Terry Madewell

If you’re willing to be just a little bit versatile in your fishing efforts over the course of the seasons, you can enjoy fishing as a year-round sport in South Carolina. Whether it’s bitter cold or steamy hot, there’s always something biting on our freshwater lakes and rivers or along the coast. The diversity of fishing opportunities not only present anglers with some species of fish biting each month of the year, but also usually give anglers an array of choices of species to pursue.

We put together a 12-month angling planner to help you consider the great options available. We make three suggestions for different fishing trips each month of the year -- trips that traditionally provide excellent fishing opportunities. These trips will be ranked as first, second and third. In addition, you can even expand on this monthly planner a bit. If there’s a fishing trip that is “excellent” in one month, odds are good it’s at least “good” in the previous and past months.

Here’s the roundup of potential fishing trips that will provide plenty of fish-catching action throughout 2008.

JANUARY
Lake Wateree
Crappie
Lake Wateree is one of the top crappie lakes in South Carolina any time of the year. While this lake gets even better for crappie during the spring, the cold water and weather of January typically put these fish at fairly predictable places. The crappie will be holding deep, in the 15- to 30-foot range. They will be on or over creek or river channel ledges. Early in the year, live bait, particularly medium-sized minnows, is usually the best offering. Small jigs will work, and one of the top wintertime anglers on Lake Wateree, Bill Garner, will sometimes use small jigs tipped with minnows.

The key is to get the bait to the depth the fish are marked on the graph and move the boat very slowly. Generally, it’s more effective to slowly, very slowly, move the boat with the electric motor along the ledges. Crappie can be found throughout the lake at this time of the year, but if there have been heavy rains, the upper end of the lake may become muddy. Singleton, Dutchman’s, Beaver and Colonel’s creeks are excellent places to fish.

FEBRUARY
Clarks Hill
Stripers
This is live bait time at Clarks Hills for striper and hybrids. During this cold month, the fish begin to get in transition mode from winter (where they orient primarily to the main lake) to an early spring pattern (when they begin moving up the larger tributaries). The exact timing will depend on water temperature changes. Once the water temperature pattern starts an upward trend, the fish will be on the move and can be found at the mouths and up the major tributaries.

Live blueback herring will be the primary bait for these fish. The bait can be fished in a variety of methods with vertical fishing under the boat; freelining out the back and by using planing boats to get the bait away from the boat. In the cold, often clear water conditions, boats will sometime make the stripers and hybrids skittish. Some huge stripers can be caught at this time of the year on Clarks Hill.

MARCH
Lake Moultrie
Largemouths
As always with largemouth bass, weather and water temperature is everything. However, the month of March is typically the prime time for a huge number of hawg largemouths to move to the shallows. That’s one reason major bass tournaments are held here during this month. When the conditions are right, there may not be any place, anywhere, better for big largemouth bass in shallow water. Even when it’s just “almost” right, it may be the best largemouth fishing you’ll enjoy all year long.

A variety of lures will work in the shallow water: Plastic worms and lizards, spinnerbaits, shallow-running crankbaits and even topwater lures all produce excellent results. If a cold front blasts through, you may need to just back off into slightly deeper water or slow your lure presentation down just a bit. The fish will still be there; don’t give up on Lake Moultrie during March.