MANNING, S.C. — Davy Hite loves Santee Cooper Lakes, so much that he and his wife, Natalie, purchased a condo in Santee earlier this year. The 55-year-old South Carolina native has fished here since he was a kid and competed professionally here several times over his B.A.S.S. career.
There’s no one better qualified for a show-and-tell session on Santee Cooper than Davy Hite, the 1999 Bassmaster Classic champion and the two-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year, if you want to know what’s going to happen in the four-day Elite Series tournament that begins here Thursday.
First, he “told” photographer Andy Crawford and me. Then he “showed” us. This tournament was originally scheduled for April 16-19, before the Covid-19 pandemic shook up the world and the Elite Series schedule.
“If this tournament had been held in the spring, it would have taken 100 pounds, plus or minus a little, to win,” said Hite, who is now part of the “Bassmaster LIVE” crew. “It’s hard to say this time of year, but I’d guess somewhere around 70 or 80 pounds. It’s going to fish very similar to Guntersville (last week) because of the time of year.
“It’s going to be feast or famine. There will be some real good stringers and some people who can’t catch one.”
That was the “tell” part of this excursion Wednesday morning. The “show” part came as we cruised around the lake and had brief conversations with various anglers.
“I caught 32-11 in a tournament here once, culled a 5-pounder and went in two hours early,” said Scott Canterbury, the reigning Elite Series Angler of the Year. “That was in March or April. I bet we don’t see a 32-pound bag this week. We’ll see something bigger than Guntersville, but not 30.”
Then we ran into Randy Sullivan, who is coming off a second-place finish at Lake Guntersville. Wednesday was the last of the three-day practice session.
“It was a really good first day,” Sullivan said. “I might have had 30 pounds.”
The last two days, not so much.
Then we had a short visit with Kyle Monti, who said, “This is the worst practice I’ve ever had for any tournament.”
Those three anglers summed up what Hite predicted: “It’s going to be feast or famine.”
Our tour Wednesday began at a launch ramp near the I-95 bridge. A thick fog was visible to the north. The water surface temperature was 70 degrees. With overnight temperatures predicted to be in the 60s, the possibility of fog delays exists at takeoffs this week. It’s that time of year. There was a brief fog delay Sunday at Lake Guntersville.
In describing the two lakes – Marion, the bigger of the two, and Moultrie, which are connected by a canal, Hite compared Marion to Toledo Bend. Both have grids of clearly marked boat lanes and abundant standing timber, almost exclusively cypress trees in Marion. Hite said Moultrie reminded him of a small Lake Okeechobee in its round shape and noted it’s full of stump fields. It seems most of the anglers are staying in Marion, which is closer to the John C. Land III Public Boat Ramp, where the takeoffs and weigh-ins will be held. But this huge expanse of structure-filled, shallow water has so many variables where an angler might find a niche to exploit.
“There was a one-day tournament here two weeks ago where it took 21 pounds to win,” Hite said. “That’s the least it’s taken to win a one-day, five-fish tournament here that I’ve seen in 10 years. I could see a guy catching 27 pounds one day and 10 the next. Consistency is going to be the key, just like at Guntersville.”
There was a different leader all four days at Guntersville when Frank Talley moved up the daily standings from 22nd to 9th to 6th to 1st place. Hite believes a similar 4 days/4 different leaders scenario is a possibility here, at a time of year when it’s so difficult to be consistent from day-to-day.
After an hour in the I-95 bridge area, Hite loaded his boat for a short drive to put in at Stump Hole Landing and an area generally known as “The Swamp” in Lake Marion. The cypress trees are thick here, not far from where the Congaree and Wateree rivers flow into the lake.
“As long as I can remember, this area has looked exactly like this,” Hite said.
Cypress trees are obvious fish-holding structure, but there are also plentiful laydowns and aquatic vegetation, like lily pads, water lilies and duckweed.
“People don’t like you talking about it, but there’s a lot that goes on around a cypress tree other than the tree trunk,” Hite said. “Bass will suspend in the shade from a cypress tree. Below the water, there’s a root ball that circles the tree, kind of like a donut. It holds fish too.”
Hite predicted most of the bass will be caught in five feet of water or less in this tournament. He dug into his tackle locker and displayed various baits that would cover that five-foot water column – topwater lures like frogs and Rapala’s X Prop with propellers front and back; weightless, wacky-rigged Senkos; square-billed crankbaits, like 13 Fishing’s Jabber Jaw, which features a vibrating metal lip; and, of course, a jig, like the Buckeye Mop Jig.
“Fish suspend around wood a lot,” Hite noted. “The wacky-rigged Senko is a big, big deal around here.”
The Elite Series was last here was in 2006 when Preston Clark weighed a whopping 115-15 to win. But that tournament was held March 30-April 2. As has been noted, this tournament will produce no such lofty totals in the fall transition period.
So expect something better than Guntersville, which was tough, as expected last week. Kyle Welcher’s 19-5 limit on Day 1 was as close to a 20-pound bag as anyone got in a lake famous for 20-pound bags. Talley’s winning total was 64-3 – an average of 16 pounds a day. Hite’s prediction of 70 to 80 pounds for this event sounds fitting for the season.
See the full gallery here.