A look at Santee Cooper Lakes

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Written by
Mike Suchan
Just a week after the Classic, B.A.S.S. doesn’t have far to reconvene for the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes, March 17-20. A number of B.A.S.S. records have been set on the fishery in the southeast section of South Carolina.
More than a third of the 94 Elites fished in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk, which was won in dramatic fashion by Jason Christie in the Upcountry of South Carolina on Lake Hartwell. It’s a 180 for the anglers as they move down to the Low Country of South Carolina in the tournament hosted by Clarendon County.
Santee Cooper Lakes gets its name from the two rivers feeding the New Deal era reservoirs. The huge bodies of water are actually called Lake Marion (top), the largest in the state, and Lake Moultrie, the third largest.
Formed by the Santee Dam in 1941, Marion’s 110,000 surface acres earned the nickname of South Carolina’s inland sea.
Moultrie, created by the Pinopolis Dam on the Cooper River, is 60,000 acres. There is a six-mile canal connecting the lakes. Together, the 170,000 acres create a huge task for Elites trying to map out a plan of attack.
The John C. Land III Sport Fishing Facility in Summerton is tournament central, with daily takeoffs at 7:30 a.m. ET. Weigh-ins are set there for 3:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to all B.A.S.S. venues free of charge.
Santee Cooper Lakes were ranked third in Bassmaster Magazine’s list of 100 Best Bass Lakes in 2021, and they earned the 23rd spot as best lakes of the decade in 2020. In the 1994 South Carolina Invitational here, O.T. Fears set the B.A.S.S. three-day weight record at 77-4 and the five-fish daily limit mark of 34-4.
The biggest feat, however, was Preston Clark setting the all-time weight record in the 2006 Elite on Santee Cooper Lakes. Clark weighed in 115 pounds, 15 ounces, topping the previous four-day mark of 108-12, which was set five years earlier on Lake Toho.
There have been 14 pro level B.A.S.S. events on Santee Cooper Lakes, with legendary anglers Roland Martin and Jimmy Houston winning there in the 1970s. The most recent Bassmaster event there was the 2020 Elite won by Brandon Palaniuk.
Palaniuk rallied to his fifth Elite title with a big final day, catching the daily big bass of 7-12 in his 22-11 limit. He won by 8 pounds with a total of 72-2. That might seem low, but the event was moved to October that year because of COVID.
Huge weights are anticipated as bass could be rushing to beds, Patrick Walters said of his home lake. Walters adds there is a good possibility an angler or two will break 100 pounds in the event. “It could line up for the perfect storm,” he said. “A lot of the fish wait for the water level to get right before they spawn, and if it rises even a half a foot, it is going to be scary.”
Walters said there is more to fish than the thousands upon thousands of cypress trees. “There are so many different faces to this lake and so many different types of fishing you can do on Marion and Moultrie,” he said. “There’s bluffs, flats, cypress trees, flooded timber, grass, depressions. Anything you can imagine to fish, you can fish here, and it is such a huge fishery and so diverse.”
The weather, including a full moon, should help the bass push to spawning flats. The anglers have a chilly start to practice, but temperatures are warming with highs forecast into the upper 70s.
The lake features lily pads, gator grass, water willow and other bank grasses where anglers can pick up a key bite. “Sight fishing is going to play a big factor,” Walters said.
Anglers will surely flip and pitch around the cypress trees and other flooded cover, and spinnerbaits could also play a big role. “I think both lakes will play, and I think it will be a good shallow-water tournament,” Walters said. “It will open some eyes. I think it will take 90 to 100 pounds to win.”