Elite

A look at Lake Murray 2026

Tedy’s Team serving as title sponsor for Stroke Awareness Month.

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Written by
Mike Suchan
The Elites head to South Carolina this week for the fifth stop of 2026, the Tedy’s Team Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray. Tedy’s Team is the fundraising organization of former NFL player Tedy Bruschi that is working with B.A.S.S. for May’s Stroke Awareness Month.
The 12th pro level event and fifth Elite tournament on Lake Murray begins a two-week stint in the Palmetto State. After Murray, May 7-10, the 99 anglers head a bit south to Santee Cooper Lakes, May 14-17.
Ranking highly in Bassmaster Magazine’s Top 100 Lakes, Lake Murray is a 48,000-acre reservoir of the Saluda River just west of Columbia, the state capital. Lake Murray is 41 miles long with a maximum width of 14 miles. There are 640 miles of shoreline, and the average depth is 41 feet, with the deepest point 200 feet.
Made of red clay and bedrock, the 1.5-mile long, 220-foot high Saluda Dam was the largest earthen dam at the time, and it created the world’s largest man-made reservoir when completed in 1930. Lake Murray is named after William S. Murray, the project’s chief engineer.
Dreher Island State Park, 3677 State Park Road in Prosperity, S.C., is tournament central. Takeoffs are scheduled for 6:30 a.m. ET with weigh-ins set for 3 p.m. All B.A.S.S. activities are free, including live music Saturday by the Millhands and Sunday by Rut Spence.
Bruschi, who fished with Randy Howell in the Classic Pro-Am, found common ground with B.A.S.S. CEO Chase Anderson as both are stroke survivors. After meeting, Bruschi and Anderson joined forces to fight stroke. There will be a 5K benefit Run to the Weigh-in through Dreher Island State Park. Register here!
South Carolina’s Patrick Walters won the most recent Elite on Murray, going wire-to-wire in a weather-delayed event in 2024. Walters, focusing on bass feeding near the surface on blueback herring, brought in the biggest bag on three of the four days. He saved the best for Championship Monday, when he landed a 6-7 in the CrushCity Monster Bag of 26-12 to total 93-15 and win by 12-11.
In 2023, Drew Benton also had a big final day to win his second Elite. After topping 23 pounds the first two days, Benton slipped to 10. Two late fish, including a 6-4, helped him to the event’s best bag of 26-7 and win with 87-0, edging Hunter Shryock and Day 3 leader Kyoya Fujita. Walters was fourth.
Matt Arey, who announced this week he is stepping away from the Elite Series to battle Lymphoma, caught the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of 2023, a 7-11. Cody Huff (above) took the bonuses in 2024 with a 7-6. Along with kicker bass, the majority of anglers caught limits in the tournaments, and there were a number of 20-pound bags. Expect more of the same as anglers are allowed forward-facing sonar this week.
South Carolina’s JT Thompkins, who finished third in 2024 here, said Murray should put on another show. “It’s on a big upturn and every year, the weights keep getting higher and higher,” he said. “We’re hitting it at a pretty good time, in terms of being entertaining. There’s gonna be a lot of topwater and a lot of schooling activity.”
Bass will chase blueback herring from morning spawns then throughout the day. “When you go to a lake that has herring, it’s like you’re not even fishing for bass anymore. It’s like you’re fishing for tuna. But that’s what makes it fun,” Thompkins said. “The majority of the herring will either be spawning or starting to move back offshore, so you’re going to have a really good mix of morning bite and then a consistent afternoon bite over cane piles, brush or suspending over points.”
Thompkins doesn’t think the sight fishing will be as good as it was in previous events, but that should spread the field. “You’ll have some people catching some off stumps, fry guarders … but I think it’s going to be really good this time because, usually when we go to Lake Murray, it’s 60% offshore and 40% up shallower. This time, it’s going to more like 80% offshore and 20% shallow.”
The field practices Sunday through Tuesday with Wednesday an off day. There are chances of rain on Thursday’s first round of competition as well as Championship Sunday. “We’ve had a little bit cooler conditions … which is going to postpone that herring spawn a little bit,” Thompkins said, “so it should be firing up right when we get there.”
Thompkins expects two scenarios that could lead to monster bags. One is vertical like rock, brush and cane piles, and the other is long, tapering points. “You’re gonna see someone make the Top 10 by sitting on the right point that has 5-pounders on it and waiting for them to school, but a lot of the people that are gonna be hard to beat will be running 30 to 40 spots a day, making one or two casts at each spot and rolling.” He said the angler who gets the timing right can catch close to 30 pounds.
Putting four solid days together will be critical. Thompkins said he believes someone can duplicate Walters’ winning weight in the 90s. “The key will be finding as many places with groups of fish,” he said. “If you can find areas with bigger groups of fish, the more competitive they are, the easier they are to catch … If you keep putting 3-pounders in the boat, you’re gonna run into that 5-pounder.”
Bassmaster LIVE will be available all four days of the event, starting on Bassmaster.com and Roku Sports Channel Thursday and Friday. FS1 will host the morning session on Saturday and Sunday from 8-11:30 a.m. ET before heading to Bassmaster.com for afternoon coverage. All weigh-ins will be available live on Bassmaster.com starting at 3 p.m. ET. 

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