Lake Murray Fishing Guides and Conditions, South Carolina

About the Lake Murray

Lake Murray was built in the 1920s to power the Midlands, and for a while the dam that made it was the largest earthen dam in the world. What matters to anglers is what happened afterwards: striped bass became landlocked in the Santee Cooper system and then in Murray, adapted to living out their lives in fresh water, and turned this lake into one of the founding grounds of American freshwater striper fishing.

Stripers are still the headline. They roam the open water following blueback herring and shad, and the standard approach is to cover water with planer boards and free lines in the cool months and to fish downlines over deep, oxygenated water in summer. In late summer the fish get squeezed into a narrow layer between water that is too warm above and too low in oxygen below, which concentrates them and makes them findable, but also makes careful handling and quick release important if you intend to let one go.

Largemouth fishing is good and considerably less crowded, built around boat docks, brush and the points at the mouths of the creeks. Crappie fishing over brush is excellent in the cold months, and white perch are abundant enough to be a nuisance and good enough to be worth keeping.

The gauge below reports both surface elevation and water temperature, which is an unusually complete picture for a reservoir. Murray runs a winter drawdown and refills in spring, and the temperature reading is genuinely useful here because it tells you which striper pattern you are walking into before you leave the house.

Access

Dreher Island State Park: ramps, camping and cabins on the mid-lake islands.
Dam and Lake Murray Public Park: access at the eastern end near Columbia.
Bundrick Island and Shull Island landings: public ramps on the north shore.
Billy Dreher and Higgins Bridge: mid-lake access to the deeper water.
Saluda River arm: the upper end, shallower and more stained.
Marinas near Chapin, Lexington and Ballentine: fuel, slips and guides.
Note: the lake is large and open. Wind builds a real chop across the middle.

Seasons

Winter: stripers shallow and roaming, and the best crappie fishing of the year.
Spring: fish follow herring into the creeks, and largemouth spawn on the docks and flats.
Summer: stripers deep on downlines in the oxygenated layer, early mornings only.
Fall: schooling stripers busting bait on the surface, the most exciting weeks of the year.