These catfishing trips (pictured above) that recently went out of Black's Camp had some good catches and a really good time!
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.
The Charleston Gazette May, 6, 2007
Cross Lanes retiree now ‘Cap’n Dave’ By John McCoy
A recent catch with Capt. Dave |
“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, Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, 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 16 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 trailing 6- inch cut herring or shad hooked to special bait rigs. His 24 foot tri-toon pontoon boat has a porta potty and full heated enclosure for cold weather comfort. His 20 foot long, eight feet wide Jon-boat is also geared up to go! 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 Eutawville, where he and his wife have lived since moving to South Carolina. 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.
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