There are giant largemouth wolf packs in Lake Murray right now. Cory Dreyer and Guillermo Gonzales have seen them with their own eyes haunting the shallows. Rumors of 103-, 104- and 106-inch totals surfaced during practice for the 2026 Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship presented by Native Watercraft.
Dreyer’s travel partner and Bassmaster champion Casey Reed saw 110-inches during his final day of practice.
There’s no doubt the Saluda River reservoir has slugfest potential. The problem: the biggest bass in the lake are hard to catch, and repeating success day to day has been much more difficult than many anglers could have imagined.
“I love Murray, but I was expecting it to be lights out. It has been extremely tough,” Dreyer, a North Carolinian, said. “I thought it would be a much better bite. In four days of practice, I had one that was decent.
“We’ll probably see some really big bags caught one day from somebody and then they may not catch a limit the next day,” Dreyer added.
From the chatter around registration day, qualified anglers have struggled to generate consistent bites. Patterns have been difficult to sustain during this early fall period.
“More so than any other tournament I’ve fished, it is very much a right place at the right time type of thing,” Gonzales, a multi-time Bassmaster Kayak Series champion, said. “I haven’t seen that pattern fishing will produce a good bag for me as much as just trying to go around and trying to find the right wad of fish at the right time.”
Part of that may be a result of Hurricane Isaias, which brought over 3 inches of rain to Lake Murray and the surrounding areas. While lake management is working the lake down to winter pool, levels have risen slightly since Friday. The upper end of the lake is stained as well as run in areas down lake, but much of the lower end has stayed clean and the water temperatures have remained steady in the high 70s.
Dreyer has stayed around shallow water most of practice and has seen plenty of tournament-winning bass swimming around near the bank and off the bank using his forward-facing sonar. Many of those bass just follow his presentation and don’t commit.
“I’m seeing a lot of schools, but they aren’t firing off. They just won’t eat,” Dreyer said.
Gonzales has seen a similar situation play out in his region of Lake Murray.
“There is wolf packing going on, and that is the key. Finding the right wolfpack and getting to them at the right time will be very important. If you go around the bank, you’ll see big ones around, but they are extremely hard to get to bite.”
There’s no shortage of cover to fish. The lake is full of vegetation, the most Dreyer has ever seen in his time fishing Lake Murray. Some of it grows out to 20 feet of water. Docks are prominent. So is offshore brush. And then there are the blueback herring points that are still firing right now.
“I think a herring bite will carry somebody,” Gonzales said. “It is definitely happening out there. It isn’t always consistent, which is the case on any herring fishery. But the guys who are good at that kind of thing will find a way to catch good bags.”
Calmer conditions prevailed after the hurricane blew through, adding to the tough conditions. Day 1 is forecasted to be relatively calm, but that changes the final two days. Dreyer hopes that water movement will help trigger strikes he isn’t getting right now.
To combat the stingy bite, staying on the move will be crucial, Gonzales and Dreyer agree.
“From my perspective, to do well, you’re going to have to be willing to move a lot,” Gonzales said. “And you are going to be willing to come back to spots.”
The question hanging over the tournament lies up the river, where so many kayak anglers excel and want to live. The water is much dirtier above Dreher Island State Park, but with a couple of days to settle, it could provide a more consistent bite.
The tournament begins at 7 a.m. ET. Anglers will submit their catches to TourneyX in this catch-weigh-release format. Full coverage will be available on Bassmaster.com.
