Catfish & Carp in South Carolina

South Carolina splits its fishing between two worlds. Inland, the Upstate lakes and the legendary Santee Cooper system grow trophy striped bass, largemouth, and catfish. On the coast, the Lowcountry's tidal creeks and marsh flats around Charleston and Hilton Head hold redfish, speckled trout, and flounder, with the open Atlantic beyond. Barrier islands, winding estuaries, and big river systems stitch it all together, and guides work every seam of it.

The coast is where most visitors start. Inshore captains run the twisting Lowcountry waterways out of Georgetown, Beaufort, and Edisto Beach, poling flats and drifting creek mouths for fish that live where fresh water meets salt. Offshore, boats out of Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head run to the reefs and beyond for king mackerel, mahi-mahi, and wahoo, plus snapper and grouper over the bottom structure. Pick your water; there's a boat for it.

Inland, the freshwater guides have plenty to work with. Santee Cooper, Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie together, carries a national reputation for striped bass, largemouth, and catfish that get genuinely large. Lake Murray adds its own striper fishery; Lake Hartwell produces largemouth and spotted bass. Guides fish these lakes with live bait, artificials, whatever the day demands, on waters that steady fisheries management has kept honest for decades.