After a disappointing finish at the second Bassmaster Elite Series event of the year, it felt good to make the cut at last week’s Lake Murray event and leave with a 26th-place finish.
I was comfortable; I was catching fish the way I like to catch them. It was a good-feeling tournament, and it put a pep in my step, for sure.
My Lake Murray strategy involved a mix of techniques including soft jerkbaits, topwaters, Carolina rigs and sight fishing. I love to sight fish for them, but I also like running schooling fish, so the blueback herring made that a lot of fun.
This week’s tournament on Santee Cooper Lakes will be a complete start over. I think we might be hitting this one about a week late, but it’s still a strong fishery and I’m looking forward to another great event.
Last year, we fished Santee earlier in the year, so there were more big fish shallow. This time, we’re probably looking at more of a postspawn scenario where there’s just not as much of that shallow bite.
Still, Santee Cooper Lakes have a lot of big fish and the eventual winner is going to have an opportunity to catch a giant bag. It’s just not going to be stacked like it was last year.
In a situation like this, I try to go with what I consider the most consistent way of catching a 12-pound bag. I’m not trying to blow this thing away; I’m not trying to find a 25-pound bag.
I’m trying to find enough areas where I can catch some good males in hopes that, while I’m doing that, I’m going to catch one or two big ones throughout the day. Hopefully that will bump me up to what I need.
As far as how that might play out, there are two ways to possibly do well. One is to buckle down in an area and try to get a good bag. The other is to bounce around and kind of junk fish.
Maybe you hit a shad spawn first thing in the morning and hopefully get a bite or two. Maybe you pick up a sight fish or two and then finish the day off by flipping or pitching main lake trees.
I’m leaning more toward the junk fishing pattern, so hopefully I’ll have a couple of opportunities to catch a fish doing a lot of those things. But if I had my preference, I’d prefer to stay put in an area.
Lake Okeechobee where I grew up fishes this way, where you grind it out in an area and at the end of the day, you get a big bag. To be honest, I’d rather do that.
There’s always opportunities and you have to keep your head on a swivel based on the wind, the weather, sun, clouds and all these different things. If there’s an opportunity to pick up an extra fish or two, great, but I really don’t prefer to run around the whole tournament.
It might just be necessary.
