Getting away from the bass fishing crowd may not be as distant as you think. The Santee River, below the Wilson Dam impounding Lake Marion, snakes through the coastal plain as it courses toward the confluence with the Atlantic Ocean near McClellanville, SC.

Along the way, bass fishermen can fish amazing bass habitat and have opportunities to catch largemouth bass in big numbers and trophy sizes.

Professional tournament fisherman and bass fishing guide out of Blacks Camp, Kyle Austin said by June the fishing in the Santee River is outstanding. By comparison, the fishing pressure is significantly less than on the Cooper River, the river below the Pinopolis Dam impounding Lake Moultrie.

“I see much less fishing pressure on the Santee River,” Austin said. “One reason is that during parts of the year, usually late-winter and early spring, a tremendous amount of water is often released upstream, making the river high and difficult to fish. When the river floods, bass can literally get so far from the main river that fishermen can’t reach them.

“A second reason is lack of many access ramps that can handle a lot of boats and trailers,” he said. “But it’s worth the effort to fish the Santee River.”

Austin (843-209-3726) said the river is tide-influenced and he’ll plan his trips around the tides. He strongly prefers the outgoing tide because it positions baitfish in places that attract bass to fishable targets.

“When the tide is high, water can get back into almost impenetrable cover and the baitfish and bass follow,” he said. “My favorite tide, and the one that consistently produces best, is an outgoing tide as it approaches the low. Bass load up on the edges along the river and we can effectively target them.”

Austin said several factors strongly impact success, and where anglers need to fish. At the top of his list are eddy currents.

“Bass are going to be around eddies and when working any area, I’m watching the current flow and always fishing the eddy side of a target,” he said. “Most of the time I’ll be working shallow cover along the shoreline. Small points and pockets will create these eddy situations.”

He said the mouths of small creeks or ditches that intersect the river are prime targets.

Because of the nature of the fishing and heavy cover, topwater lures are a great lure choice.

“Buzzbaits are excellent, as are Pop R’s and stickbaits,” he said. “Creature lures on Texas rigs are productive. And weightless flukes are a prime option when I see fish surface schooling on shad. When working topwater lures, I try to replicate shad or bream patterns.”

Austin said casting accuracy is essential because above average-sized bass will lurk in tight places. And the biggest fish will be in small slots or behind woody cover requiring precision accuracy.

He said banks that drop into slightly deeper water than surrounding areas, can be excellent anytime, but especially on the low end of a tide.

“The outside bends of the river are good areas to find the slightly deeper-water situation. And multiple fish may concentrate into a small area,” he said. “It’s not unusual to catch several bass along a small stretch of shoreline where forage has stacked up. But when the forage-fish pattern changes, the action slows. And as the tide drops or rises, the current-flow situation is constantly changing. So bass-fishing patterns are always a moving target.

“But payback is high because when I get on the right pattern, the fishing is awesome,” he said.

Austin said because of the current flow and tidal influence, time of day is not always a huge factor. Still, he prefers to be on the river at first light, just in case the best bite is early.

“The Santee River is full of bass, and plenty of quality fish too,” Austin said. “It’s a resource that takes a bit of time to learn. But it’s well worth the effort.”

Austin said the current, eddies, water level and an inordinate amount of woody cover can all combine to confuse an angler working out a pattern.

“Analyze, but don’t overthink, the situation,” Austin said. “You’ve got to work out the patterns of course. But the bottom line is, bass just want to eat. So put your lure on his table and you’re in business.”

Several access points exist along the river. A Google search provides information on locations and facilities available. Or book Kyle Austin and learn to fish it first-hand.

Fishing a tidal river like the Santee River offers challenges over lake fishing, but the rewards in terms of getting away from the crowd, and in catching numerous fish, including trophies, is worth it.

South Carolina’s state-owned utility company and the electric cooperatives it serves are feuding over the power bill for a long-time Google data center in the Lowcountry.

At stake in the business dispute is between $16 million and $24 million annually, according to lawyers for the two utility groups.

The cooperatives say that’s a savings that could be divided out among all of their roughly 2 million customers statewide to reduce their power bills. Santee Cooper argues it’s a cost that could increase the power bill of their 200,000 direct customers, located in Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties.

The question is over which group of customers pays, who saves and how the state-owned utility’s financials are impacted.

“This $16 million or $44 million over a couple of years is a big issue because it matters to the people at the end of the line,” said Central Electric Power Cooperative CEO Rob Hochstetler, whose organization negotiates rates and supplies power on behalf of cooperatives statewide.

The disagreement, discussed at a joint meeting held Friday in West Columbia, came about as cooperatives had sought to use a provision in the long-term contract it holds with Santee Cooper that gives the cooperatives the option to buy power for a lower rate for large industrial users — in this case a Google data center in Berkeley County that has been in operation since 2007.

But Santee Cooper says the size of that data center — which uses upwards of 380 megawatts of power — is too large and the rate reduction will cost the power company too much money, creating a “grossly unfair and unjust burden” to Santee Cooper and its customers. By comparison, all of Santee Cooper’s current industrial customers use about 379 megawatts in total, attorney Carmen Thomas said.

Instead, Santee Cooper wants the cooperatives to renegotiate new terms rather than using those included in the existing contract.

“What that really amounts to is saying, ‘You guys need to take something less than your contract entitles you to,’ ” said Alex Hall, the attorney for the cooperatives. “Not liking the implications of a counterparty exercising his contractual rights is not a valid reason for refusal. That’s not how contracts work.”

While the data center may use a lot of power, it had already paid the cost of the power lines it required. Plus, the $16 million to $24 million in question only amounts to about 1% of Santee Cooper’s $1.9 billion in total operating revenue.

Besides, Santee Cooper and cooperatives already reached an agreement on the matter back in January. Santee Cooper had already agreed, Hall said.

The cooperatives held off on signing as the two groups continued to negotiate other matters related to charges racked up during a court-mandated Santee Cooper rate freeze that recently expired. But had they not waited, Berl Davis Jr. of Palmetto Electric Cooperative said, the issue would not have been up for argument now.

Thomas said Santee Cooper considered those previous documents to be draft agreements, not final.

She also argued the cooperatives’ right to a reduced rate “is not unilateral,” saying the provisions for this particular type of rate allow Santee Cooper to negotiate when it comes to “large and unusual loads.”

“That right does not exist in a vacuum,” she said.

Hochstetler and Santee Cooper President Jimmy Stanton closed the meeting with mutual vows to resolve the contract dispute in the coming months.

While the Berkeley County data center has been around for nearly two decades, such centers have dominated the conversation around energy needs in South Carolina as the state has grappled with how to meet the power demand of a growing population and manufacturing based, in addition to the new centers being built by tech giants such as Google, Meta and Blox.

Santee Cooper’s governing board, last month, even enacted a new rate meant to ensure energy-intensive data centers, built to serve the country’s ever-growing technology needs, are covering the cost of generating the massive amount of power they require.

The “experimental” rate will be in place for the next four years, testing it out before considering whether to make the policy permanent.

But that rate for new customers doesn’t apply to the 18-year-old Google data center.

Under Santee Cooper’s new rate, large users will be charged at a rate similar to Santee Cooper’s existing industrial users. The difference is those customers must sign a 15-year contract, one they can’t get out of without paying a set minimum. The utility also will charge more for power used at times of day when demand for energy is at its highest.