Our South Carolina trip and the wife's new PB

[bluebasser86]

The wife and I spent last week on a private lake, Lake Hampton, in South Carolina with a friend that lives there. The lake is awesome and it has Tiger Bass in it. They look just like largemouth but are more aggressive and grow twice as fast. We didn't catch any of the monsters that have come from the lake but more 3 and 4 pounders than a person should be allowed to catch in a week. There isn't a spot on the lake that doesn't look fishy. This is the view from Jack's backyard, I don't know how he ever gets anything done around the house.

His customized pontoon with a livewell, down imaging on the front and back, 70lb trolling motor with remote control is what we fished out of. I liked their docks on the lake, they're built into the bank instead of being built out into the lake. Lots of fish where pulled from the dock stalls while we were there.

Arrowhead plants lined the banks everywhere along with cattails and various other kinds of vegetation. Lots of bass came shooting out of these weeds to destroy my frog.

I caught more frog fish last week than the rest of my life combined no doubt.
A few of these bridges cross over the lake. Nicole caught a lot of her fish out from under the bridges.

Where do you start when all the banks around you look like this?

Nicole caught a 3 pounder that threw up a foot long eel

so I put on a Yum Mightee worm and caught this fish my first cast.

The last day I got onto them good with a 5" Optimum line through swimbait.

Sight fished this one and the next with the swimbait, awesome.


Nicole and I with our two biggest the last day. Her was her new PB, which beat her previous PB that she'd caught 2 days prior. She caught it on a 5" black blue flake BPS stick O, wacky rigged, which is what she caught all of her bass on. It weighed 4.58 pounds and was the biggest fish of our trip. Probably would have been almost 5 but it threw up an eel that was probably 14" long while she was fighting her.

My biggest was 4.51 pounds and was the very first fish of the trip for me, it ate one of my home made brush jigs under an overhanging tree.

Trip was an absolute blast and Jack and his wife are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. You know it was a good trip when you have bass palm!

[bamabassman]

W-O-W !!! those are great !!! congrats to oyur lovely wife !! keep em coming man.

[Tavery5]

Nice fish, I lived in SC for about 8 years, it was probably the best time of my life. I sure miss it sometimes.

Congrats to the Wife, nice fish!!!!

[keithdog]

I really enjoyed reading about all the pics. Nice photos and nice fish! Congrats to your wife for her PB. That's also a beautiful looking lake. The Optimum swim bait is one I havn't used yet. What's your opinion on those lures? Is the line through system convenient to use?

[bluebasser86]

Originally Posted by keithdog

I really enjoyed reading about all the pics. Nice photos and nice fish! Congrats to your wife for her PB. That's also a beautiful looking lake. The Optimum swim bait is one I havn't used yet. What's your opinion on those lures? Is the line through system convenient to use?

Honestly I didn't like the swimming action of them when I first used them. They tend to swim nose up, tail down. Apparently the fish don't seem to care. They are more durable than most swimbaits because the body slides away from the fish once it's hooked. This also keeps the fish from getting leverage to throw the bait once they're hooked. They're also pretty heavy so they cast pretty well. The hook they come with sucks though so I'd suggest using a different hook than what they come with.

[Jrob78]

Great report! That place is beautiful.

[bcklash]

Awesome place

[WatterBoy]

Amazing pics, fantastic fish and a great report! Congrats to Nicole on her new PB and glad you guys had a great trip.

[Bassboss]

Fantastic trip blue! Looks like you got em pinned down real well out there!

[kennethdaysale]

I've never been one to waste much time on daydreaming or fruitless yearning. However I'll admit that owning a place like that (and I mean own completely...not a lot or a house...but the whole thing) or Bienville in Fla or Kingfisher Society in N.C. would make me extremely happy.

What do all these places have in common? Southern latitudes. A common gearhead expression is "there's no replacement for displacement". In bass fishing I don't think there's such a thing as "too far south".

[BigBassin144]

Some very nice fish! Looks like you had a great time.

BB

[woody]

Nice fish!


-Mark