Early action with Cory Johnston

Catch up with Cory Johnston as he brings 'em in early Semifinal Sunday on Santee Cooper!

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Photography by
Andy Crawford
Cory Johnston started Semi-Finals Sunday in a cove where he said he had marked bedding bass on Friday. He positioned his boat off the field of lilies, blind fishing known beds. He told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford he started blind fishing these beds, however. “I knew they were there, but I couldn’t see them,” Johnston said.
It only took minutes for him to sink the hook in his first bass, a chunky 4-pounder placed in the livewell at 7:47 a.m.
Johnston repositioned to another bed he knew was there but couldn’t see in the early morning light. He made a long pitch to the bed, hoping the fish he saw there on Friday would still be set up.
Again, Johnston set the hook after only a few pitches to the bed. This fish, which was landed just 3 minutes after the first bass, was logged into BASSTrakk at 3-14.
After re-rigging, Johnston moved across the cove to another spawning flat where he had several marked beds.
Johnston pulled out a push pole to move into the lilies as quietly as possible, and then hopped up on his electronics mount to get a good look at another bed.
Leader Drew Cook was less than 100 yards across the cove, working another shallow flat, where he caught several of the bass that put him on top of the leaderboard going into today.
The full moon was setting as Johnston and Cook worked the shallow spawning cove.
Johnston was working beds tucked deep into lily fields.
Cook was on point about 50 yards away, working a bed just inside the lilies.
Johnston made a few passes through the cove’s lilies but didn’t find anything that stopped him. “I’m seeing them,” he said as he moved out of the cove.
As Crawford followed Johnston around a corner of the cove, Cook held up a 5-pounder he had just landed. This was the first bass of the morning for Cook.
Johnston, meanwhile, slid around the corner into another lily filled cove and started looking at a bed.
And quickly pulled a 2 1/2-pounder off the bed to add to his morning’s bag. This gave him just less than 10 1/2 pounds.
Johnston quickly pulled up his trolling motor and headed across the creek to another cove. 
 He landed his fourth bass, this one a solid 5-pounder.