Diary of a fisherman helps in trying to land catches

Old friend Billy Murphy posed this question: "Remember where you were fishing this time last year?"

Wasn't it Raysville?

"It was Keg Creek, and you were tearing up the hybrids by trolling Gotcha Shads across from the old Wildwood Park boat ramp."

The only reason Murphy knew was not because of a long memory. He keeps a fishing diary, not only of his own experiences, but those of others. If this writer wants to know what the fish were doing at a specific time of year, he has only to call Murphy. His records aren't infallible because conditions are different every year.

The fish haven't been in Keg so far this year, mainly because the water is warmer (61 degrees on the surface Tuesday afternoon). Not only was it colder last year, but loads of sea gulls had made their way back into the creek and it was their diving on points that attracted this writer to the area. They have been mostly absent so far.

The Raysville area offers excellent winter fishing for schooling hybrids and stripers up Hart Creek and Little River. One way to tell if the fish have turned on is to count the number of guide boats, many from North Carolina, in those vicinities.

A conversation with one such Tar Heel guide revealed his party was catching small hybrids, but not many quality fish. Water condition is mostly muddy and that will probably hold true if rain falls as predicted next Monday and Tuesday.

A burst of Canadian winter air and a long period without rain to lower the silt content of the water will help conditions in the Raysville area.

Area bass fishermen are catching most of their fish on jigs-and-pigs and Zoom Super Flukes (on quarter-ounce jig heads). Find a ditch, a gully or a roadbed or culvert and cast either lure into five to 15 or 20 feet of water. Let it sink to the bottom and fish it like a plastic worm, bumping the bottom on the retrieve.

STROM THURMOND LAKE

Raysville Marina, near Thomson, Ga. (Doug Pentecost, Leon Buffington) (706) 595-5582 - Bert Williams caught 20 crappies including one weighing more than a pound. Joyce Christian of Rincon, Ga., caught six stripers, one weighing 27 pounds. Jason Lawson caught 19 crappies on jigs in our fish house on one day and the next day caught 14 more. Ralph Hall caught 10 crappies and two catfish on small minnows in the fish house.

Ralph Barbee, professional guide, (706) 860-7373, 957 Windmill Lane, Evans, GA. 30809 - Mike Tyler of Kicks 99 and I fished on Monday and found schooling hybrids and stripers in the back of Keg Creek. I caught one striper on a Rat-L-Trap crank bait and Mike caught just two hybrids on a Little Earl crank bait. We returned to the scene Tuesday and caught nothing. We were back on Wednesday and I caught a small striper trolling a Rebel 2000 near the boat ramp.

Jeremy Altman and I fished near Hilton Head Island for 150-pound blacktip sharks. It's featured on my latest TV show on Knology Channel 6 and Comcast Channel 66. It's played every night at 10:30 p.m., before the news on Knology. On Comcast, it's on at 9:30 p.m., Tuesdays and 7:30 p.m., on Thursdays.

SAVANNAH RIVER

New Savannah Bluff Lock & Dam

Lock and Dam Bait and Tackle (Bob Baurle), (706) 793-8053 - Mike Grubbs and Mike Jr., limited out on crappies upriver around the moss beds along the points. James Howell, Gene Sinclair and Bob Baurle caught a nice mess of slab crappies around the points upriver. Lots of jacks are being caught upriver and down as well as largemouth bass. Bass, jack and "cypress trout" (mudfish) are being caught in Butler's Creek. The mullet fishing is about done for the year. An occasional flounder is still being caught. They're still catching some good fish off the dam, with early mornings and late evenings best.

MERRY BROS. BRICKYARD PONDS

Harrison Sears (706) 722-8263 (www.brickyardponds.com) - Karen Panzella caught November's big fish with a 5.51-pound bass caught on a plastic worm in the Ditch on Nov. 30. Gene Fallaw caught a 5.30-pound bass on a spinnerbait in the Ditch on Nov. 28, but was edged by Karen. We've been catching some crappies at night in the Ditch, the Shack Pond and the Bradford Pond.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

BEAUFORT, S.C. & VICINITY

Ralph Goodison, Fripp Island, (843) 838-2530, and Doug Gertis, professional guide, (843) 524-5250 - The trout bite has been incredible, Gertis says, and most of them are bigger and fast. You can catch 'em on plastic grubs, Mirro-Lures, live mud minnows, or live shrimp. Some nice redfish are being caught around shellbanks. I use 2/0 and 3/0 circle hooks for redfish when fishing live bait. The hook always lodges in the corner of the fishes' mouths. I can't remember the last time I hooked a trout or a redfish deep. Fly fishermen are doing well. Low tide in Beaufort is 7:30 a.m., on Saturday and conditions should be ideal for flycasters. My favorite fly is the Clouser minnow. Black drum and sheepshead are being caught around offshore wrecks. This month, January and February are my favorite times for redfish.

SAVANNAH AREA

Miss Judy Charters, Capt. Judy Helmey, (912) 897-4921 (www.missjudycharters.com.) P.O. Box 30771, Savannah, Ga. 31410-0771 - Our inshore captains and other anglers prefer to use the Cajun Popper instead of the traditional float rig for trout at this time of the year. I think it's because of the noise the float makes when you pop it. During this time of the year as water temperatures drop, I believe fish can hear good and bad sounds a lot clearer. So the Cajun Popper makes sense.

Trout are plentiful around the drops in the creeks.