Decided to try Santee lakes yesterday morning. Almost didn't make it..wife wanted to tag along but is 7 1/2 months pregnant so the mornings are rough on her. After getting a late start we made it to the lake after 7:30am. It was a cold morning so I was hoping the fish wouldn't be active that early and would move around when it started to warm up. A buddy met us out there and had set up on a spot but I wasn't feeling it..had an itch to try a different spot on that lake and glad it did. I rigged up and tossed my pole in and while I was rigging up my wifes pole my bell went off..grabbed my rod set the hook and from the splash I could tell it was a good size. At that moment I realized I forgot my net. When it got closer I could tell it was a hawg..I didnt want to try and muscle him on to shore in fear of my line breaking or hook coming out. I was able to pin it against the bank and grab it by the gills and pull it out. It was my PB rainbow trout to date..weighed in at 3.77lbs 21". I was excited but it got slow and thought that I got the first cast fish curse and wasn't going to catch another one..around 10am I realized my powerbait had come off my hook so I put more on, tossed back out and 2 min later my bell went off and brought in another one just under 3lbs. 40 mins later I caught another toad at 3.5lbs. My buddies were tossing nearby by but weren't catching them. I told them to toss when I was. I decided to go clean the 3 I had and tossed my pole in since my buddies were still there. As I'm cleaning my bell goes off..I hooked up on another 3.5 pounder. All fish had swallowed the hooks so there was no tossing them back. Have some room in the freezer so gutted them on site and brought them home to fillet and prep for cooking. Came home with 4 fish..needless to say it was a great day at the lake..haven't had a day like that in a few years.
