COLUMBIA, S.C. — Brandon Palaniuk was a 23-year-old rookie, Carl Jocumsen served as a marshal and the 13-year cicada brood was fully emerged when the Bassmaster Elite Series came to Lake Murray on May 12-15, 2011.
It took 61 pounds, 3 ounces for Casey Ashley to win that tournament. Davy Hite and Mike Iaconelli tied for second place with 58-1; Hite won the biggest bag tiebreaker to take second.
It would be 12 years before the Elite Series came back to Lake Murray’s 48,000 surface acres. The results were startlingly different. Drew Benton won the four-day event last year on April 23 with 87-0. He caught a five-bass limit weighing 26-7 on the final day to rocket from 10th place to first. Nine of the 10 Day 4 finalists topped 80 pounds.
The contrast in the two tournaments was further evident in the Day 2/Top 50 cut weights. It took 20-10 to make the cut for Day 3 in 2011; it took 34-3 last year.
So, what’s it going to take to win the Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite in 2024? It’s a safe bet to say it’ll take more than in 2011 (61-3) and less than 2023 (87-0). Lake Murray is every bit as healthy as it was a year ago, maybe even more so, but the difference is a tournament that started on April 20th last year and this week’s May 9th start.
Greg Hackney finished 16th last year with 58-0 after three days. “I’ll put it this way,” said Hackney, “if I catch 58 pounds this year, I’ll be in the top 10.
“I don’t know if we could have been here at any better time last year. The fish were everywhere and you could catch them any way you wanted to catch them. It’s just not that good right now.”
The amount of fish activity on Lake Murray is incredible at the moment. There are still bass on spawning beds, threadfin shad and blueback herring are spawning along the banks and in the shallows every morning and bream spawning beds are evident almost everywhere. The problem is that the bass, shad and herring spawns are fading and bass don’t seem to be keyed into the bream spawn yet.
“I think we’ve hit it at a really bad time,” said Brandon Palaniuk, who finished 36th here in 2011 as a 23-year-old rookie and 36th last year as a 35-year-old two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year. “I was really looking forward to this event. But the longer I stayed out there in practice, I was just losing more confidence.
“There will probably still be a 25-pound bag or two, but I don’t think the (Day 2/Top 50) cut weight will be nearly as high as 17 pounds (per day), like last year, probably more like 14 to 15 (pounds a day).”
Carl Jocumsen finished 23rd with 55-7 after three days last year. He doesn’t necessarily buy-in to the thought that Murray will be tougher this year.
“There is action everywhere,” Jocumsen said. “This lake is alive. I don’t think I’ve seen as many bream anywhere else. But the bass are funky right now. The bite is off. These can be the coolest tournaments because you’re going to have to work hard to figure it out. There are too many bass in this lake – somebody will figure it out.”
If Jocumsen is successful here this week, he might tip his hat to Jeff Kriet, a longtime pro angler from Oklahoma who Jocumsen marshaled for one day in 2011.
“I’ll use it this week, and I’ve used it everywhere at times since that day with Jeff,” Jocumsen said. “It’s a speed-winding deal with a fluke. You wind it as fast as you can, and then just kill it. The coolest thing is that Jeff and I have been good friends ever since that day.”
Jocumsen went fishing on Lake Murray the day after the 2011 event ended. After what he saw exploding on the cicadas all week, he wasn’t going to miss a big fish opportunity, even if the big fish were grass carp. He said he caught 20- and 30-pound grass carp on a small popper-style topwater bait then.
The grass carp apparently are mostly gone from Lake Murray now. But Jocumsen saw one exploding on a cicada during practice this week. “It was like a great white shark eating a seal,” laughed Jocumsen.
