The History of
| Santee Cooper Cats - Catfish USA |
| The Early Days |
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| A couple of North Carolina boys needed to know when the fish were biting on the Santee Cooper lakes. Hugh and myself (Wayne) loved fishing Santee Cooper. Wayne had an RV set up on permanently leased lot at Mill Creek Marina. Hugh stayed across the lake in his RV at Taw Caw Marina. In an effort to schedule more productive fishing trips, We decided to open a Yahoo Message Board named "Santee Cooper Cats" so we could trade current fishing reports, tips and techniques with other fisherman that were near the lake. We used those boards for current information about lake levels, weather forecasts, and fishing reports so that we could schedule our frequent trips to Santee Cooper at the most productive times. We knew that there were many cat-fisherman in the same situation as us, and had a permanent residence elsewhere but also had second residences around the lake. leased RV lots in the local Marinas or, at least drove in for day or weekend fishing trips and stayed in the local motels. Thus, Santee Cooper Cats was born in the early part of 2000. |
| A Slow Start |
| We got off to a slow start at that Yahoo Message board. Through the early part of 2000, We had a small group but it seemed that our close knit group were the cream of the crop. We assembled about 10 cat-fisherman that had more than 200 years of combined experience on the Santee Cooper Lakes. We were happy with what the Group had become. Sure, We didn't have hundreds of Members but the few we had became like family to us as we shared ideas, posted pictures in our photo albums, developed email friendships and, helped each other develop and hone our cat fishing skills. |
| The Birth of the website |
| ON April 6th, 2001 we realized that our Yahoo Group was a bit difficult to navigate. We had many good postings but there was no easy way to review past postings and easily find answers to specific questions. Every posting went to a common message board and there was no way to designate messages into seperate meaningful categories. The necessity to become organized gave birth to our website at www.santeecoopercats.net We also archived the old Yahoo Group and opened a new board at Yahoo called the "Santee Cooper Cat Net". With the new website, We now had a way to categorize all of our information in an easy to find manner. Our group was growing, We tripled our size to aproximately 30 Members by this time. We already were becoming more popular than the founders had ever dreamed of. We were still a small group but we had quality people in that group and we were happy with the results. |
| The First Annual Santee Cooper Cats Day April 21st, 2001 |
| By the beginning of 2001 things were going very well. We had made a multitude of new friends but we really didn't know who they were since we haven't met them in person. We scheduled the very first Santee Cooper Cats Day for April 21, 2001 and began taking reservations. It was a simple process. We would all meet at Mill Creek Marina, use their Pavillion as a base camp, get to meet each other in person and, have a full day of fishing with our new friends and their families. It was an incredible success! We spent the morning making introductions and greeting the arrivals as they trickled in. Some hit the lake with their families to fish, others gathered at the Pavillion to share stories and build lasting friendships. We had reserved an area in the restaurant for just after Noon for a group lunch. After lunch, everyone resumed fishing, entertaining the children on the beach and chatting under the pavillion. |
| The Growth Continues |
| Throughout the remainder of the year 2001, Santee Cooper Cats continued to grow in Membership. We were constantly upgrading and maintaining the website. By the end of 2001, We had become a "Full-Service" website for the lakes covering every aspect of Santee Cooper. We now had up-to-the-minute fishing reports, Marina & Guide Services information, an extensive photo album, etc. We were and still are the only website that covers the entire Santee Cooper experience. On May 5, 2001... Our original "Santee Cooper Cats" message forums at Yahoo got a new name and location. Leaving behind some 1600 + postings at the original group, We officially became the "Santee Cooper Cat Net". Yahoo still carried our discussion forums under the same format as our original group but we started fresh and new under our new name. During 2001, Yahoo Groups decided that they would bombard us with pop-up ads and un-solicited emails. We dealt with that for only a short time! We archived the "Santee Cooper Cat Net" at Yahoo with it's 890 postings on April 4th, 2002 and opened a fresh location at MSN Communities carrying the Santee Cooper Cat Net name along with us. MSN gave us the opportunity to now post pictures directly into our messages along with other dress up choices we didn't have before. Our Santee Cooper Cats website continued it's rapid growth also. |
| Santee Cooper Cat Net moves the Message Boards to an MSN Community |
| On March 8, 2002... Santee Cooper Cats officially moved it's "Santee Cooper Cat Net" message boards from Yahoo Groups to a brand new MSN Community. We weren't really enthusistic about making yet another move but Yahoo had bombarded us with so much pop-up advertising and un-solicited emails that it made it necessary. The decision wasn't taken lightly! Making another move would mean that we would be leaving nearly 2500 postings behind to date. We decided to archive the "Santee Cooper Cat Net" boards at Yahoo, (available HERE ), and keep them available for anyone that needed to look back into the past. Those message boards are still in use by our Members as a way to research past fishing trends and are regularly used as a tactical planning tool for planning current fishing trips. Looking back on the situation now, We're extremely happy that we made the move and we're hopeful that MSN will be our home for the group discussion forums well into the future. Just shy of one year, Our new location at MSN received posting # 1000 on it's "General" board. The ONE THOUSANDTH posting was made by Dgwar (Don) on February 2, 2002 at aproximately 7 AM. |
| Visit our "Day by Day" History page for more information on the progress of Santee Cooper Cats. |
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