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Home › Waters › South Carolina › Congaree River
River · Midlands · South Carolina

Congaree River Fishing Guides

Formed where the Broad and Saluda meet in downtown Columbia, a wide shoal-and-sandbar river running past Congaree National Park with striped bass and very large catfish.

Whitewater dropping through a boulder-strewn Appalachian stream
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Congaree River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Congaree River

The Congaree begins in downtown Columbia where the Broad River and the Saluda River join, and it runs about fifty miles southeast to meet the Wateree and form the Santee. Below the city it is a wide, shallow river of rock shoals, sand bars and long sweeping bends, bordered for much of its length by the old-growth bottomland hardwood forest of Congaree National Park. Within a mile of the confluence you go from an urban riverfront to a river that looks essentially wild.

Striped bass are the signature fish and Columbia is one of the few cities where you can catch them in sight of downtown. They hold in the cool water below the Saluda confluence through the summer, which is unusual this far south and is a direct result of the cold releases from Lake Murray. Largemouth bass work the shoals and the woody cover, redbreast sunfish are excellent in the shoal water, and catfish are the other headline: channel, flathead and increasingly large blue catfish all use the deeper bends. Bowfin and gar round out a genuinely diverse warmwater fishery.

The Columbia gauge is the reference. Moderate readings expose the shoals, make the rock fishable and give good wading and kayak conditions in the reach below the city. High water after a heavy Midlands rain or a big release upstream covers the shoals, colors the river and moves fish to the banks. Very low water makes the shoals a navigation problem for anything with a propeller and turns the upper reach into a wading and paddling fishery.

Columbia covers everything, with the Three Rivers Greenway on the bank. Downstream, Congaree National Park and the Bates Bridge area give access to the wild reaches.

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  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Congaree River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Congaree River cfs

Now: 3,530 cfs, read 3:00 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 02169500, CONGAREE RIVER AT COLUMBIA, SC).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Columbia riverfront and the Three Rivers Greenway: urban access at the confluence.
West Columbia and the Congaree shoals: wading and kayak water below the city.
Rosewood and Cayce landings: city-area ramps.
Congaree National Park and Cedar Creek: paddling access into the bottomland forest.
Bates Bridge: the main lower-river ramp.
Wateree confluence: the bottom end where the Santee forms.
Saluda and Broad rivers: the two cold and warm feeders at the top.

Seasons

Spring: striped bass at their most active and high, colored water.
Summer: cool releases from Lake Murray hold stripers below the confluence; shoal fishing at dawn.
Fall: falling water, excellent catfish and bass fishing, comfortable weather.
Winter: low clear water, big blue catfish and very little pressure.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Congaree River?

As of Oct 19, 3:00 am, the USGS gauge CONGAREE RIVER AT COLUMBIA, SC reads 3,530 cfs, the 39th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Congaree River?

Anglers target Blue Catfish, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, Redbreast Sunfish, Striped Bass on the Congaree River in South Carolina.

Are there fishing guides on the Congaree River?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Congaree River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Congaree River?

Columbia riverfront and the Three Rivers Greenway: urban access at the confluence. West Columbia and the Congaree shoals: wading and kayak water below the city. Rosewood and Cayce landings: city-area ramps. Congaree National Park and Cedar Creek: paddling access into the bottomland forest. Bates Bridge: the main lower-river ramp. Wateree confluence: the bottom end where the Santee forms. Saluda and Broad rivers: the two cold and warm feeders at the top.

When is the best time to fish the Congaree River?

Spring: striped bass at their most active and high, colored water. Summer: cool releases from Lake Murray hold stripers below the confluence; shoal fishing at dawn. Fall: falling water, excellent catfish and bass fishing, comfortable weather. Winter: low clear water, big blue catfish and very little pressure.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Congaree River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the South Carolina agency site: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/regs/fishing.html