Lake Murray named one of nation’s top fishing spots for Memorial Day weekend. Here’s why

Bristow Marchant
·1 min read
Pine Island was designed as a private retreat for SCE&G employees when Lake Murray was created. The island has been recently given to the state of South Carolina as part of a settlement. Nearby neighbors are concerned that if the island becomes a state park, the road leading to the island will become clogged with traffic.

An online marketplace labeled the Airbnb of fishing charters has named Lake Murray one of the nation’s best fishing spots ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

The website FishingBooker ranked the Midlands’ biggest lake as one of the top 10 fishing destinations in the country in a pre-holiday list posted to its site.

“Come Memorial Day weekend, you can find guides to take you out on the water or cast from shore, as you go in pursuit of fun and delicious species,” FishingBooker says. “We’re talking Bluegill, Crappie, Trout, and Largemouth Bass.”

Lake Murray is the only location to make FishingBooker’s Memorial Day list two years in a row, where it shares space with St. Augustine, the Finger Lakes of New York and Parker Canyon Lake on the Arizona-Mexico border. That may be because, as the blog post points out, South Carolina does not require a fishing license on the first holiday weekend of summer.

The fishing site notes some other South Carolina affinities alongside the aquatic wildlife.

“Head out from some of the remote marinas in the west of the lake, explore Dreher Island State Park near the center, or visit on a day trip from nearby Columbia,” the site says. “It all depends on how much time you want to spend fishing.”

FishingBooker is a site that connects anglers with fishing guides around the world to find the most scenic and productive fishing trips. It’s been called the charter fishing equivalent of Airbnb, the online site for coordinating homestays and vacation rentals, by Outside magazine.