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Phillip Gentry

Clay and Will Gentry celebrate a blue Christmas with Captain Spencer Edmonds on Lake Marion. Catfishing on the Santee lakes can be great during the winter.

For me, the week between Christmas and New Year’s has always been a great time to hit the road. Nothing is going on at work and the holiday celebrations of Christmas are over. In addition, it’s the last week of deer season, the ducks are working their way down the flyways and the catfish down on the Santee lakes are usually good to go. This is the way it went a couple of years ago when my two sons, Clay and Will, and I paid a visit to our friend Captain Spencer Edmonds to fish the standing timber of Lake Marion for blue catfish.

As the water temps drop during winter, the cold causes baitfish in these lakes, threadfin and gizzard shad in the upper lake and menhaden in the lower lake, to stack up in the deeper water. As the temperatures continue to drop, the schools of bait become stressed and weakened and make an easy meal for hungry catfish who need to stock up on their fat reserves for the winter. The result can be some of the best catfishing of the year.

Once we launched into the standing timber, I asked Spence how he chose which spot to fish as it all looked the same to me. His plan was to locate the baitfish schools that were scattered throughout the timber. We both watched Spence’s LCR as we idled between stumps. “There,” he pointed as we began to graph billowing clouds hanging at mid depth. Within 100 yards of marking the bait, more pronounced arches began to show up near the bottom, indicating that catfish were there feeding on the bait.

“All right fish, you’re on the clock,” announced the Captain, after tying up to a snag and explaining that if we didn’t get a bite within twenty minutes we were moving to another spot, hence the term stump jumping. With five minutes on the clock, Spence sprang from his seat.

“Fish on,” he shouted pointing to one of the flat side rods.

Before either of my boys could protest that he wanted to go first, one of the back rods went down. After both boys were locked in combat, Sparky, Spencer’s bona fide catfish dog, sprang into action. As the first fat blue catfish, well over 10 pounds, was netted and came over the rail, Sparky leaped up and grabbed the fish by a fin to help Spence get the fish into the cooler. With the fish unhooked and safe inside the box, Sparky proceeded to lick the net clean ready for the next fish.

“I measure our success by the amount of slime on Sparky.” Spence informed us. “On a good trip, he’ll be covered head to tail.”

The “Blues Brothers” were getting into plenty of mischief with six nice catfish when big trouble showed up. According to Captain Spence, flathead catfish are slow this time of year, but this hole owed him a big fish. It was Will’s turn when the big flathead claimed the bait on the front rod. The 60-pound kid versus the 35-pound catfish was almost a draw. Will won out on sheer determination.

At the end of the day, we headed back to the hill after making only four jumps. The Blues Brothers had caught 28 catfish, an estimated 400+ pounds of fish. All but four were released to fight again, including two 30-pound blues, several 20-pounders, a slew of something over 10-pounds and one worn-out but lucky flathead.

“That’s what we need more of,” proclaimed Captain Spencer. “Releasing these fish today means more AND bigger fish for these boys and others to catch in years to come.”

To arrange a trip with Captain Spencer Edmonds, contact him at (803) 492-3460 or by email at swe40@mindspring.com.

Got outdoor news or photos to share? Contact Phillip Gentry at pgentry6@bellsouth.net