1-9-17

I am in the process of designing a new website that you can find at Www.santeefatcats.com, working on a new YouTube chanel, and planning to update this blog on a weekly basis. I have new videos that you can view by following the video link on my new website.  I will be using the GoPro camera to publish new videos and some tutorials on some of our techniques, electronics, and to talk fishing in general. For any of you who may be wondering, the fishing has been better than it has been in years. Check back soon to see the progress and I would appreciate any feedback from any of you!
Stay tuned and Tight Lines,
   Capt. Jackson

2-20-10

I had Eric, Todd, and Craig back with me again today and boy did we have a good time. After being off of the water for a few weeks, it sure felt good to be back out there. The reports lately have been poor and I told them not to come because it had been so slow but they wouldn't take no for an answer and now I am glad that they wouldn't. I went out Fri. evening to catch bait and do a little scouting with the electronics and saw some encouraging signs. I told them to meet me at 6:00 so we could get an early start and that is what we did. We left out in the dark and went by GPS to the spot that I had marked the previous afternoon and no sooner than I got all of the rods out, we had a fish on. To make a long story short, they filled the box in less than one hour. They boated 30 fish weighing in at 402 pounds for the day and released 214 pounds of fish unharmed. They have another trip planned in May and I can only hope that it will be half as good as today was.

2-7-10

My family and I just got back from Ghenton W.V. on a snow skiing trip and we had a ball except for having to dig my way out of the drive on Sun. morning. No one got hurt so I guess it could be considered a success. I didn't fish this weekend and from the reports that came in, I am glad that I didn't. The rains continue along with the wind and cold weather. This is one of the worse winters that I have ever seen for our fishing here on Santee Cooper. I had Mr. Bobby Hamm coming in this weekend and he canceled because he is buying a new house and I am glad that he cancelled. They are calling for up to 3 inches of snow here on Fri. night with 20 mph. winds again on Sat. I just pray that Spring time will be good to us because the winter has produced some slow fishing. Sure not what we are acustomed to here for this time of year. I will be back on the water next Sat and Sun. so I will let you all know how we do. I think that if the rains ever slow down and the water clears a little that the fishing will improve.

1-31-10

Well, as bad as I hate to say it: Today tied the worse day ever on my boat with a grand total of one fish for the day. Not sure exactly why because we found tons of fish but just couldn't get them to bite and the ones that did bite didn't act like they wanted it. We had widespread rains across the state all day yesterday with high winds and the temps. this morning were in the low 20's. It was windy until around noon but when the winds layed down, I still couldn't get them to bite. I did notice on the way out this morning, the moon was full and bright while staying high in the sky for most of the day. I researched the unusual full moon on the internet when I returned home, trying to figure out why these fish just wouldn't bite. I found that last night's moon was called a wolfe moon and it appeared 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than any other full moon will do for the rest of 2010, because it was actually closer to Earth than usual. I have no idea if this had anything to do with the bites but I had to blame it on something and this was the best that I could come up with. LOL!! I told Mr. Bradbury who I had out with me today that he owed me nothing for this trip but he insisted on paying me. We worked out a deal to cover the bait and gas plus a little extra for my time and he is planning another trip in May. Like I always say, I'm a guide, not God and I can't make them bite. All jokes aside, the lake came up quiet a bit last night and is so muddy that visibility is less than 6 inches on the South side and not a whole lot better on the North side. All of the rains and winds of late are just keeping the lake stirred up and it is making the fishing difficult. Things will turn around sooner or later, I just pray that it is sooner. I will be snow skiing next weekend so I will not be fishing and if things don't pick up I will call my clients for Valentines day weekend and cancel that one as well. Just tough going right now and I just hope people understand that the conditions are tough and the fishing is inconsistent!

1-24-10

The rough weather continues here in the lowcountry with small craft advisories and rain but we made it work somehow. I had cancelled one trip due to the weather and decided to try and fish a half day with Justin and the boys from NC. We toughed it out and got lucky I guess to catch 10 fish for the day with most all of them in the teens. We had a big one hooked on the last drift of the day and we had our first Gamakatsu hook fail. It broke just below the barb and I guess that I may have damaged it earlier in the day removing it from a fish's mouth because that was the hot rod all day. They are calling for more rain and wintery mix on Sat. with breezy conditions but hopefully we can get lucky two weekends in a row. Al of this fresh water and temp. swings are just killing us here on the lakes. Hopefully we will get some consistent weather without the high winds soon.

1-23-10

Finally got a break from the weather and back on the water. I had Miss Barb and Donnie back down from Kentucky and we had a fair day. The winds were pretty rough until after lunch but we ended up with 9 fish for the day with the big fish being 22 and 23 pounds.

12-21-09 THRU 1-2-09

Let me start by saying that this is the wettest, coldest, windiest Dec.-Jan.that I can ever remember in my life time. The lake is higher and muddier than I have ever seen it for this time of the year and the results of our recent trips tell the tale! On Dec. 21 I had Mr. Patrick Wood and the boys back again and the fishing was slow. We marked most of our fish on the South side of the lake along the old river channel but the water was so muddy that the fish just wouldn't bite. We ended up going to the North side of the lake around mid-day and picked up 5 fish with no big ones. We came back to the South side to make one more stop before calling it a day and didn't get a bite. On Dec.22 I had Mr. Richard Ditmar along with his son and grandsons and we headed to Moultrie after such a slow day on the upper lake. They ended the day with 7 decent fish in the box including a 32 and a 24 pounder. We had the eighth fish up to the boat and tried to lift him into the boat without the net because he was wrapped up in another line and the hook came out and we lost him. On Dec.23 I had Jordan and the boys back again and it was slow again on lake Moultrie with 9 fish for the day with the biggest fish weighing in at 26 pounds. On Dec. 28th I had Dennis Miller and the gang down and it was so ROUGH that I knew that we couldn't fish the lower lake so we stayed on the upper lake and that was a good decision. The water was the roughest that I have ever fished in and either the fish finally started feeding or we just plain got lucky. They ended with 10 fish for their efforts and they were all nice quality fish. On Jan.3 I had Mr. Que Motley back again along with his father and son Quinn. Again, the water was too rough to fish the South side of the lake so we had to go to the North side in order to get in water that was calm enough to fish. We hooked 7 fish and only got 5 of them to the boat and no big ones. All other trips were cancelled for these two weeks because of the high winds. Hopefully the cold winds will lie down and the temps will rise a little before Jan. 16th. The weather man is calling for 20 mph. winds again for this weekend so we have had to cancel again. Looks like it may be a long cold winter for us this year.