Elite

Jocumsen’s practice day on Santee Cooper Lakes

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Welcome to Santee Cooper Lakes for the sixth Stop of the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series! It’s the final day of practice here, and we are riding with Carl Jocumsen who nearly took victory here in 2020 when he finished second to Brandon Palaniuk.
Before we headed out, Lee Livesay pulled up behind us to have a quick boat ramp chat. Always good seeing Lee and cutting up with him.
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Caleb Sumrall also was joined by Lee. One thing that is probably unnoticed on the Elites is how much each angler is willing to take care of each other. Here you seeing Carl lending a few swimbaits to Caleb.
Time to dump in! Carl tows his Skeeter bass boat across the country with his Toyota Tundra that he is in absolutely love with. Selfishly in my opinion Carl has one of the best setups in the game.
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On the hood he always sports his mantra, “Fear My Heart.” The mentality Carl takes on each and every day with.
Down the ramp we go!
Obviously I am no help putting in, but I will grab photos of the process…
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One of my favorite photos of the morning. While shooting this I wondered how many of these photos of boat trailers getting pulled up out of the water I have.
Hopping in.
Humminbirds are fired up and ready to rock.
Mustang lifejackets are the choice for safety each and every day for Carl out on the water.
Off to the first spot!
Whenever I see screen that can help tell the story of what is going on, I try to take advantage. This new little DJI 360 camera is pretty neat.
An absolute beautiful sunrise this morning. So glad I woke up early and jumped in the boat. The sunrise alone made it worth it.
Yamaha VMAX SHO 250 is what Carl leans on to get him from point A to point B on the water.
It was a bit rough running across Lake Marion this morning. And with the forecast predicted it could be pretty rough on Day 1.
Santee Cooper Lakes is such a beautiful place. Although some areas are pretty treacherous to navigate in a bass boat, it is truly one of the most stunning places we visit.
We will see a lot of these in play this week. The old cyrpess tree are absolutely littered on this body of water. They make great habitat for fish.
The first few casts are made.
Not too much longer Carl lands fish no. 1 of the morning. He’s not really looking to catch a bunch, but instead find another stretch or two that could have them.
“I’ve found three or four stretches that have quite a few quality fish on them; the goal today is just to try to find another stretch or two.”
“What I don’t want to do is stretch myself too thin. I don’t want to find a bunch of other places, I just want to find enough that in the case I can make it all four days I have extra stuff to run too.”
A few minutes later he hooks up again.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
A quality fish!
Most likely a 4-pounder. Without FFS this week, I would imagine 4-pounders will be a good quality bite here.
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Of course while we were out, we took the opportunity to shoot some content for his sponsors. I figured Hobie Eyewear would enjoy a pic of a bass wearing their sunglasses!
The Hobie Eyewear Hull Float with the Sightmaster lenses in them have been key for Carl this week. Being able to identify and see stumps and logs underneath the surface in the low light conditions has added a couple extra bites.
An array of baits are in play this week without the use of FFS. It’ll be pretty interesting to see what baits end up prevailing after four days.
Selfishly I would not be mad at all if the big swimbaits prevailed.
Another key this week without the use of FFS is going to be Humminbird MEGA 360 and Humminbird Lakemaster. Both essential in locating and seeing stumps, logs, grass underneath the surface.
Santee Cooper Lakes are chock full of stumps so navigation is paramount on this body of water. Having the Humminbird Lakemaster to identify the deeper water and boat lanes will save some lower units this week.
A phone call from another angler. I wonder who it is?
The Prodigy himself. Brandon Palaniuk works with Carl during practice days helping locate fish and bouncing ideas off of each other. Teamwork can make a huge difference on the Elite Series.
Back to casting and winding as we approach another angler who works with Carl on the water.
Jeff Gustafson who just might be the nicest guy on the Elite Series is always willing to lend a helping hand. This time Gussy throws over a bait (not pictured) for Carl to use during the tournament tomorrow.
Gussy shares a few things he is seeing on the water and so does Carl.
If you know Carl you know he’s serious about what he consumes each and everyday.
Today his wife Kayla packed him a YETI lunchbox full of snacks and this protein shake.
Not sure what is in the protein shake, but it did look pretty good.
His lunchbox was packed full of snacks including blueberries, an orange and some energy drinks. None of which he shared with me … maybe next time…
The Rapala Jowler got a pretty good workout today overtop of some of the submerged grass.
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Carl thinks the Jowler could play big time during those low-light conditions in the morning over top of the submerged grass.
And indeed submerged grass will be in play this week. Everything from hydrilla, to milfoil, eelgrass, lily pads and more will be in play. It will be interesting to see which one ends up playing the best.
In the cypress trees we saw a load of mayflies which makes me think of two baits that could play huge this week.
One would be a big paddletail swimbait trying to imitate those big bluegill around the cypress trees feeding on mayflies.
Or the big bluegill glide bait. Which one will work? Well I guess we’ll just have to follow along to see.
After a quick ride back across the lake, Carl drops me off for the day. I enjoyed the morning out on Santee Cooper Lakes, and I certainly hope you enjoyed the gallery. Thanks for the ride, Carl!

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