Clarendon County, SC’s Annual Striped Bass Festival is Worth Checking Out
TOWN MOTTO: “I caught it in Clarendon County.” POPULATION: Approximately 32,502. FACTOID: The county is home to the first population...
TOWN MOTTO: “I caught it in Clarendon County.”
POPULATION: Approximately 32,502.
FACTOID: The county is home to the first population of landlocked striped bass in the United States.
LOCAL PRIDE: The 58-pound world-record channel catfish was caught in Clarendon’s own Santee-Cooper Reservoir.
APRIL ATTRACTION: The Striped Bass Festival.
WHAT IT IS: Started in 1979, the annual weeklong event is the local “salute to the striped bass, which put Clarendon County on the fishing maps of the world.”
WHEN IT IS: April 22–30.
EVENTS: A parade, fireworks, celebrity catfish wrestling, and the striped bass beauty pageant.
WORD ON THE STREET: “We had the beard contest at last year’s festival, but not for this year,” says festival chairman Lamar Kennedy. “We can’t get everyone to grow a beard every year.”