“It might rain on us, we might get wet, but we’re going fishing and see what happens,” said Kevin Davis of Black’s Camp in Santee Cooper Country. The weatherman warned against it, but we all took Davis’ suggestion and went anyway. The weatherman was wrong. The overcast day was perfect for fishing, and along with a cooler full of eating-sized catfish, we caught the fish-of-a-lifetime – a 76-pound blue catfish with Capt. Gene Crawford, as well as a cooler full of eating-size cats.
After a number of warm-up fish that ranged from 5- to 25-pounds in 45- to 50-feet of water, we hooked a couple of small fish. Crawford checked his Lowrance electronics and immediately saw the problem. “We’ve drifted into 39-feet of water. The better fish are in the deeper water. Now we can stay here all day and catch a hundred of these smaller fish, or we can get back into the deeper water and try for some bigger ones,” he said.
Between Jeff Burleson, Stacy Atkinson, and me, we didn’t hesitate. “Let’s get back in the deeper water,” we all said. Crawford motored us back to his preferred spot, tossed out two drift socks, and set his Mercury outboard just above idling speed in reverse. “The wind has quit, so we’ll use the outboard to help us back-drift. The drift socks will help slow us,” said Crawford, who likes to clip along at about 1/2-mile-an-hour when fishing this way. Continue reading – http://www.southcarolinasportsman.com/details.php?id=4940