Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Whether you fish lakes, rivers or both, catfish are a common denominator in the fish population in South Carolina. While there's plenty of fishing pressure on largemouth bass and seasonally on crappie, the catfish is increasing in popularity based on the number of fishermen enjoying the sport. Luckily, catfish are found in a very high percentage of fisheries in South Carolina.

And it's no wonder so many fishermen enjoy catfishing. Fish are caught in huge numbers and sizes; they're great fighting fish, and are legendary as table fare.

However, not all catfish holes are equal. During some of the peak fishing time of the year, June and into July, there are some rivers and lakes that seem to really stand out in terms of being productive for Mr. Whiskers.

The Santee River is certainly one spot -- and the high-quality fishing here is often overlooked by nearby Charleston, Summerville and Moncks Corner anglers. In addition, Clarks Hill Lake (Lake Thurmond) and Lake Wylie in the Piedmont/Upstate area, and Lake Marion and the Congaree River close to Columbia, are among the best to be found anywhere, in or out of South Carolina.

Lake Wylie has a great population of hefty channel catfish and a growing population of blue catfish. All the rest of these lake and river catfish connections have another important factor in common. They all harbor big numbers of all of the big three species of catfish: the channel, blue and flathead.

This is a key component of these remarkable catfish fisheries. Because of the diversity of species of catfish, you can except to find catfish in many different water depths and structures throughout June, and frankly, the entire summer. For just about any kind of tackle, boat or bait you like to use, there are catfish waiting for you in these fisheries.

We'll begin our look at the Santee River. The part we'll consider will be from the Wilson Dam on Lake Marion down to the salt water, which is well below Jamestown. That's a long stretch of highly productive water for anglers to fish.

There's access to the river just below the Wilson Dam, plus a ramp at the Highway 52 bridge between Kingstree and St. Stephens. There is also access at the Highway 41 bridge near Jamestown. From these areas, you can motor to the hotspots found all along the river. Additionally, at the highways 52 and 41 access areas, there is some exceptionally good bank-fishing for bruiser catfish.

Using stout tackle that you can cast a relatively long distance, you have a reasonable chance of tangling with some huge catfish along the shoreline around these two bridges. Cut shad and bream are great baits for blues, and live bait, or fresh cut bait, seems best for flatheads, especially for the really big fish.

Night crawlers and stink baits will produce big numbers of decent-sized channel catfish, of course, but they are quite capable of attracting a few moderate-sized blues as well.

But if you have access to a boat, you're really in the catfish business. This river is ideal for the smaller boats and johnboats. Bigger rigs, such as bass rigs, are used here, but you need to do so with caution. In fact, caution is the word with any boat fishing the river. There are a number of areas along the river that are quite shallow, interspersed with deep holes. In addition, there are many logs, stumps and other debris in the river. The really big boats are not the best choice for this river. But if you're a johnboat fisherman, you'll think you are in catfish heaven.

I happened to be part of a gathering of johnboats last June at the Santee and saw first hand the sensational catfishing available in this river.