# Nice Cat!



## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

My wife and I sort of fished Lakes Marion and Moultrie, in SC, last week. The weather did not cooperate. The first day it rained, and rained and rained, over 3" of rain. It was cold. Instead of the normal 75 it was 40. The second day, cold and high winds.

This time of year the cats should been in 4' to 10' of water, nothing there. Every mark on the sonar was between 15' and 25'. There was a heavy thermocline at 6'.

FINALLY on Wednesday we got a nice day. Light NE wind. I set up the boat to fish just off the channel, right on a drop off that fell off steeply from 6' to 25' with the current running into the drop off. The surface temps had come up from 59 the day before to 67. 

It worked, mostly as planned.

I had a heavy rod out, with cut bait, 30# leader, 5/0 hook for big fish.

I had out a light rod, 30# Power Pro main line with a 15# PLine Floroclear leader. I had a size one hook, with a "sandwich" for bait. The "sandwich" consisted of a night crawler and a Berkley Alive Gulp black 5" leach.

Naturally, the fish hit the "small bait", on the "small rod".

It was a battle, the net, was WAY too small for the fish, but, after several failed attempts I was able to guide the fish into the net and my wife was able to lift it high enough to fold the fish into the net. It was too heavy for her to lift into the boat, so I put the rod back into the rod holder and brought the fish into the boat. The hook broke as I was taking it out.

After picture taking I released the fish.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

DecoySlayer said:


> My wife and I sort of fished Lakes Marion and Moultrie, in SC, last week. The weather did not cooperate. The first day it rained, and rained and rained, over 3" of rain. It was cold. Instead of the normal 75 it was 40. The second day, cold and high winds.
> 
> This time of year the cats should been in 4' to 10' of water, nothing there. Every mark on the sonar was between 15' and 25'. There was a heavy thermocline at 6'.
> 
> ...


Congrats, hope your enjoying that good weather, besides the fishing.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Nope, we got home yesterday. My back yard looks like a seasonal wetland.


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## Gamechanger (Sep 26, 2014)

Nice fish! Congratulations. The blue cats here in the Potomac are on the bite right now. Oh heck...they're on the bite all the time - they're taking over the river.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

I used to fish the Potomac for channel cat when I lived over that way.


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## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

What day dose it not rain in Carolina.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

April is normally dry. The weather sucks for the most part in South Carolina most of the year. November was nice, and April was nice. That was about it. The horrible heat and humidity are the primary reasons we moved from that area.


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## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

DecoySlayer said:


> April is normally dry. The weather sucks for the most part in South Carolina most of the year. November was nice, and April was nice. That was about it. The horrible heat and humidity are the primary reasons we moved from that area.


I used to live in Wilmington North Carolina by the cost it dang near rained every day for at least 10 mins. The humidity is killer down there but it was nice being able to drive my jeep on the beach.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

The ONLY thing that I miss about living in SC is the property I had there. I had 36 acres. 

The down side is that acreage was mostly unusable. It was infested with rattle snakes, copperheads and the pond was full of water moccasins. There were scorpions to round things out.


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## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

DecoySlayer said:


> The ONLY thing that I miss about living in SC is the property I had there. I had 36 acres.
> 
> The down side is that acreage was mostly unusable. It was infested with rattle snakes, copperheads and the pond was full of water moccasins. There were scorpions to round things out.


 the freinds house I was living at we cleared some brush in the backyard he had about a acre we found 30 copperheads in 5 hours. I coulda made a snake skin suit and matching boots with all snakes. We found a few rattlers but we left them alone because they are endangered.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Aaronjeep2 said:


> the freinds house I was living at we cleared some brush in the backyard he had about a acre we found 30 copperheads in 5 hours. I coulda made a snake skin suit and matching boots with all snakes. We found a few rattlers but we left them alone because they are endangered.



Rattle snakes were not endangered on my property! We lived at the foot of "6 mile Mountain", which was known in the area as "Rattle snake" mountain.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

If you ever go back down there, I would highly recommend doing a charter with Captain Darryl Smith. The charters down there are pretty cheap compared to up here in Michigan, and if you ask questions you’ll learn a ton about how to rig baits and drift properly. Plus you will have a lot of action. I did a trip with Darryl last winter and it was fantastic.

In April one of the hot bites down there is trolling crankbaits along the Marion dam. One of these days I’m going to make it back down there for that.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

piketroller said:


> If you ever go back down there, I would highly recommend doing a charter with Captain Darryl Smith. The charters down there are pretty cheap compared to up here in Michigan, and if you ask questions you’ll learn a ton about how to rig baits and drift properly. Plus you will have a lot of action. I did a trip with Darryl last winter and it was fantastic.
> 
> In April one of the hot bites down there is trolling crankbaits along the Marion dam. One of these days I’m going to make it back down there for that.



April is normally a very good month, this year, the temp dropped, drastically the day after we got there. It was 78 the day we got there 40 the next with over 3" of rain. 

We may make it back down there in a couple of years. Next year we may head down to KY.


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