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Lake Moultrie Fishing Report

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

Lake Moultrie: the 60,400-acre lower lake of the Santee Cooper system in Berkeley County, owned and managed by Santee Cooper.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Lake level
74.01 ft -1.59 vs pool
Air / High
70 / 71 F
Wind
NE 10 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 02172000, 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 Moultrie lines up a genuinely fishable day across the board. The gauge reads 74.01 ft, 1.59 ft below pool, up 0.89 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 10 mph, steady pressure near 1022 hPa and a high of 71. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:55 AM-11:55 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 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.

Tomorrow: Similar at 74 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 MOULTRIE NEAR PINOPOLIS, SC.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 02172000. Conservation pool is 75.6 ft.

73.1574.1175.08pool 75.674.01 ft09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp70 F
High / Low71 / 45 F
WindNE 10-15 mph
Pressure1021.8 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:31 / 18:37
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 Moultrie this week

The best day on Lake Moultrie 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
9:55 AM-11:55 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 AM
Minor period
4:16 AM-5:16 AM
Sun
07:31 to 18:37
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 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 Moultrie: 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.

When to come: the Lake Moultrie 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)
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 Moultrie today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 72 F, wind to 8 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 73 F, wind to 8 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 76 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

You need a South Carolina fishing license. SCDNR limits (eRegulations, updated Aug. 5, 2026): blue catfish 25 a day on Lake Moultrie, with no more than 2 over 32 inches (Act No. 120, effective May 15, 2026); largemouth bass 14-inch minimum and no more than 5 black bass a day; crappie 8-inch minimum and 20 a day; bream 30 a day. Striped bass have their own seasons and size rules in the Santee Cooper system: read SCDNR's striped, white and hybrid bass table before keeping one. Trotlines, traps and eel pots may not be set within 200 yards of any permanent man-made structure on the lake or anywhere in the Diversion Canal or Tailrace Canal.

Access

Santee Cooper owns and manages the lake. The Diversion Canal links it to Lake Marion, and the boat lock at Pinopolis Dam passes boats to the Tailrace Canal (SCDNR).

About this water

60,400 acres (SCDNR) in Berkeley County, SC: the lower Santee Cooper lake, about 75 feet at its deepest. USGS gauge 02172000 near Pinopolis reports the lake level.

Fishing Lake Moultrie: the full guide

Lake facts

SCDNR lists Lake Moultrie as the third largest lake in South Carolina, at 60,400 acres, lying entirely in Berkeley County. It is the smaller of the two coastal-plain impoundments that make up the Santee Cooper reservoir, with about 210 miles of shoreline and an average depth of 18.7 feet. Away from shore the open water mostly runs 10 to 30 feet deep over humps and contour breaks; the lake is 14 miles across at its widest, and a marked navigation channel runs from Pinopolis Dam to the Diversion Canal.

Stumps and the Hatchery section

Most of the basin was cleared of timber before it flooded, but SCDNR warns that many submerged stumps remain along the gently sloping shorelines, so run slowly in shallow water. Aquatic plants grow in the backwater sloughs and in the 900-acre Hatchery section, where the remains of an old dike shelter vegetation that holds largemouth bass, pickerel and bream.

A striped bass first

According to SCDNR, the closure of the Lake Marion dam in 1941 trapped a founding population of striped bass, and studies of it first showed that the species can complete its life cycle entirely in fresh water. Blue and flathead catfish were introduced into the system in the mid-1960s, and SCDNR says largemouth bass and shellcracker fisheries also draw anglers each spring. Since 1985 most of the Santee flow has been re-diverted through a Corps canal and hydroelectric dam near St. Stephen, whose fish lift passes American shad and blueback herring upstream.

Common questions

How big is Lake Moultrie?

SCDNR lists 60,400 surface acres, 210 miles of shoreline, an average depth of 18.7 feet and a maximum depth of about 75 feet.

What is the blue catfish limit on Lake Moultrie?

25 blue catfish a day, and no more than two of them longer than 32 inches. The rule took effect on May 15, 2026 and also covers Lake Marion and the upper Santee River.

Is Lake Moultrie hard to navigate?

Open water is mostly clear of hazards, but SCDNR warns of submerged stumps on the shallow shorelines. A marked channel runs from Pinopolis Dam to the Diversion Canal.

Is fishing good at Lake Moultrie 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

Santee River12 miLake Marion22 miCharleston37 miMurrells Inlet61 miMyrtle Beach72 miSaluda River76 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 02172000 β€” LAKE MOULTRIE NEAR PINOPOLIS, SC
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 18:45 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 33.3105, -80.0536 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.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 8, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
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 text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 8, 2026; anything that could not be verified was 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.