertisement” about these fisheries and I’m not going to keep any of the fish myself, maybe one every now and then. My point is I love to fish and I don’t do it to put food on the table. It’s cheaper to go to Publix and buy it. I would like to see the limits on how many river fish you can keep severely restricted for a few years. I bass fish in Murray all of the time and catch fish all of the time, but I rarely keep any and I let the big ones go. I’m glad murray is advertised as a striper lake instead of a bass lake, because its probably the best bass fishing in SC and that’s the reason.
“My wound is geography.” “It is also my anchorage, my port of call.”
Kloud, You are absolutly right about the green fish. I’ve caught three over 10 lbs. all on live herring while striper fishing - 2 on free lines and 1 three cranks off the bottom in 65’ of water(all released, of course). Some of the largest pro weigh-ins have come from Murray. In DNR’s state of the lake presentation at the last striper club meeting they were concerned with the accidental introduction of Arkansas blue cats in Murray. Their gill net surveys are yeilding increasing numbers of blues and they fear that they will compete with the stripers for the prey base. If you catch a blue on Murray, please, release him in Lake Crisco, alongside some hushpuppies and slaw.
I don’t know how you feel about the hydrilla, but it seemed that the fishing for all species was better when it was present. The summer die-off didn’t seem as bad for the stripers, either. I’m thinking that the shade and added axygen fron photosynthesis was an aid to the fish.
I love hydrilla, blue cats and catching big bass. The introduction of carp was a mistake I think, at least that’s what my buddy told me DNR told him. I’m going to shoot one of those carp this year with my bow and fillet him and I will let you guys know how it tastes! Also the jackfish are bad in the lake but I hear they taste fantastic, just boney. I’m gonna fry one of them up also. That’s what we need to do. Have a trash fish roundup and get together with all of the Murrayians and CF.COMers and have a big fish fry and hush puppies with cole-slaw!
Speaking of hush-puppies, I was told once that hush-puppies got started like this: Back in the old days the plantations had seperate houses where they did all of the cooking in case it caught on fire it wouldn’t burn the main house down. Anyway the slaves used to bring the food from the kitchen to the main house and the dogs in the yard would jump up on them and try to get the food, so the slaves started frying up dough-balls to throw to the dogs as they were carrying the food so they wouldn’t jump up on them. That’s why they are called hush-puppies! Makes sense to me!
“My wound is geography.” “It is also my anchorage, my port of call.”
