Thread: Lake Murray Report 1/13/18 and 1/15/18

It's been a little while since I posted a report, but I have been fishing a little bit since Christmas. Oddly enough, even with the frigid temps we've had, the fishing has been pretty steady. There's been a few banner days mixed in with some slower trips, but each and every trip has resulted in a nice catch. The first trip was the Thursday after Christmas and Crappie Gobbler joined me for some winter time action. When we reached the landing we found it to be empty aside from a few duck hunters. It was 26 degrees with a stiff wind and we even witnessed one boat turn around and leave!! We both laughed about what a crazy idea it was to actually go fish...first day of a major cold front, winds, cold temperatures....surely the crappie wouldn't bite on a day like that. But, we were wrong! Not only did they bite, but the bite was good. Fish were as active as I've ever seen them this time of year and our 2 man limit was proof. Most fish were caught tightlining, but a few were caught on the trusty jig pole. Fish were related to the river channel and varied in depth from 6-14 FT in 18-20 FOW. We caught another 23 the day after that and a quick Saturday afternoon trip yielded another mess with some beautiful sunsets.







Fast forward to this past weekend. After a couple weeks away from the lake, which froze over, I was ready to try my luck again Saturday morning. An old friend joined me for the trip and we bundled up to face the adverse conditions. Once again, the conditions didn't seem to be in our favor with another major cold front and windy conditions. I overthought things a little bit and didn't go back to my Christmas hole thinking that the fish might have moved to deeper water with the drop in water temp. We wasted some time, but finally made our way back to the Christmas hole by about 9 AM. We didn't even get our rods out before we caught our first fish. The bite continued slow but steady until it was time to come off at noon. We caught around 15 fish, lost a big striper, and kept 10 crappie for the fillet knife.

Yesterday, with a day off from work, I was back at it again. My wife's uncle joined me and man it was seriously cold!! This time, we wasted no time and headed straight for the Christmas hole at daybreak. After a bitter cold boat ride, we found the fishing to be pretty hot the first hour or two and then it slowed way down. We kept pounding away and managed to bring home 24 nice crappie and a big striper. Just like past trips tightlining was the technique and minnows were the bait of choice. Fish were caught 8-10 foot down in 18-20 FOW. Water temps were 43-45 degrees this weekend.









And to finish things off I'll leave everyone with a few pictures from an early December Wateree trip. We fished a Memorial Tournament for Leonard Frick over there. After a very slow start we finally found a few fish willing to bite after lunch and managed a 4th place finish with big fish honors. Ended up catching a few nice fish and my little girl helped retrieve them out the livewell for us. AND I caught my very first black nose crappie!! He wasn't a big fish, but it was really cool to see one in person. I had no idea we had any in SC.

Nice report thank you.