One of the most productive bass fisheries in the world, the Santee Cooper lakes usually produce dozens of huge limits during tournaments in March. A powerful late-winter cold front blasted through the area earlier this week and drastically dropped water temperatures. Fish activity, consequently, decreased significantly. A few anglers, however, always manage to find the big fish. Pro Yancy Windham of Gordo, Ala., weighed 24 pounds, 6 ounces Thursday on only four bass. Snickers pro Pat Fisher of Danielsville, Ga., caught five bass that weighed 28 pounds, 8 ounces to jump from 47th place to fifth.
“I didn’t fish as hard today,” Glasgow said. “I tried to help my co-angler. I didn’t even go to the area I went to yesterday, which is like a little 2-acre, secluded pond. There were several guys in there with me yesterday, but they were all fishing a little deeper and weren’t catching much, even though they were throwing the same baits.”
Rounding out the top-five pros are Windham (seven bass, 36 pounds, 10 ounces); Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pa. (10 bass, 36 pounds, 9 ounces); Warren Wyman of Calera, Ala (nine bass, 35 pounds, 14 ounces); and Fisher (six bass, 34 pounds, 2 ounces).
David Goshorn of Harleyville, Ga., caught a 10-pound, 9-ounce bass to win the day’s Snickers Big Bass award for the Pro Division and earn $725.
Fuller of Hillsboro, Ga., caught a two-day total of seven bass weighing 26 pounds, 8 ounces to lead the Co-angler Division.
“I had five bites today and landed all of them,” Fuller said. “The fish were not active at all. We were fishing a large stump flat in 6-8 feet of water. The cold front that came through pushed these fish out of the shallow water.”
Rounding out the top-five co-anglers are Keith Iddins of Knoxville, Tenn., (five bass, 20 pounds, 3 ounces); Cliff Cantey of Olanta (six bass, 18 pounds, 7 ounces); Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala. (four bass, 16 pounds, 7 ounces); and Matthew Parker of Whitesburg, Ga. (five bass, 16 pounds, 8 ounces).
Mark Cummings of Pembroke, N.C., caught an 8-pound, 7-ounce largemouth to win the day’s co-angler Snickers Big Bass Award and $245.
Anglers caught a total of 410 bass Thursday weighing 1,234 pounds.
EverStart Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The entire field competes Wednesday and Thursday, and the top 10 pros and co-anglers based on two-day accumulated weights advance to the final round. Anglers start at zero Friday, and pro and co-angler winners are determined Saturday based on two-day accumulated weights.