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Lake Marion Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Santee-Cooper's upper lake: flooded cypress, landlocked striper history and catfish of legend.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Lake level
74.12 ft -2.68 vs pool
Air / High
72 / 72 F
Wind
NE 11 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 02169921, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Marion sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The gauge reads 74.12 ft, 2.68 ft below pool, up 0.61 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 11 mph, steady pressure near 1022 hPa and a high of 72. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:57 AM-11:57 AM and 10:24 PM-12:24 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Striped bassExcellent

Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 73 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

South Carolina requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $10.00 for residents. What a South Carolina licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with SCDNR before you keep anything. The season dates for South Carolina, read off the agency, are on the South Carolina seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from LAKE MARION NEAR ELLOREE, SC.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 02169921. Conservation pool is 76.8 ft.

73.4674.7876.09pool 76.874.12 ft09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp72 F
High / Low72 / 45 F
WindNE 11-16 mph
Pressure1021.9 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:32 / 18:38
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Marion this week

The best day on Lake Marion this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:57 AM-11:57 AM and 10:24 PM-12:24 AM
Minor period
4:18 AM-5:18 AM
Sun
07:32 to 18:38
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 11 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Marion: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Striped bass illustration

Striped bass

Best: spring and fall inland; on the coast, during the seasonal migrations

The largest of the temperate basses, a sea-run fish of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that now also lives in reservoirs across much of the country after hatchery stocking. Inland, it follows schools of shad and herring through open water. Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

When to come: the Lake Marion calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Striped bass
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Marion today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 74 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 76 F, wind to 9 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 78 F, wind to 9 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

South Carolina requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Blue cat: 1 over 36 inches/day; liberal otherwise. Bass 14-inch/5. Confirm with SCDNR.

Access

Santee SP, John C. Land, Pack's Landing; swamp guides out of Eutawville.

About this water

110,000 acres on the Santee, five SC counties. Santee Cooper project, impounded 1941.

Fishing Lake Marion: the full guide

The swamp cathedral

Marion is the upper half of Santee-Cooper: 110,000 acres of flooded cypress and swamp where landlocked stripers were first discovered, blue and flathead catfish reach mythic sizes, and largemouth live among the trees like it is the 1950s. Fishing guides here still pole wooden boats through timber their grandfathers named.

Fishing the swamp edges

Marion's upper end blurs into flooded cypress swamp: bass and crappie live among the trees and eel grass, fished with jigs, swim jigs and long poles. Navigation lanes matter: the stump fields are real: idle first, fish second.

Catfish of legend

Santee-Cooper built American catfishing: Arkansas blues stocked in the 60s became a strain of giants: 80-100 lb fish still come yearly, drifted or anchored over the channel edges with fresh shad and white perch. Winter is the trophy drift; summer nights anchor the eaters.

Common questions

Are the catfish still giant?

Yes: the genetics and forage remain: 60-plus fish weekly in season. The record chases moved to Virginia's Kerr, but Marion's numbers-of-giants remains unmatched.

How risky is the stump navigation?

Real but managed: marked lanes cover the main routes: straying at speed is how lower units die. First trips ride with someone who knows: everyone did.

Swamp-line specialists

Marion's upper end dissolves into flooded cypress swamp, and its specialists fish it like a delta: jon boats easing through the trees for slab crappie on jigs, bowfin crashing spinnerbaits meant for bass, and the mythic swamp largemouth that eat frogs in July shade. The Santee swamp is the East's most atmospheric bass water: Spanish moss, gators, and giants.

Is fishing good at Lake Marion right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Lake Moultrie22 miSantee River32 miCharleston54 miSaluda River55 miLake Wateree66 miLake Murray71 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 02169921 β€” LAKE MARION NEAR ELLOREE, SC
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 18:15 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 33.4612, -80.3849 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.