Guide parties with Capt. Barb “Mouse” Witherell of Vance have been loading the boat with nice catches of Arkansas blue catfish.

A week ago last Sunday she caught 36 nice catfish with four 20-pounders, the next day 23 were landed and that Friday another party brought in 17. This past Monday her party caught 15.

“We have not caught any over 25 pounds, but we have caught some nice ones. We usually catch about 10 or so 1-pound size, ‘squeakers,’ that we throw back,” she said.

Most of the catfish are blues from 5 to about 15 or 17 pounds, but every once in a while, she said, she will catch a few small channel catfish.

“One day we caught two 20-pound flatheads, one right behind the other, but mostly we are catching blues,” she said.

Witherell is catching most of the catfish drifting with “butterflied” blueback herring for bait, normally with eight rods out.

“We butterfly the herring on the hook by filleting it halfway up to the gill plate, then hook it back around. It puts more scent in the water that way and it really works pretty good,” she said.

“This is typical summer fishing. Most of the summer we will be drifting. Right now 15 feet seems to be their comfort zone. We’ve been concentrating on the area between Mill Creek Campground and the bridge, drifting across the humps and ridges. There’s an old river levee, an old tram road and an old road under the water there,” she said.

“I’ll be looking for them to be up closer to the bridge in the next couple of weeks and I might go back to flat-lining some then, but right now it’s mostly drifting.”

On Monday Witherell said most of the fish came about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, but normally the prime time is between 6:30 and 9:30 in the morning.

“That’s usually when the fastest action is, but Monday it had been really slow until about 1 and then we picked up seven on one drift,” she said.

She fishes mostly Lake Marion for catfish because the fish seem to be more concentrated than in Moultrie where “they are so scattered. On Lake Marion I know where they are at.”

As the summer progresses, fishing will be slower because of the heat and the catfish will hunker down on the bottom more, she said, but the opportunity is there to catch larger fish.

“In August you might not catch a whole lot of fish, but you can catch some nice fish, sometimes bigger fish, and you can also catch flatheads then. I am not one to go sit down by a stump for a flathead, but you can go stump jumping and end up catching decent flatheads.”

Witherell is the only full-time female guide on the Santee Cooper Lakes. Her husband, Nathan, who is known as “Boudreaux” on the lakes, is now also a full-time licensed guide.

“We went fishing on our honeymoon,” said Witherell, who has been married to “Boudreaux” for 35 years.

To book a catfishing trip with ‘Mouse’ or ‘Boudreaux’, call (803) 492-3381. You can check out their guide service at www.santeecajunguide.com.