We did manage one nice crappie which was released, but the most interesting part of the day was when we encountered large schools of, what I think, were Asian Carp. The fish were huge, although my fishing partner and I differ on what we think the sizes were. We noticed the fish as I made a cast toward a gar (yes, the day had become a gar rodeo). Suspended under the fly line was a huge fish and we first thought it might be a flathead catfish and as I picked up the fly to cast in front of him, the fly snagged the fish's dorsal fin. The fish at first didn't seem to notice anything and just turned around to hang out with his buddies who were nearby. It was comical as we tried to figure out what to do with the fish with no net, assuming I could get him to the boat. The fish finally became spooked and took off with the line tight as a drum and humming through the water. It was great fun for just a couple of minutes before the hook pulled out. We then began casting to the schools actually trying to get a take even though we had figured out they were carp of some kind and probably would not take a fly. Finally I got one to swirl at the fly like he was irritated with it and as the school went around the bow of the boat the line shot down as though a fish had taken the fly. Unfortunatley it was at an inopportune moment and the fly line was caught by the bow and trolling motor. After some excitement as we tried to get the line free, the line went slack. We are still unsure as to whether the fish took or not, but I do know I was not picking up the fly at the time, the fish snagged himself or took the fly. I think they are primarily planton feeders, but wouldn't it be a wonderful sport if we could figure out what those fish would take? Tight loops,

Article by Glen Davis

I just got back from visiting my son in South Carolina where he serves in the Air Force as a fireman at Shaw Air Base in Sumter. It was a nice respite from the depressing oil situation in our Gulf as my son and I managed to get in some fishing while I was there. We even managed one day of saltwater fishing by making an hour and a half trip to the coast to fish the south jetty at Murrells Inlet, which is inside Huntington Beach State Park. Chris caught a beautiful 22+ inch speck on a green and white Clouser, his first speck. It will be a while before he catches another as big as that. It was really nice to be fishing saltwater and it was even more special considering the oil in the Gulf which has had me feeling very bitter. The water at Murrell's inlet was emerald green and beautiful. A sea turtle gave me a surprise visit which made me think of the Gulf and it's precious wildlife. But I won't go into that depressing situation, I will save that for another day.

The best part of the trip was fishing the Saluda River for stripers which are a native fish in South Carolina and unlike Mississippi there is a spawning population. Early one morning Chris took me to downtown Columbia to fish under the Gervais St. bridge. The urban setting reminded me of fishing for stripers on the Pearl at the Jackson waterworks . Chris managed three stripers and a smallmouth while I caught three stripers, one in the five pound range. Later the same morning we accessed the Saluda at the Riverbanks Zoo but were outnumbered by tubers and large numbers of folks utilizing the river. We made a note to come back when it was less crowded.

Taking a break from fishing we stopped into the Sportsman\'s Warehouse in Columbia where they had a wall where local sportsmen post their photos. We found a striper photo and noticed the fisherman was holding a flyrod. We kept looking and found a couple more striper photos and it was the same guy, always holding a flyrod. We bought some flys in the fly shop and noticed a few guide business cards laying on the counter. One card was for guided fly fishing so we picked it up and the photo on the front was the striper fisherman in the photos. The business card was for Frank's Fly Arts. Later that night I was researching some place where we could access the saltwater and found a photo of a guy with a striper caught in the saltwater at Murrell's inlet. Catching a striper in the salt there is a very rare occurrence. I noticed in the photo the guy had a flyrod. Could it be? We looked at the business card, yep, same guy, Frank. Seeing this fly rodder with a striper at Murrell's inlet gave us the idea to fish the same place and though we didn't catch the saltwater striper we had hoped for, Chris caught the big speck. Sorry no pic.

We did a family day on July 5 and took the family to the zoo with the idea that we could see the zoo, get some dinner and then Chris and I would come back to the zoo to fish the Saluda which runs behind it. By fishing late we thought we could miss the crowd and maybe there would be a good evening striper bite. Everything went as planned and at about 6:30 in the evening Chris and I parked his truck and started stringing our rods by the tailgate. We noticed that we had parked next to a car with a fly fishing decal that said "Frank's Fly Arts" and we both laughed and thought we were destined to meet this fellow fly fisher who was obviously addicted to rock hounds just like us. But fate had another idea. As we were about to grab our gear and head to the river, a man walked up and began warning us that if we left the truck in the zoo parking lot as much as one minute past 7:00, the truck would be towed. The man was nice but also angry because his vehicle had been towed the night before. He told us that if we wanted to fish that we should drive down the frontage road to a parking lot that didn't belong to the zoo. Considering that it was a long walk to the river and it was already past 6:30 we decided to take his advice. We started to park in the closest lot near the zoo but I told Chris I thought the man meant that we should go to the end of the frontage road and that there might be an access. When we got to the end of the frontage road there was nothing but trees but suddenly a man stepped out of the trees with a spinning rod in his hand. I rolled down the window and asked him if there was a place to fish for stripers nearby. He said yes, that the stripers were biting and he was just leaving because he didn't want to be down there late by himself. He offered to take us back down to the river and show us his favorite striper hole! The trail down to the Saluda included a climb over train tracks, down a treacherous embankment and once we were at the river we hopped rocks and waded for quite a ways all the while the sound of rushing water got louder and louder.

When we reached the rushing water we could see the water had the profile that stripers prefer, white water rushing into a pool of deeper water, with a few boulders thrown in to make water breaks for the "rock hounds" to lay behind. Our new friend knew the water well and it didn't take long for him to pick up a couple of average sized stripers. His lead headed jigs with white soft plastics were getting to the bottom while our flys were staying too high in the water column. Our friend wished us luck and went on his way with many thanks from us and we continued to work the water hoping for a bite. As the evening grew later we noticed some splashes in the white water that looked like stripers and it wasn't long before I heard Chris shout and looked up to see him with a bent rod and obviously a very nice fish. Chris had his hands full and his reel even fell off his rod at one point but he managed to bring the striper in, a 26 inch fish. We didn't have a scale to weigh him but according to stripers online, a 26 inch fish is approximately a ten pound fish, below:

[Home] [Information] [News] [Calendar] [Membership] [Fly of the Month] [Officers] [Photo Album][ Article][Tweets][Facebook]