CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — When Elite Series rookie Bryant Smith looked over the 2023 schedule, one tournament put a smile on his face and two tournaments put wrinkles in his brow.
Lake Murray brought out the smile. He finished second at Lake Hartwell, a similar South Carolina lake, last October to clinch qualifying for the Elite Series. And, true to form, last week Smith finished 12th, missing the Top 10 cut by less than two pounds, at the Elite Series tournament at Lake Murray.
But the Santee Cooper Lakes and the 170,000 total surface acres caused him some major concern. For one day at least, Smith was smiling at Santee Cooper. The 32-year-old married father of a 7-month-old son from Roseville, Calif., was second in the Day 1 standings with a five-bass limit weighing 26 pounds, 15 ounces.
“I pre-practiced here, but I was just kind of learning how to move around this place,” Smith said. “I didn’t do much fishing. It was just navigation.”
Smith navigated to the right cypress trees Thursday. Whether he can do it again Friday was another matter.
“That’s probably the most weight I’ve ever caught and have to go out the next day not knowing if I can get a bite,” he said. “I got in a good rotation. I made five good casts and caught five good ones.”
Smith’s goal is to be on the Elite Series for a long time.
“It’s been my dream ever since I was a kid,” he said. “I’ve watched Bassmasters my whole life. And I wasn’t going to let the geography of where I lived stop me from doing it.
“My goal coming in here was longevity. I want to stay here and make a career out of it and qualify for Classics.”
Roseville (population 141,000) is located in the Sacramento metropolitan area, about as far as you can get in the lower 48 states from South Carolina and Santee Cooper Lakes.
“I got fortunate to qualify through three Opens last year,” Smith said. “I didn’t have to spend a lot of time away. But if I didn’t qualify, I’d be fishing all nine Opens this year. There was one goal and that was to be here.
“It’s a challenge. We’ve got an almost 8-month-old son at home. (Bailey) takes care of the home front. Ever since we’ve been together, I’ve always been fishing tournaments. It’s nothing new. It’s a little different with a child, but we make it work. I’m home as much as possible. If we have a week off, like next week, I’m flying home to be there for three days. I want to be home as much as possible to watch him grow up.”
Besides Santee Cooper, Smith knows he’ll face a challenge at the Sabine River, which always fishes tough for veterans and rookies alike. Along the way to the final Elite Series events this season, he hopes to spend some time on the northern smallmouth waters where the series concludes at Lake St. Clair, Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River.
California has many diverse fisheries, but nothing like those.
“We don’t have those big water smallmouth lakes,” he said. “That’s about the only thing we don’t have. That’s definitely the biggest hole in my game.”
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