Bass Fishing News

Tomorrow the Bassmaster Elite Series will start its third event of the year on Santee Cooper Lakes located in Clarendon, South Carolina. In 2020, the Bassmaster Elite Series stopped at Santee Cooper and Brandon Palaniuk won that event with 72 pounds and 2 ounces. During that event, the fish were in a late spawn phase and some were even in post-spawn patterns. Palaniuk was able to catch some key fish using forward-facing sonar while targeting small brush piles with a drop shot. However, this time around things are going to be very different. Santee Cooper and the surrounding lakes are very low right now. Usually, cypress trees play a big role on that lake but with the low water levels, the fish may have moved into deeper parts of the lake. To add more fuel to the fire, South Carolina temperatures have been ultra-low the past few days but it seems as if the water temperatures within Santee Cooper haven’t decreased at all. Throughout the event, air temperatures will start to increase and a full moon is also expected to hit during the event so it will be interesting to see how the anglers catch them and how many pounds it will take to win. Bassmaster fantasy teams will be very hard to choose this week because of the tough conditions and the unknowns. Some anglers are coming off a great finish from the biggest event of the year, the Bassmaster Classic, so it will be interesting to see if they can keep the ball rolling. In bucket A, popular picks such as John Cox or Brandon Palaniuk will be good picks but keep an eye out for some dark horses like David Mullins or Stetson Blaylock. For bucket B any angler on the list can catch them here but I am expecting Greg Hackney and Bryan New to have a great event. Jason Christie is just coming off of his Classic win so keep an eye out for him to make a push in the bucket C list. For bucket D I think this pick can be really easy if you look at determination and drive. This is why I see Brock Mosley and Michael Iaconelli having a great event. Lastly, bucket E can always be tough but I can see Hunter Shryock having a great event because of his continued consistency.