We’re going to try to predict a few patterns that we’ll likely see develop here this week as we make our way through the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on the Santee Cooper Lakes. In addition to Basstrakk, we’ll be pulling from information gathered through Bassmaster LIVE, the blog, and the numerous stories and photo galleries that came through on Day 1, also take into account the weather patterns we’ve seen and we’ll see the rest of the week.
Weather
The conditions have continued to improve throughout practice and into Day 1 of the event. Day 1 of practice saw air temps in the low 20s, but with highs forecasted in the 70s for the remainder of the week and lows hovering around 50 at the worst, the lake is stabilizing and will continue to do so. There is a little rain forecasted for Day 3, but the long-range radar shows it breaking up and not being a torrential downpour like we saw here on Wednesday.
This should play into the narrative we’ve been hearing of the Santee Cooper Lakes busting wide open with bedding activity the rest of the week. And sight fishing as well as blind fishing for bedders that anglers can’t actually see will solidify themselves as the two main patterns the rest of the week.
More topwaters
If you watched Bassmaster LIVE on Day 1, you likely saw Jason Christie throwing a frog at some point. He was fully committed to the topwater, finally catching his first and only fish on it at 11:39 AM, 5 hours into the day. The bass missed the frog on the first swipe and then timidly ate it on the second attempt. The conditions just didn’t seem quite right for the topwater bite on Day 1.
I predict that here on Day 2 however and moving forward throughout the rest of the week, we’ll start to see a topwater play a bigger role. As the water continues to warm and stabilize, and some bass start to move off the beds and guard fry, topwater baits become more and more deadly. We’re about to see this happen, at least more than we did on Day 1. And I predict the newest Classic Champ Jason Christie will have a much better Day 2 with it if he sticks with it, as I believe he will.
More anglers headed to Moultrie
I predict that a lot of the anglers that stayed close to home yesterday on Marion will be looking to hit a home run on Moultrie on Day 2, and moving through the rest of the week. As Day 1 wore on, we saw more and more anglers make their way down into Lake Moultrie. At one point, Bassmaster LIVE commentator Mark Zona made the statement that around 15% of the field had made their way to Moultrie by midday after only a handful of anglers started their day on the lower lake. I believe we’ll see even more anglers make their way down moving forward, as the water clarity on Moultrie is more conducive right now for sight fishing according to many angler reports.