"During December and January, a typical day will be one to three big fish bites," Taylor said. "But I'm talking fish that may be in the 25- to 30-pound-plus category. Sometimes we'll hook fish a lot larger. Later on, as the spring progresses, the big fish bite will continue and the odds of hooking into several big fish each day is outstanding.

"Plus, there are usually plenty of 5-to 15-pound fish hooked that keep my clients from getting bored," Taylor added with a big grin.

The upper third of the lake seems to be the prime area for the blues during the December to March period. According to Taylor, the blues like to move upstream in their pre-spawn migration and begin to stack up in the upper end of the lake. The upper portion of Lake Wateree gets back into a riverine environment, where a series of deep holes, scored out in the old Catawba River channel, are the places to begin the search.

"The deep holes are the focal points, but that is not exactly where I usually fish," Taylor said. "I don't catch a lot of the big catfish right in the middle of the deep holes. But the close proximity to deep water is a key to success. I like to fish along the edges of these holes where the old Catawba River channel winds through the upper end of the lake.

"I look for the edgelines where the river drops quickly into deep holes," he said. "Find such a drop with the combination of shad or forage along the area and you might really be in business. It's even better if I see some huge fish marked on the graph, but that's not a requirement. If you have the deep-water access and plenty of forage, the big blues are likely to be in the area. If they are not there when you set up, odds are good they'll be there soon."

His standard tactic is to anchor just above the spot he wants to fish. Usually, the best fishing is where there is some current, when water is being released upstream from Great Falls Dam. The current does seem to put the blues in a better feeding mode. It's not essential, but Taylor likes current when hunting big blues.

Taylor said it's important to take time to set up the boat properly for this type of fishing. He added that he'll spent 30 minutes to an hour at each setup -- that's how important it is to get the right setup.

He said to drop a front anchor down and make sure it's holding good. If the back of the boat is swinging around a bit, he'll also drop a rear anchor. He uses a flat 25-pound barbell weight for his back anchor, which works really well.

"Once I'm set with the anchors, I put out several rods," he said. "If I have a couple people fishing, I may put out six or eight rods. But it also depends on how fast the fish are biting. Later on in the spring, the action can get fast and furious and it's hard to keep up with too many rods. But during December and January, I like to get several big-fish rods set out." Taylor said.

Taylor has a specific type rod-and-reel combo that seems to work best for these big blues in Lake Wateree. He uses a 7-foot, Ugly Stick Tiger Rod.

"I want my catfish rod to have a medium-light action," he said. "I think the light tip is very important for catfish. But I need the rod to have a heavy butt section for power."

Taylor also uses a 6500C3 Ambassador reel with 20-pound-test line. He will use a No. 3 barrel swivel and a 6/0 to 8/0 circle hook attached to 50-pound-test leader. He uses a 3-ounce, flat, no-roll type sinker.

"The bait is also critical to success," Taylor said. "Big blues eat a lot of different things, but there are some things they seem to prefer. The best all-around, consistently producing wintertime bait I've found is cut bait, specifically white perch. However, cut bream and other fish work well, too. Both threadfin or gizzard shad also work really well."

Taylor will usually scrape the scales off the white perch and bream and cut them into really big chunks. He said this gives off more scent, always an important ingredient to catfish success he said.