Lake: Santee Cooper
Water Temps; 63 – 66 Degrees
Weather Conditions: Cloudy
Wind speed: 10 – 12 MPH ENE
Here was my day two video from the Bassmaster Open on Santee Cooper lakes in South Carolina. This was my first time coming to the lake and I had a lot to learn in a little bit of time. I focused my intentions on fish coming to the bank to spawn. With a warmer day one of the tournament I knew fish would be pushing up. Day one I had a plan to fish up lake in an area called Cantey Bay and possibly run back down lake to fish main lake creeks that I could visually see spawning fish in practice. I spent my morning in the Cantey Bay area day one and was able to get a small limit in the boat but with a shorter day being an early boat number I made the decision to run down lake and check my bedding fish. I went through a pocket near the Eutaw Springs section of the lake and was able to make a quick cull and lost one pushing 3lbs at the boat. With about an hour left I decided to try and get a big bite and picked up a frog. I almost instantly had one between 7-8lbs come up eat the frog and instantly run me into a set of duck decoys near by coming off. This was a huge loss I ran in and weighed in just over 13lbs for the day.
Needing a big bag day two I decided to make the run up lake again focusing on the Cantey Bay area again but this time slowing down and picking it apart. I had a late check in and planned on using all of it. I went back through the same stretches I did in practice flipping a Wyze Guyz Tackle Mobster craw in Green Pumpkin Blue Laminate paired with a 1/4oz Picasso Lures tungsten just flipping a stretch of smaller cypress trees in the back of the bay. Right at the end of the stretch I popped the lure off a root and in the video you see me almost instantly hook into a big one, when I popped it off there she smoked it. With my first fish in the boat over 6lbs I settled in and slowed down. Going down the stretch still I was focusing on openings between docks and grass with a nail weighted Wyze Guyz Tackle 5” Stogie in green pumpkin again with 12lb Vicious fishing fluorocarbon line. This is when I hook into my second fish just over 4.5lbs. Again now feeling pretty good about my start I kept going with the Stogie bait. Minutes later I cast under a dock and miss one about three pounds, you see in the video she comes up and just throws the hook for no reason. I re-rig and throw back in there thinking the fish would reset or the female would be in there. Sure enough the female took the bait I set up and she ran out of there at the boat. After a fight, off camera, I finally get her in another big one just over seven pounds. What a start, this is what I needed to get back in the race. After this I not sure what happened, I had plenty of areas and time but just never got another big bite. I fished all day expanding on the area and never could connect on another big bite. With a rough ride in as the wind had changed I came in a little early with a 20lb even bag. This propelled me up to 72 place just short of a check. For me this was a great day on a lake I had never been to. My mission going there was to catch big fish and keep my lower unit on the boat intact, both of these were a success just not the finish we had hoped for over all. This lake is a lot of fun this time of year and with another couple days there I think the type water, bite and bed fishing would have gotten much better. I can’t wait to go back to Santee Cooper, until then enjoy the video.
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