Cooper, Santee Churned Out Best Bags

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

With a fishery still recovering from historic flooding last fall, there were so many question marks about the Winyah Bay Elite Series, held last week along the South Carolina coast. Maybe more than any other Elite Series tournament before it, Winyah Bay was a wild card, the ultimate unknown.

As it turned out, those willing to make lengthy runs and put their equipment through a daily torture test to get to the Cooper River and those who decided to commit to the Santee River despite it being written off by others in practice were rewarded handsomely.

Reaction baits seemed to be the dominant offering, whether it was a vibrating jig with a swimbait trailer or a small crankbait, most of the fish caught by the top 5 finishers fell for a moving bait. While the Cooper River was mostly a cast-and-wind scenario, the Santee offered up plenty of pitching and flipping targets with its flooded shorelines.

Whatever the bait, the fishery produced some surprisingly stout stringers and some impressive individual specimens while producing a dramatic (and close) finish that saw 1 pound separate the Top 3 finishers.

Here’s how the week played out for the rest of the Top 5 finishers:

2nd: Brett Hite

> Day 1: 5, 12-07
> Day 2: 5, 19-11
> Day 3: 5, 18-00
> Day 4: 2, 5-13
> Total = 17, 55-15

Any time Brett Hite knows he’ll be fishing in 10 feet of water or less, he makes sure to have a vibrating jig tied on. If there’s vegetation around, it’s almost a guarantee he’ll be slinging it around.

“I knew coming to a river system and if I’d be fishing 10 feet or less, it’s always in my mind,” he said. “It’s a deadly bait that catches the biggest quality fish.”

That was the case last week at Winyah Bay, where he settled into an old rice field that was dotted with hydrilla and ditches in the Cooper River and earned a runner-up finish.

“If there’s hydrilla around, that’s like a magnet for me just because I know there will be bass around,” he added. “I’d never been here before. I didn’t get any information. I literally showed up and didn’t even know where the boat launch was.”

He practiced for a day in the Waccamaw River, but wasn’t enthused by its potential.

“There’s not that much fishable water and there were a lot of people fishing that water,” he said. “I decided I needed to go to the Cooper.”

He trailered his boat and headed toward Charleston and as soon as he launched, he said the surroundings reminded him of the California Delta.

“It looked good to me,” he said. “I felt right being there.”

It didn’t take him long to find the area he eventually fished during the tournament. When Hite discovered the area, it was a high, outgoing tide, something that wasn’t duplicated during the tournament.

“I ran into the right little spot right off the bat,” he said. “The spot that Britt was fishing, I fished there, too, but never caught them. It had the identical ingredients – depressions with grass. He and I were both on the winning pattern. They were the same types of spots.”

At low tide, the water was 3 feet deep and 5 to 6 on high tide where he was fishing. It seemed like when a quarter of the tide would come in is when it’d get good, he added.

“There were a couple sweet-spot areas, but it was mostly fan casting around,” he said.

Using his Humminbird Side Imaging and 360, Hite was able to locate the key areas with the depressions. He also identified stumps and laydowns that produced key fish for him.

> Vibrating jig gear: 7’3” heavy-action EverGreen International Leopard fiberglass casting rod, Daiwa Tatula CT Type R casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/8- and 1/2-ounce EverGreen International Jackhammer (black/blue and green-pumpkin), 4” prototype Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits segmented swimbait (black/blue and green-pumpkin).

> Hite was instrumental helping develop the Jackhammer, which is only available in Japan.

> The Yamamoto swimbait is still without a name and will be introduced formally at ICAST. Hite said he also caught all of his fish at the St. Johns River on it, but rigged it differently to fish around beds.

> Senko gear: 7’2” medium-heavy EverGreen International Super Stallion casting rod, Daiwa Steez SV casting reel (8.1:1 ratio), same line, 1/8-ounce Reins Tungsten bullet weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline worm hook, 5” Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Senko (black/blue).

> When the vibe jig bite would slow down, he’d follow up by fan casting the Senko on the edges of the ditches and neighboring grass. Letting it soak for a few seconds before working it back was key, he added.

> Main factor in his success – “The bait I used was a big key.”

> Performance edge – “My Mercury motor was fantastic. I literally drove 4 hours a day. Finding the fish was critical as well and having the help of the Humminbird 360 and Side Imaging was a big key for me.”

3rd: Kelly Jordon

> Day 1: 1, 8-05
> Day 2: 5, 24-07
> Day 3: 5, 16-04
> Day 4: 4, 6-03
> Total = 15, 55-03

Like Hite, Kelly Jordon did not visit Winyah Bay before it went off limits. He did some online research and showed up for practice.

“It was all about survival,” he said. “Everyone that I know of looked at the Cooper River where some guys had caught a 40-pound bag. There was a (B.A.S.S. Nation) event there last year that was tough, so to me it was a no-brainer to go to the Cooper.”

He spent the first day of practice there and figured he could catch at least 10 pounds a day with a flipping stick in his hand.

“I was really comfortable there,” he said.

The following day, he spent time in the Santee and realized how different it was from the Cooper.

“I fished a long stretch and looked around,” he said. “I usually don’t catch fish in practice, but it was just real different from the Cooper. The fish were really fat. I liked what I saw. I figured it would be hard, but I liked it. I knew I could put my head down and could catch five.”

The wind kicked up on the last day of practice and he opted to run back to the Cooper. He stayed close to Georgetown, but couldn’t find anything he was too enthused about.

After the weather delay on day 1, he chose to fish the Santee to maximize his fishing time.

“I had a tough decision,” he said. “I was in the first flight and if I went to the Cooper, at best I’d get 2 hours with a rough ride to fish. I didn’t like that, so I chose the Santee.

“I ran around and missed a couple and the plan was to work my way upriver until I ran out of time and then run in.”

It was a slow go as he was without a fish until he caught an 8-05 pitching a creature bait on his last spot. It was his lone fish of the day, but it gave him a clue as to what to look for. He also got a clue while standing in the bag line near John Murray, who’d also caught an 8-plus pounder in the Santee on Thursday. Murray told Jordon he’d caught it on a vibrating jig.

“When he told me that, I figured I’d found stuff where they might eat a ChatterBait,” Jordon said. “That gave me a little more confidence.”

Still, he had a decision to make for day 2. Should he run to the Cooper as he’d intended to on Thursday, seeing he was in the later flight and would have more time on the water? Or should he go back to the Santee and try to expand on what he found, especially near where he caught the 8-pounder?

When he left the blast-off point Friday, he still hadn’t made a decision where to go.

“Not until I got to the split,” he said. “I made a gut call to go big. That’s how I roll. It’s burned me a million times. I know that’s one of my faults, but it’s also a strength. For the next 10 to 15 minutes of that boat ride, I was like, ‘God, I hope I made the right call.’ On paper, it was a poor decision based on confidence, but I liked it since I knew I’d have nobody around.”

Jordon’s tortured decision turned out to be on the money. After stopping at a couple spots on his way farther upriver, he arrived at his best area around 9:30 a.m.

“By 10:30, I had 24-07,” he said.

He went through eight keepers, the biggest of which was 7-10 (the smallest was 2 3/4).

“I backed off,” he added. “I wished I hadn’t because I think I could’ve caught 30. They were biting like crazy. I caught them on my last three casts. I think I could’ve smoked them.”

He said the Santee didn’t get a lot of attention in practice because anglers were wary of the clarity, but Jordon sensed it was starting to round into shape before his eyes.

“Nobody was able to practice that because it wasn’t right until the tournament,” he said. “Current was blowing through it and it was 3 or 4 feet higher. It just wasn’t the same.”

He described the area as a channel-swing flat on the back side of a river bend. It was out of the current, but still on the main river, so there was a steady flow of bait for the fish to prey on. The water was still high and had gotten into the bushes and willow trees along the bank.

“There was grass all the way out on a bar, too, and there was a backside slough with flooded wood,” he added. “I knew there was a bunch of fish in there. That’s how we fish in Texas – you find a depression in the grass and that acts as a highway for them. The water was dropping out and they were coming to it.”

After his massive flurry on day 2, he tried to find similar areas for later in the event, but found nothing that set up the same way.

He committed to the Santee the rest of the way and lost a couple 4-pounders on day 3 and still brought in 16-plus pounds to keep himself in contention.

“I wish I would’ve have more than one fish on day 1 and a limit on the last day,” he said. “It was an awesome tournament. I was on and I found the load and had it all to myself. That’s hard to do anymore. The only reason I was able to is it wasn’t there in practice. People just wrote it off.”

> Vibrating jig gear: 7’9” extra-heavy Duckett Fishing White Ice Kelly Jordon Signature Series flipping rod, Duckett Fishing 360RB casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Phenix Vibrator jig (green-pumpkin), 4.5” Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad (green-pumpkin).

> The Vibrator jig is no longer in production.

> The bruiser he caught on day 1 fell for a beaver-style bait pitched under a 1/4-ounce weight.

> Main factor in his success – “That crazy, ill-informed decision on day 2 to go back to the Santee. It was a bold, gut decision. It wasn’t the wisest decision, but I did it because I caught an 8 up there and I liked how it set up and there was no one else there.”

> Performance edge – “My rods were really important because of the cover I was fishing. Those pads were tough. One fish I lost on day 3 tore up four pads. Five casts later, I caught a 5 1/2 in the same spot. The 7-10 on day 2, I caught it throwing the ChatterBait right down the middle of the ditch. If I had been using lighter line, it would’ve broken me off. It’s hard to control an almost 8-pounder, but I cranked down on that thing so hard and got its head turned.”

4th: Brent Chapman

> Day 1: 4, 7-01
> Day 2: 5, 14-13
> Day 3: 5, 16-09
> Day 4: 5, 9-04
> Total = 19, 47-11

Brent Chapman split his practice between the Waccamaw River and the Cooper and eventually settled on the latter once the tournament started.

“I’d planned on fishing the Waccamaw, but had two or three keeper bites there on the first day of practice,” he said. “It wasn’t a lot to build on. I knew Randy (Howell) was committed to the Santee and never left it. That was the other area I thought might pan out, but my homework told me the water levels weren’t ideal for the Santee so I scratched it off.”

He had a flurry of bites on one stretch of the Cooper on the second day and tried to expand on it. He went back to the Waccamaw on Wednesday, but after getting just two more bites, he turned his attention back to the Cooper.

“I figured I’d be an idiot to not go,” he said. “I figured in 3 hours time I could get more than I could in 8 hours in the Waccamaw.”

He nearly scrapped his plan on the morning of day 1, but he eventually wound up in the Cooper.

“Thank goodness I didn’t (not go),” he said. “I wasn’t dialed in at that point. It’s hard to expand with 3 hours to fish. I just beat the bank. Had only I just turned and casted over my right shoulder, who knows? They were out in that little depression.”

He caught two pitching a beaver-style bait and two throwing a Picasso Shock Blade on day 1 for 7-04. He still felt confident in choosing the mouth of the East Cooper River.

“It’s interesting because we think we have to have 10 different spots, but lo and behold, there was a lot more there than what I realized,” he said.

Over the next two days, he caught 31-plus pounds as he got dialed in on an ultra-shallow crankbait bite around grass.

“(On Friday), I got back to the other side of my stretch and worked the bank,” he said. “I tied on a shallow crank for the purpose of trying something else and the last 90 minutes was crazy. I caught a fish every five casts. I probably should’ve fished longer, but I knew I had enough for Saturday and I left an hour early.”

The crankbait accounted for most of his 16-09 on day 3 as he worked his way into the Top 10 heading into the final day.

When the crankbait bite waned, he also caught fish on a TightLines Enko and a 7-inch worm – classic junk-fishing.

> Crankbait gear: 7’ medium-action Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting rod, Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma Polyflex line, various shallow-running crankbaits (shad).

> The key to his crankbait presentation was holding the rod tip up to prevent the plug from digging into the grass. He wanted it to barely tick the top of the vegetation about 2 feet down. The co-polymer line helped him achieve that as it kept the baits 6 to 12 inches higher in the water column than fluorocarbon.

> Worm gear: 7’6” heavy-action Wright & McGill Brent Chapman Insight Pro Advantage casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/8-oz. Picasso Tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Lazer TroKar EWG worm hook, 7” unnamed worm (green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “Without a doubt, it was coming down to pre-practice. That allowed me to get down here and at least see what my options were. I made the run from the Cooper River back to Georgetown so I didn’t have to take a practice day to do that. I knew what to expect and that made a huge difference. I’m so glad and thankful that I came over to check it out. It’s so big and so overwhelming, it was a confidence thing knowing my options ahead of time.”

> Performance edge – “My Triton/Mercury rig was great. I put roughly 1,000 miles on my boat this week.”

5th: Randy Howell

> Day 1: 5, 10-11
> Day 2: 5, 9-01
> Day 3: 5, 16-05
> Day 4: 5, 11-10
> Total = 20, 47-11

Both times Randy Howell tried to make arrangements to pre-fish Winyah Bay, the flooding was too intense for it to be worth his time. When he arrived for practice, he decided to focus on the Santee River, acting on a tip he’d gotten before the information cutoff from B.A.S.S. Nation angler Mark Pierce.

Pierce had competed in the B.A.S.S. Nation Southern Divisional at Winyah Bay in April 2015 and gave Howell some clues for what to look for in the Santee.

“He said there were some good fish in it,” Howell said. “I really liked the thought of the Santee because it was flooded, but not overly flooded. There was still enough that water was still coming out of the dam. It seemed to be less affected by the tide, too. I didn’t notice much tide influence until (Sunday).”

He had a so-so day to start practice, but it was enough to build on. As the water levels came down, the fishing seemed to get better.

“Those fish hadn’t spawned yet and I think they were trying to get on beds,” he said. “All of the females I caught were full of eggs.”

He caught half of his fish during the tournament skipping a pink Senko into the branches of flooded trees and bushes. As the water came down, it positioned the fish on the outside of the cover more and he was able to pitch and flip a creature bait to create a solid 1-2 punch.

“I had 3 stretches 50 yards long that were key places,” he said. “I caught two to five fish off each every day. I also had some one-fish stops running a pattern on willow bushes.”

> Senko gear: 7’ medium-heavy Daiwa Steez XT spinning rod, Daiwa Certate 2510 spinning reel, 20-pound Daiwa J-Braid braided line, 3/0 Daiichi X-Point EWG worm hook, 5” Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Senko (bubble gum).

> Flipping gear: 7’4” extra-heavy Daiwa Steez XT casting rod, Daiwa Tatula CT Compact casting reel (8:1 ratio), 70-pound Daiwa Samuraii braided line, 3/8-oz. Bass Pro Shops tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Daiichi X-Point HD worm hook, 4.5” Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Flappin' Hog (watermelon black with red flake).

> Main factor in his success – “Being very persistent and patient. I probably fished slower than I have in a lot of years, but once I figured out fish were on beds, that’s when I took my time. I went back and forth and it kept producing. I keyed in on those spawning areas.”

> Performance edge – “My Triton/Mercury worked great. That’s a big deal on that kind of ride. My rod and reel and that braided line were key, too. The heavy duty setup was key to getting fish out of the heavy cover.”

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