Call Captain Dave Broome 803-492-7073

CAPTAIN DAVE BROOME

CATFISH CRAPPIE & BREAM FISHING GUIDE

USCG Licensed Fishing Guide on The Santee Cooper Lakes

Call 803-492-7073 or cell: 803-496-8555 for rate information and available dates.

You can also book your fishing excursion by emailing Capt. Dave at:

Photo by Barbara Morris

Captain Dave Broome has been fishing for over twenty years. He and his wife, Dolores, (photos above) retired and decided to make Rock's Pond Marina & Campground located outside Eutaw Springs on Lake Marion, South Carolina, a second home. The low lake levels have made excellent fishing.

The boat stays in the water and is geared up to go! Captain Dave's vast experience on the Santee Cooper Lakes and his love of fishing promise to provide you with a great adventure.

DON'T FORGET! YOU CAN FISH ALMOST EVERY DAY OR NIGHT IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

THE LAKES ARE LOW. EXCELLENT FISHING!

OUR BOAT IS IN THE WATER GEARED TO GO!

WEATHER HERE IS JUST ABOUT NICER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE.

This was a day they will never forget!

Families are welcome.

Trips are limited to 6 people.

Your children, not requiring a Fishing License fish for free! Visit South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources : Licensing for current licensing fees and apply for your fishing license online or you can purchase one when you get here.

All fishing equipment and supplies are furnished. You supply your own food and drinks.

No alcoholic beverages are allowed.

Tourists look for both a resort and spa when looking for a deal. For those who are occassional vacationers, timeshare property would be the last resort deal they would want.

Recent Articles about Captain Dave

The Charleston Gazette May, 6, 2007

Cross Lanes retiree now ‘Cap’n Dave’ By John McCoy

Dave Broome isn’t your typical 70-year-old.

At an age when most people are content to take it easy, the Cross Lanes retiree waded through the training and paperwork it takes to become a certified South Carolina fishing guide. Now he’s “Cap’n Dave,” and he spends his time helping people catch huge catfish.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Broome, who retired in 1993 from the DuPont plant in Belle. “I’d been out of school a long time, and the instructors threw a lot of information at me in a hurry.

For Broome, becoming a guide scratched an itch he’d had for quite a while.

“I’d thought about it off and on since I retired,” he said. “Last year, I was reading a South Carolina fishing magazine and I saw an ad that said, ‘become a guide.’ I told my wife about it, and she said, ‘Go for it.’”

The schooling turned out to be as taxing physically as it was mentally.

“The classes were at night, 50 miles from my place in Eutawville, so I ended up getting home late every evening. They threw a lot of stuff at us fast — first aid, CPR, boating safety, ‘rules of the road’ and on and on,” Broome recalled.

“I also had to pass a physical exam as well as an extensive background check. It reminded me of when I was in submarine school in 1954. They figure you’re an adult, and if you want to do it you’ll do it.”

Broome did it. He scored high on his exams, and is now certified to navigate all of South Carolina’s river systems between the Atlantic Ocean and Columbia.

Mostly, though, he plies the waters of a virtual inland sea — 110,000-acre Lake Marion, the larger of the two lakes that comprise the Santee-Cooper reservoir complex. And, even though Broome originally moved to the lake to fish for bass, he focuses his guiding efforts on catfish, crappie and bream.

“Most of my clients want to fish for catfish, but I get some dedicated crappie fishermen, too,” he said.

Lake Marion is best known for its blue and flathead catfish, and in the 14 years since his retirement Broome has learned how to catch the really big ones.

“The catfish we catch average between 10 and 20 pounds,” he said. “It’s not unusual to catch fish in the 25- to 30-pound range, and occasionally we’ll hook one that might go 60 or 70.”

Most of the time, Broome drifts along in his pontoon boat or his bass boat, trailing 6- inch cut herring or shad hooked to special bait rigs. Occasionally, when clients want to fish at night, he abandons the lake’s deeper waters and heads for its shoreline.

“I usually anchor the boat off shallow points in 5 feet of water and have my clients cast their baits into the flooded timber, where it’s 2 to 3 feet deep,” he says. “When big catfish get hooked in water that shallow, they go crazy, throwing water all over the place. It’s really exciting.”

Though he’s relatively new to the guiding game, Broome has earned favorable reviews from many of the anglers he’s hosted so far. A couple of them wrote articles in local newspapers, which further bolstered his reputation.

“People are starting to find me on the Web, too,” he said. “I have a Web site, www.sctraveler.com/capndavebroome.htm, and I plan to have a booth at next January’s West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show in Charleston. I think a lot of West Virginians will want to come down and fish with me.”

Broome bases his operation out of the 500-unit Rocks Pond Campground near Eutawville, where he and his wife have lived since moving to South Carolina. “It’s a great place,” he said. “It has a community center, playgrounds for kids, and a pretty sizable chunk of shoreline. The people who run it have been good to me, and now I’m trying to do some good for them by providing guide services.”

The life of a fishing guide tends to be hectic, but Broome believes he’s up to the task.

“People ask me if whether I’m too old to start a new career, but I’m in pretty decent health,” he said. “It’s a great experience — and so far, it’s been a lot of fun.”

To contact staff writer John McCoy, use e-mail or call 348-1231.

Also in the May- June Issue of Lakeside www.santeelakeside.com ~ May 2007 Get out the nets: Guides expect productive season By Eddie Litaker, Staff Writer of LakeSide, Litaker writes: " Whether your Santee Cooper lakes fish of choice is bream, crappie or catfish, you can expect good results in the next few months, local guides say...Capt. Dave Broome, who guides out of Rock's Pond Campground for catfish, crappie and bream, said the crappie are just getting back into the deeper water on brush piles. Pictured below: Mr. Berqvam (left) recently came from the country of Norway to fish the Santee Cooper Lakes with Captain Dave Broome (right).

"That's the way most of the crappie guides fish for them; they have brush piles out there," Broome said. "We use minnows and jigs and, of course, the catfish bait, gosh it varies. (We use) all kinds of things, just according to what your preference is and how you like to do that. Most (of the guides) anymore drift for catfish and that's primarily what I do also. I do set up for them at night, around the cypress trees."

Broome, a West Virginia native who moved to the Santee Cooper Lakes area in 1993, said understanding the differences between catfish, crappie and bream is important to being productive.

"(The three species) all do different things at different times," said Broome. "Starting off with the catfish ... they're still in the shallow water spawning. That doesn't mean that all fish go in there at one time, but they are being caught at night and also late in the evening and early in the morning in the shallow water. As the water heats up more and more and the spawns over with, they'll go back to the deeper water haunts and the channels and so forth and you can catch them in a couple of different ways."

He said for bream fishing, he tries to find them on the beds.

"We usually fish for them on the moon phase, four days before and four days after a full moon," he said. "After that's over with, we fish for them around lily pads and cypress trees and that kind of thing."

To book a fishing trip through Broome's business, David Broome's Guide Service,

call (803) 492-7073 or

(803) 496 - 8555.

POSTED ON CHARLESTONFISHING.COM 1-27-2007 "Well, Today had to be one of the best days I had fishing in quite some time. Me and my girlfriend got to experience Lake Marion from a Pontoon boat vs. my Jon Boat and used a Guide (Captain Dave Broome). He also let me bring my GPS with me, how cool is that. We have made several attempts to fish outta Rocks Pond in my Jon boat, but 80% of the time we would go, the Weather Would be totally opposite of what was predicted. And the 20% we could go, I couldn't catch any catfish. We decided to take a guided catfishing trip and learn what I was doing wrong. Man, I was doing everything wrong. I didn't realize what detail was involved in Catfishing, cutting the bait right, drift rigs, water temp, channels, ledges, baitfish, drift socks, unbelievable. I just thought I knew what I was doing. I thought pulling a shinner or using stink bait was good enough, WRONG.

I took a shot in the dark and asked him if he would take us around the lake behind Sixteen Island and Church Island and show me safe ways to Navigate the Lake. He was more than willing. It was so Cool, we got to go and See some Confederate Soldiers Graves.. He took us to a place called Clear Lake, a cool place to get out of any weather (except Rain) and fish for Bass and Crappie, but it is especially known for bass. He Took us too some Hot and Heavy Breeding Grounds for Crappie.. Showed us how to navigate all around the Islands with out ever going into the main body of water.. Anyway, I felt he deserved a plug in.

Me and Girlfriend Agree that he was by far one of the best Guides we have ever used based on our Experience. From his Mannerism, to his Knowledge.. This guy is an A+ in our book. We will use him again. If you ever need a Guide or want to make a Friend and truly want to learn more than just how to catch fish. I highly recommend Captain Dave Broome. Our Trip was definitely "PRICELESS"

Zivetor

Captain Dave was at the WV Trophy Hunters Association Show, January 25,26,and 27, 2008.

The West Virginia Trophy Hunters are a non-profit (IRS 501C-4) organization dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and the preservation of hunting and hunters rights. They are all avid hunters and fishermen and professionals in their individual fields of endeavor. Each year in January they present the West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show^SM at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia. All proceeds except for costs to run the show and club operating expenses, are donated to programs that promote or protect hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation, and related educational activities. For information about the Hunting and Fishing Show visit: http://www.wvtrophyhunters.com/

$100.00 deposit required to hold your day.