Santee

Looking to see if anyone can tell me what the bream/shellcracker fishing is like, in the summer, in the upper swamps in Lake Marion. Thanks in advance.

Bedding fish I would think is done with,starts earlier there.Fish are probably heading toward deeper water.With the large drought a couple years ago I have no idea the effect that had.

I'd contact these guys:

http://www.santeebassin.com/areainfo.htm

BTW, welcome to the forum.

Regards,
Scott

The old advice about bluegill and shellcrackers is they bed every full moon from around April until September depending upon weather and water temperature. The info I find online seems to back that up. Where conditions permit you will typically find an area covered in beds, almost like a very large honeycomb, covering a good size are with each bed a foot and a half or so in diameter. They will be in water from 2 ft. to 8 ft., they maybe against a bank or in the middle of a lake. Submergeed road bed seem to be a good place to find them, the hard surface and the drop off on the side give them access to deep water and shelter, I think those are the factors. Clear water will typically have them bedding deeper in my experience.

Until recently Santee Cooper was the home of the world record for Redear (shellcrackers) with a 5 lb. 7 oz. caught there in 1998, I believe that gentleman was using live bait, but there was talk of the possibility of a 6 pounder there. I think you would need a snail pattern to match the hatch there. Good luck and let us know how it goes.