I'll be coming to Sanee for the Military Tournament in May. Just wondering how the Hotel's are at the Hwy 95/Hwy 6 area. I've read hotel reviews, but I'd rather hear first hand from locals. I'm more concerned with security than anything else. Is there anywhere/area i should avoid. I'm sure security is better at places like Carolina King, but there prices are double if not triple most hotels. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
USAF Retired 1981-2004
Police Detective Retired 2004-2022
Why not stay at Short Stay https://www.militarycampgrounds.us/s...ecreation-area
What landing is the tournament out of?
The tournament is being launched out Black's Camp now. I originally had a house rented across from the John C Land ramp, but ABA moved it out of Black's camp a few weeks ago and I ended up renting a mobile home at Black's Camp vice make the hour plus drive from where I had the house rented. Since this will be my first time down there, how accurate is the Navionics card in avoiding any trouble?
2018 Bass Cat Lynx w/Suzuki 250SS.
I think the chip will get you home but as far as stumps you better watch the depth finder and slow down quick
If you have never been on Santee and don’t get any time to practice, I would advise you to fish near the ramp where you put in. If you get a couple practice days, you can look around. In general, the upper lake is more treacherous than the lower lake. The timber was cut in the lower lake before it was impounded. But, WWII started before the timber was cut in the upper lake and when the dam was shut, it all flooded. Because of hurricane Hugo, a lot of the timber broke off at the water line. So, you can be running in plenty deep water and still hit a standing tree. The lower lake still has tons, and tons, and tons of stumps. Plus, it has shallow bars full of stumps out in the middle of the lake. My advice is to watch where the locals run and follow them. The pucker factor is high on Santee. Just be careful because a big stump can ruin your day in a hurry.Originally Posted by booter
"The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it…He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Thank you for the advice. I also purchased a Hot Maps paper chart that kind of outlines maybe where the underline forests are. I'll have two or three days to prefish before the tournament starts and I'll probably do a lot of idling and creating safe routes and etc. Thanks again.
2018 Bass Cat Lynx w/Suzuki 250SS.
Easiest way to do it on limited practice if you want to stay as safe as possible is scratch most of Marion off of your list. Generally speaking, as long as you’re 6’ or deeper in Moultrie you’re ok. Granted, there are a few areas in Moultrie you can run into some shallow islands quick, but it’s much safer than Marion as a whole for someone who’s never spent time there.
That said, I like Marion that time of year. If you want to stay pretty safe fishing Marion, run to the head of the Diversion Canal, take a left, and start fishing every cypress tree you see. Hit the main Diversion Canal, the breaks in the wall, and the backwaters off of the breaks. Drop the TM right there at Blacks, you can spend all day fishing trees and vegetation, barely starting your big motor. Lots of good areas in Moultrie, keep in mind if the wind picks up it’s a giant bowl....it gets very rough very quickly. If you like fishing shallow stumps run to the Hatchery, idle through one of the cuts, and there are a million shallow stumps to fish.
Santee is a beautiful, but very frustrating place to fish....EVERYTHING looks good, not everything holds fish. Come back here and let us know how you do.
I wanted to say thanks for the helpful advice and I survived Santee without breaking anything. I did venture onto Marion and visited Taw Caw creek during practice and figured out the channel markings and got a track on my plotter. There is very little room for error and noticed giant stumps sitting in the middle of the 30' of water. As for Moultrie, it was not near as bad, but notice that it starts getting rough when the winds are up to 10mph. I only hit Angels Cove there and didn't get a bite in there even though it looked like it should hold fish. But we caught some post spawn bass off a few cypress trees by throwing a senko.
Wednesday was the first day of the tournament and the winds were around 15 MPH and Marion which had 4 to 5' swells. I ended up turning around, and just fished the diversion canal with not much luck. The people who toughed out the run to Jack's creek did well, but over a third of the field blanked the first day. I originally was planning on fishing around Black's Camp, but that area was off limits which threw a monkey wrench into my plans since I did catch a few nice 5 lbers in there. I never did weigh any fish for the 3 day tournament since the ones I did catch were 13.5" and needed to be 14" or greater. Then on the last day, we didn't compete in the tournament and just went fun fishing in the off limits area for a few hours and noticed that the bass were loving the Strike King Caffeine Shad in or near the grass over the senkos. The slow sinking motion of those baits triggered more and frequent bites and I should've been throwing this more as well. Plus it seemed the fish were spooked easily as well.
Overall, Black's Camp easily handled the 95 boat field since a lot of the boaters launched somewhere else and met up there for the launch. I wished that I could've figured out the offshore crankbait bite, but I was literally trying not to break anything. Thanks again for the information and hopefully I'll get another opportunity to fish there again.
2018 Bass Cat Lynx w/Suzuki 250SS.
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