CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — A furious start and an afternoon kicker cemented a narrow win for Emmanuel College teammates Caleb Edwards and Jayden Lintner, who topped the Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Santee Cooper Lakes presented by Bass Pro Shops with a 5-bass limit of 34-pounds, 9-ounces.
After severe weather prompted B.A.S.S. to cancel Day 1, the one-day event saw 20 bags over 25 pounds, with five over 30. Edwards and Lintner — a sophomore and freshman, respectively — edged University of Montevallo’s Brody Robison and Peyton Sorrow by 3 ounces.
“This means the world to me,” Edwards said. “It’s the biggest tournament win I’ve ever had.”
Lintner agreed and added: “I just want to thank The Lord and my family, friends, teammates and coaches for the support. This win is a good jumpstart to our careers.”
On this fishery where lakes Marion and Moultrie connect via the 6.5-mile Diversion Canal, Edwards and Lintner spent their day on Marion.
“We decided to stay on Lake Marion because, in practice, we found one little grass flat in Potato Creek that had good bit of fish in it and we caught a 4-pounder there on the first day of practice,” Edwards said. “We actually went and practiced on Lake Moultrie on Day 2 of practice, but we didn’t have any luck down there.
“We decided to go back to Marion on the Day 3 of practice and expand on what we found on Day 1. The led us to a school of fish that were staged on a hard spot in 6-12 feet in the milfoil.”
The main spot where the winners did most of their damage was about 100-150 yards long. As Lintner said, that was not their first choice, but fate had other plans.
“We started off with back-to-back 7-pounders (on the flat) and then, we moved to a point with milfoil across the creek,” Lintner said. “That point was going to be our main spot, but first thing in the morning, there were a lot of boats in that area, so we let the spot clear out and then we went to the point and we caught a 5-pounder.
“I believe all of our fish were prespawn. They were pretty fat and a little off the bank. This was the best day that we’ve hadn’t on Santee-Cooper.”
The winners caught their fish on the green pumpkin Coike Fullcast, a solid elastomer sphere with multiple tentacles, aka “spiky ball.” They rigged this bait with a No. 2 treble hook and a 3/32-ounce nail weight.
“In practice, it was hard to get a bite, but that bait produced most of our big bites,” Edwards said. “Our biggest one in practice was 6 1/2.”
Lintner said he and Edwards fished their baits over the grass with snappy retrieves. Most fish required several twitches to seal the deal, especially the 7-9 that Edwards caught at 12:30.
Summarizing his team’s game plan, Lintner said: “Our success was getting into our area and fishing it, and not getting spun out and running all over the lake.”
Robison and Sorrow finished in second place with 34-6. They, too, devoted their day to Lake Marion and stuck to the south end.
“Lake Marion set up more for our style of fishing,” Robison said. “It felt like the fish were more predictable.”
Noting that he and his partner caught about 10 fish, Robison said they started their day targeting an early shad spawn, mixed in some fry guarders (adult male bass watching over recent hatchlings), and finished their day by fishing stumps and brush piles offshore.
“We caught about 28 pounds early on the shad spawn and fry guarders and then went offshore and culled up a few times,” Robison said.
Robison and Sorrow caught their shallow fish and their offshore upgrades on Clutch Baby Boss and KGB glidebaits, along with Berkley Lab Series minnows in the reservoir shad color on 1/8-ounce jig heads.
Tucker McCoy and Connor Bell of University of Montevallo placed third with 32-7.
Philip Smyrl and Murray Deen of Georgia College won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award with a 8-10.
This event was hosted by Santee Cooper County.
2026 Bassmaster College Series Title Sponsor: Strike King
2026 BassmasterCollege Series Presenting Sponsor: Bass Pro Shops
2026 BassmasterCollege Series Platinum Sponsor: Progressive, Toyota
2026Bassmaster College Series Premier Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
2026 Bassmaster College Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Daiwa, Lew’s, Lowrance, Phoenix Boats, VMC, Yokohama
2026 Bassmaster College Series Youth Sponsors: Seaguar
