“Sometimes you’re the windshield
Sometimes you’re the bug
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you’re just a fool in love
Sometimes you’re the Louisville Slugger
Sometimes you’re the ball
Sometimes it all comes together
Sometimes you’re gonna lose it all”
- “The Bug” by Mary Chapin Carpenter
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — It’s been that kind of tournament – windshield or bug – for several anglers in the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes. The most dramatic examples Friday were Brandon Cobb (windshield) and Patrick Walters (bug).
Cobb’s Day 2 total of 24 pounds, 15 ounces, has him in second place, only 3-15 behind leader Matt Robertson. He also had the big bass of day of 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and the best story of the day.
“As an example of how good things have been going the last few days, that big one I just held up, I was hung,” Cobb said. “I was doing the bow-and-arrow move, popping my line, trying to get it off (a cypress knee), and it sucked it off the tree and I caught it.”
Cobb, coming off a 6th-place finish at Lake Murray last week, is leading the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.
“When everything is going right, it goes right,” he said. “It does not look tough when you weigh 21 pounds and 24 pounds, but it’s hard to catch a limit. They’re just really big ones.”
Cobb said he had maybe 7 bites Friday and 7 the day before.
Then there’s Patrick Walters experience at the opposite end of the spectrum Friday. Walters, who finished 4th last week at Lake Murray, was one of the pre-tournament favorites at Santee Cooper. The South Carolina native was 19th here a year ago.
Walters weighed only 8-7 on Day 1. He finished in 75th place on Day 2 after adding 12-7 to his total. But there’s a story that summed up his day. Walters had a bass of about 4 pounds right at the boat when it came unhooked.
“I reached for it and had my hand on it,” he said. “Then I reached for it again.”
That’s when he took a head-first plunge into the lake.
“I went all the way under,” laughed Walters. “I lost my sunglasses.”
When he got his feet under him, Walters was able to stand on the bottom.
Those were the most dramatic examples of good luck and bad luck at Santee Cooper, but there have been numerous examples this week. Hank Cherry saw his day turn around with a 7-pound, 3-ounce bass that he’s certain he missed the day before.
“Same tree, same fish, no doubt in my mind,” Cherry said. “I had it on a wacky-rigged (Berkley) General (Thursday). I let it swim away from the tree, just like you’re supposed to. I knew it was a bigger fish. I leaned into it. I’m like, ‘I got it.’ Right when I sat down to lip it, the worm just popped out.”
Cherry said he caught a 4-pounder Friday morning off the same tree, and he decided to give it one more shot in the afternoon.
“I only let it go about two feet from the tree this time, and I jammed it,” he said.
Cherry was the bug on Day 1, weighing only 9-6, leaving him in 83rd place. Friday he was the windshield – as the song says, it all came together. His 22-5 limit vaulted him into 32nd place, well inside the Top 50 cut.
