Summertime is an ideal time for the family to enjoy the bounties of our lakes and rivers in South Carolina. Without a doubt, we have the climate and fishing opportunities for an entire family to enjoy a day or weekend of fishing.

However, take it from one who has been involved in planning and conducting family fishing trips for a long time. The key to success in any family fishing endeavor is strategy. First, you've got to go to a place that offers excellent fishing. In my definition of "excellent" for family fishing, I'm looking at "head count" in terms of numbers of fish being more important than simply big sizes of fish. If you can get a bit of both, and we'll point you in that direction when possible, then you're way ahead of the game.

A key to the success of any family fishing adventure is having a backup plan . . . and a backup plan for your backup plan. Thus armed, you can cope with about anything that comes along, regardless of the ages of your kids. When you combine kids, parents, other adults and lots of fish, you have the basic recipe for a fun-filled day.

First, when planning a family fishing adventure, regardless of where you go, bring food . . . plenty of food. Unless your family doesn't have any youngsters, you'll need food as a diversion. In addition, during the summer months in South Carolina, I'd also insist the kids bring swimsuits and maybe even some shoes for getting out and walking along the shoreline.

With the basics now discussed, it's time to find some great places for family fun.

Panfishing is always a great way to ensure family fun. Typically, when you have kids and adults in the same boat or fishing along the same stretch of shoreline, you need to have a lake that produces plenty of fish in many different manners.

Once such place that I've used for years for family outings is Lake Wateree. There are numerous public access areas if you have a boat to launch and fish from. Even if you don't, most of these public ramps offer good shoreline fishing. The Lake Wateree State Park offers excellent opportunities for weekend camping/fishing trips as well as shoreline fishing opportunities.

If you have a boat, all you need to do is find a rocky shoreline that tumbles from the shoreline down to 8 to 12 feet deep. Arm yourself with rods or poles baited with crickets and worms and slowly work along the shoreline of these steeper banks.

If I have small children in the boat, I'll plan to do most of the baiting up myself, which can be a fast-paced chore on this lake. While Lake Wateree doesn't have the size of bream that some other lakes have, it does make up for it in numbers. It would be unusual indeed to fish long on this lake and not get plenty of action from bream during the summer months. Crickets are the quickest and easiest bait and will produce plenty of bream and the occasional catfish. And I'll usually rig a couple of rods with a gob of worms and fish them in the deeper water off the backside of the boat. This typically results in occasional hookups with larger channel catfish, which abound in this lake. It's not unusual to hook into a few catfish in the 3- to 5-pound class, and sometimes much larger, during the course of a day of fishing.

Another technique is to anchor in a cove that has 10 to 15 feet of water and randomly cast lines around the boat. Put some on the bottom with flat lines -- use rod holders if you have them -- using only small split shot for weight. On other rigs, use floats. Typically, you'll get plenty of action from one method or the other, from the deep or perhaps from the shallower water areas. Once you get a pattern on the fish, you can then focus your efforts.