GEORGETOWN, S.C. — After one event this season, it looked like it was going to be more of the dismal same for Australia native Carl Jocumsen during his second Elite Series season. He finished 105th in the 2015 opener at the Sabine River. Jocumsen placed 104th two weeks ago in the 2016 season opener at Florida’s St. Johns River.
Although those tournaments were a year apart and at vastly different fisheries, they did have one thing in common: Most of the Elite Series anglers had competed there previously.
Thursday at Winyah Bay, which is relatively unknown to all these anglers, Jocumsen shined brightest. He took the Day 1 lead with a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 11 ounces in the Huk Performance Fishing Bassmaster Elite at Winyah Bay presented by GoRVing.
Yes, growing up in Australia gave him experience with tidal waters like this. Jocumsen finished 10th in another tidal fishery last season – Chesapeake Bay. But that wasn’t his key to success.
“It’s more about coming to an event that these guys don’t know,” the 31-year-old Jocumsen said. “If you put me on Kentucky Lake or in Florida on the St. Johns River, where these guys have fished multiple times, that’s a massive wall in front of me. It’s trying to beat them at their own game.
“But to try and find something here – with a level playing field – I can go look for something different. There’s no preconceived idea in how it actually goes down. I wish all the tournaments were like this. It puts me on a level playing field.
“I want to get good enough to beat these guys at those spots like Kentucky Lake, where the same guys smash ‘em all the time. But it takes a lot of years to get that good.”
Jocumsen finished 94th in the Elite Series Angler of the Year points standings last season in his rookie year. But he didn’t go unnoticed. Jocumsen enjoyed another highlight performance at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, where he finished sixth. And Guntersville is one of those lakes where the same guys seem to smash them all the time, plus it isn’t a tidal fishery.
But it’s easy to see his point: On a vast body of water like Winyah Bay, which is just as unfamiliar to the rest of the field as it is to Jocumsen, he’s got a better chance to succeed, especially with his trademark positive attitude and willingness to work.
Even with the one-hour delay Thursday morning due to a thunderstorm, Jocumsen never hesitated about making the 80-miles-plus run to the Cooper River. Everyone knew going into this event that the long run down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Georgetown was a hero-or-zero deal. (And there were eight zeroes Thursday, including accomplished anglers like Skeet Reese and Ott DeFoe.)
Jocumsen said he came here for three days of pre-practice before it went off-limits a month ago, and he knew then where he was going to fish Thursday, even with very little time to do it.
“I didn’t care if I had only two hours to fish, I was going to run up there,” he said.
In practice this week, Jocumsen had several bites in one area, but shook them off without setting a hook. He found out what was there Thursday.
“The wind made it tough to fish,” he said. “I almost bailed on that spot. It took me over an hour to get a bite. I knew I had not even three hours to fish, so after an hour I was thinking I’ve got to move. But I kept myself there, slowed down and got the big one. Once you get a fish like that, you’re not moving.”
The big one was a 7-3. And it wasn’t the only big one. Jocumsen landed a 6-9 there, five minutes before heading back to Georgetown with almost 20 pounds in the boat.
“It has all the ingredients for a winning spot,” he said. “It has all the ingredients for fish to come back there. It’s really going to be up to me.”
If nothing else, Jocumsen will enter Day 2 a much more confident angler than he was awhen the tournament began. He was in the first flight Thursday, with a check-in time of 3:20 p.m. Friday he’ll be in the last flight, with a check-in time of 4:20 p.m.
“I’ll be nowhere near as nervous,” Jocumsen said. “I’m comfortable now. I know what I’m in for. I’m looking forward to going fishing (Friday).”