See More Columns Soc Clay 5/15/2009

South Carolina’s Low Country is famous for two reasons. First, this region of massive swamps and slow-moving rivers was the setting for the hit movie “The Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson. The film was based on the life and actions of General Francis Marion, a legendary figure in the Revolutionary War who was called the “Swamp Fox” by the British. Second, when the gates of the dams were closed on giant Lake Moultrie and the even bigger Lake Marion, one of the greatest bass fisheries in the world was created over the same creeks, trails and rivers that sheltered the Swamp Fox and his band of hit-and-run   marauders.

The Lakes

Gargantuan Lake Marion at 110,600 acres became an absolute bass factory, growing largemouths amid thousands of acres of uncleared swamps and open bottomlands. The prime bass habitat has surrendered largemouth bass up to 16 pounds. Lake Moultrie (60,400 acres), which is connected to Lake Marion with a 6-mile canal, would become the first lake in America where sea-run striped bass fishing occurred after spawning stripers were trapped in the West Fork of the Cooper and the Santee rivers when the dams were completed. More open than its neighboring impoundment, Lake Moultrie has a bottom covered with 2-foot-high stumps, and some would say there’s a bass beside every one of them.

Today, referred to as Santee-Cooper, these are the lakes where famed bass angler Roland Martin garnered much of his vast knowledge of fishing for largemouth bass, often wading the shallow flats in early spring to pick 10-pound bigmouths from the dollar lily fields with topwater offerings.

Spring Fling

It starts at 52 degrees (early or late in March, depending on the weather) when largemouth bass begin staging at the mouths of shallow flats that can cover 20 or more acres, and which average 1 to 2 feet deep. Anglers launch at Bells Marina at Eutawville to locate any of hundreds of places where shallow flats hold water year-round and grow pad cover amid stumps and fallen tree trunks.

Bass begin staging at the mouths of these historic spawning grounds when the water temperature warms to 52 degrees. For veteran bass guide Mark Deschenes, who grew up along the shores of these impoundments, these staging spots have water  between 5 and 8 feet deep. Here, boatloads of bucketmouths collect, feeding like crazy on shad in order to top off nutrition needed for final egg development. His   favored offerings for these bass are Carolina-rigged flukes, lizards or similar plastics worked slowly along bottom. Colors are personal favorites such as June bug and green pumpkin. Cold fronts, he said, call for flipping three-eighths-ounce, black/blue jigs dressed with No. 11 pork or plastic trailers in similar colors. The best bet is to work them as close to woody cover as possible.

Deschenes notes there are literally dozens of spawning fields scattered around both lakes, but he likes those found on the northeastern side in spring because these areas receive more sunlight and get a few days head start on the temperature rise.

60 Is The Magic Number

When the shallow bowls and spawning fields warm to 60 degrees, the guide goes full-force against spawners that swim over the lip at the mouth and spread out through lilies and stumps to locate favorable spawning sites. This is topwater time, extraordinary, he reports, saying fishermen target the top 12 inches of water to attract explosive strikes from females that can top 10 pounds.

Roland Martin wasn’t afraid of alligators. That’s why many of the early pictures of the bassing legend show him holding up huge bass while standing knee deep in the shallow spawning flats. Like Martin, Deschenes goes after spawners with buzzbaits, floating worms and sometimes Texas-rigged bottom crawlers. In most instances, car-size holes in the pads, openings around cypress stumps and open trails through the cover are most productive. Deschenes suggests crashing surface lures or tandem-blade spinnerbaits into any wood in route of the retrieve. Watch out, though, he warns. This action often entices explosive strikes from real lunkers.

Lake Moultrie was cleared of standing timber before it was impounded. Loggers left a 2-foot-tall stump wherever a tree was felled. Deschenes points out there is lots of open water in this 60,000-acre lake, but the bottom is literally covered with stumps. Lake Marion was built at the beginning of World War II, and there were few workers to clear the lake bottom. Thus, 80 percent of the lake has standing or fallen timber.

Hot Locations

Deschenes recommends first-time anglers fishing Lake Marion launch from Bells Marina at Eutawville and ask someone to point the way to the best spawning areas. There’s also Canal Lakes Resort on the Diversion Canal that allows anglers to be in either lake within minutes. Maybe the best spot is Black’s Marina near Cross, which is situated close to places like the Duck Pond and Fish Hatchery, famed for surrendering big bass during March and April. These folks know fishing. Just ask them.

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