We should never take the health of our lakes, rivers, oceans and other natural resources for granted. In fact, there’s even a standing US record 135 pound Flathead Catfish from Santee Cooper Lake that was caught by Tommy Fredricks.Īmerica: Home of the Fish, Landed By the Brave Many state records have come from within a few miles of the dock where I spent much of my childhood. My folks still have their home on Santee Cooper Lake, which is now regarded as one of the best fishing lakes in America for a wide range of prized fish, like large mouth bass, striped bass and catfish. If we cleaned ’em, our mom would reward us with a fish fry for dinner with a vine-ripened watermelon or figs straight from the tree for dessert. By day, we’d reel in more fish: large mouth bass, blue gills and perch. When you’re a kid, landing a catfish that size makes you feel like you just single-handedly took down the Great White Shark from the Jaws movies. On many nights, it wasn’t unusual to come away with a bucket full of bluegills and a 10+ pound catfish. We’d spend most nights on the dock with friends telling tall tales about the huge fish we’d recently caught or nearby alligator and water moccasin sightings-all the while keeping a close eye on the tips of our rods as we waited for the first signs of a fish bite. The only thing that would bring my brother and our friends off the water was food, exhaustion or the occasional summer thunderstorm. As far as I know, this was the first and only cat fish-powered tubing event on Lake Marion. The catfish pulled me around the channel in front of our dock for about 15 minutes before it finally exhausted itself enough for me to swim it back to shore. One of my favorite lake memories was landing a 12 pound catfish while “trolling” from my inflatable raft when I was ten years old. Photo: Backyard sunset over Lake Santee Cooper from our family’s lakehouse. While I have no recollection of them purchasing the house, I do have countless childhood memories of the lake.ĭuring the summer, my brother and I would spend almost all day on the water swimming and fishing with our friends, riding jet skis or cruising around in the family pontoon boat. When I was two years old, my parents bought a small lake house on Santee Cooper Lake in South Carolina (part of Lake Marion). A Childhood On the Water: Fishing, Boating & Having Fun
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