The Santee Cooper Cat Net Forum

I caught some nice perch last year catfishing on Wateree. The fish weighed out maybe 1/2 to 3/4 pound and were some good eating! Anybody (hint perchjerker) know any good methods of catching a cooler of nice eating size perch?

Those perch can be located on sonar, usually very near bottom, and along channel edges, although in warmer weather they can be found almost anywhere. They seem to be fond of the areas where Crappie or Bream hang out, too, especially during the spawning season.
I haven't fished Wateree, of course, so I don't know the better areas. There are some here, like Fishfinder, that can certainly provide a better answer for you, though.

I tend to shy away from Wateree after Easter excepty maybe at night. Too dang many jetskis and water ski boats that seem to demand that they remain in the idiot status for boaters.

I prefer Marion for crappie and bream and Moultrie and for cats. Fisherman seem to stay out of the "idiot status for boaters" in general. Have had some of those big ocean going boats try to gain their idiot status though!

I am also going to go after some big shellocrackers this year. Buddy of mine is selling me his old camper pretty cheap and I plan to find a slot for it somewhere down there. Going to look around Cross or mayby around Rocks Pond. Not sure, depends on price.

I have never gone after the crackers deep, I have seen some good stringers though!

Perch will come up river with the stripers on their spring spawning run. This is when you can catch them and load up the cooler. All of April into May is a good time to fish for them. If you are headed up the lake out of Wateree Creek, you will go through an S turn in the river. On the right side there will be some big rocks and you should mark a 50 ft. hole in that area. From there run straight up about 400 yards, you will find a flat that will mark 14-17 ft. On the back end of the striper run the perch come in, I drop down to a strong brim type hook and mash the barb in, cut the bait super small, in a strip. There is nothing like having 6 rods bouncing at one time

Wow, there's a member of the original good-time gang! Welcome back Backlash, you and the little lady doin' ok?
Wayne

We are hanging in there, going down to the lake house next weekend, first time since December. That means yard work and more yard work. At least I can turn on the VHF and listen to what is happening out on the water.

Thanks backlash. I know the spot you are talking about well. I have caght several coolers full of cats on the drop off north of that deep hole anchored up.

Why do you mash the barb down on the hook?

Afewcats,
As the perchjerker, I've had one heck of a time catching anything of any size on lake Marion. I catch several, 40-100 when I try, but most are very small. The larger ones I catch are on minnows when I'm trying to catch some Crappie. I usually fish on or near the bottom with worms and usually have success, but the size any more in Marion is very small. I know one thing, if the white perch are in an area, usually the Blue Cats are near by. I have a local lake/pond here where I live that has some really nice white perch. Most of them are around a pound or so. I usually keep about 15 or 20 of the small ones for cut bait for the Blues. It seems to work as good as anything you can buy.

Later,
Jim

Afewcats,
There is also a nice article on Perch fishing on a BB that has a lot of information on fishing. It's SCfishingreport.com. I see that Fishfinder posts regular on this site. The article you need to look for is in the message board listed as 'Other Freshwater Fish'. Then look for a post labeled
'White Perch Fishing with Captain Rodger Taylor'. This is probably the best information on White Perch Fishing I've seen. Our site seems to be focused mostly on the cats.

Later,
Jim

Not necessarily so... With the purchase of SCC.com we're bringing you a wide variety of additional sites. We're creating a huge database for all species of fish broken down by State, Lake, River, Saltwater, etc, etc.

Your correct that THIS site is focused on catfish, that's what we intended. You find that the Catfish category at the additional forum (link below) under Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie are locked and lead you to THIS board which is primarily dedicated to Santee Cooper Cats (on purpose).

Once upon a time someone said, "If you build it, they will come". Well guys, the FishFinder and I are feeling pretty lonely so far over there. Granted, We're still in the building mode but North and South Carolina are pretty much open for business already at:
www.santeecoopercats.com/forum
Wayne