A slower morning has Luke Palmer making a move to an area he hasn’t fished much during the course of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes.
Palmer was using his forward facing sonar to locate bass he believes are spawning on cypress trees in his primary area. As he pitched to the trees, he could see the bass react on the graph, essentially sight fishing without seeing the bass with his own eyes.
Yesterday, he was seeing two or three bass on each tree he fished in his best stretch and towards the afternoon when he had most of his 33-5 bag, Palmer stopped fishing for them so he could catch them on Championship Monday.
That hasn’t panned out exactly as he hoped, as the wind has shifted to the east and is blowing into his best stretch. That has dirtied up the water slightly and Palmer remarked to his cameraman on the water that he isn’t seeing nearly as many bass around those trees. As he moved away from the wind, he started getting a couple more bites but isn’t finding the same quality as Day 3.
“The wind is making it hard,” Palmer said. “The fish that were spawning may have left. When we were off Saturday I think a lot of fish moved up to do their thing. The sun coming up today may activate some fish and I can go find some 6- and 7-pounders.”
After making his move, Palmer has landed fish number five to increase his daily weight to 10-11, a keeper bass but one he will likely need to cull out if he wants to come from behind and win his first blue trophy.