Bassmaster LIVE and Bassmaster LIVE MIX are being broadcast simultaneously right now. I have one playing on my phone and the other on my TV. And it feels like I’m trying to drink water out of a garden hose hooked to two fire hydrants. An unbelievable amount of fantastic info and entertainment coming over the airways this morning.
Eighty-three-year-old living legend Roland Martin, who I believe is sharper and more physically fit than I am at 36, has been one of the featured guests on LIVE MIX. Listening to him talk about the history of Santee Cooper Lakes and his guiding experiences here 40 years ago is almost too much to handle. One of the coolest nuggets, apparently the authorities here used to open the lock once a day to allow the herring and stripe to run into the lake. He and his co-host, Bernie Shultz, have been praising the authorities for their efforts these days to reestablish aquatic vegetation in these two lakes.
Swapping over to the LIVE show with Zona. Sanders, Ronnie, and Such, we were able to listen to Drew Cook sing this fishery’s praises in regard to vegetation as well.
“I honestly think we could come here in 2 or 3 years and think it could take over 125 pounds to win.”
Wow. What a ridiculous statement. But it comes with the utmost credibility, off the lips of an angler who caught 105 pounds, 5 ounces here last season. He was only 20 pounds off that mark last year. More notably, last year’s runner-up Caleb Kuphall had 103 pounds, 1 ounce… with only 19 fish. Having fallen one fish shy of a limit on Day 2, Kuphall could have easily had over 110 pounds in the 2022 Elite. And while we’re just throwing out hypotheticals, think about this. Kuphall’s 2022 weights looked like this: Day 1 29-10, Day 2 13-0, Day 3 31-4, Day 4 29-3. Swap that Day 2 13-pound bag for the pace he set across the other three days and Kuphall could have scared the 125-pound mark here last year.
This fishery is historically great, and it’s getting even better. Cook pointed out how this year’s spawn will ignite the Santee Cooper Lakes and fill them with a better bass population than perhaps ever before in its history. Bass fry are everywhere, and with all the vegetation present now, they have so much more cover to hide and grow in.
