CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — After what Mark Menendez did Saturday, it makes you think that anything is possible when the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes concludes Sunday. Menendez jumped 30 places in the standings with a 27-pound, 13-ounce five-bass limit.
It came one day after Menendez fell from 6th place Thursday to 34th Friday when he finished with a 4-bass, 9-pound, 7-ounce day.
“(Friday) I fished right over the top of these fish,” said the 58-year-old BASS veteran angler from Paducah, Ky. “I fished a little too fast. I had a second presentation where I caught some of these fish (the first day), and it was the wrong choice.”
Menendez didn’t want to reveal the bait he used Saturday. But he did say, “I’m fishing out in the middle of the lake, doing something no one else is doing.”
With a big weather change coming overnight, who knows what is possible Sunday for anyone in the Top 10 final? Whatever the case, if Menendez can get to the large area he’s fishing, where current breaks are the key, he’ll have a shot, even though he’ll start 11-13 behind tournament leader Luke Palmer. Only 4 of the 10 finalists have caught a limit each of the previous three days.
“It was a perfect day,” Menendez said. “I did not miss a fish. I did not lose a fish. It was smooth as ice cream.”
This is his 266th BASS tournament, and Menendez has won over $1.3 million in a career that began in 1991. His only Elite Series win came at Arkansas’s Lake Dardanelle in 2009.
It took a slow, methodical process for Menendez to figure out how to catch a bass this week. “I got a total of about six bites in practice,” he said. “One the first day, one the second day and maybe three or four the third day.” His big bass Saturday weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces.
“It’s pretty simple fishing,” he said of his big day Saturday. “We all make this stuff so darn hard.”
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