COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lake Murray showed out for PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 Presented by Strike King, as the quality of bass in the South Carolina lake quickly became apparent on the first day of competition in the third Bass Pro Tour event of the regular season. With many bass itching to spawn, there were multiple ways to catch fish. Winner Drew Gill maximized his forward-facing sonar period fishing away from the bank and then effectively switched gears to more traditional fishing around docks, a key strategy for nearly all of the Top 10.
Here’s a deeper look at how they caught ’em.
1. Drew Gill – 58-2 (19)
In just his second season on the Bass Pro Tour, Gill continued to impress, notching his second BPT win in his young career. Gill had a strategy going into the event, and it worked to perfection.
“I put together a pretty precise game plan,” he said. “I went deep during practice and found a good deep-minnow deal. It wasn’t insane numbers, but they bit really well. If you saw one, you would likely catch it. I was using a 4-inch minnow in shad patterns on a 1/4-ounce head, and the key was having a smaller 1/0 hook on the jighead to get the best action out of the bait.”
After the time had expired for his first period with forward-facing sonar, Gill went shallow.
“I knew the shallow fish was my best opportunity to put a bait in front of a bass consistently,” he said. “I was skipping docks and dialed in the type of dock, which was docks in that 4- to 6-foot zone with no dock poles, just floats. During practice, we could use forward-facing sonar the whole time, and I’d notice the bass would follow the Neko rig down, then swim back up, and then they’d come back down to get it, so I fished very slow, almost like I was bed fishing and taking around 45 seconds per cast.”
Gill’s key bait was a Big Bite Baits Nekorama in various hues, with a No. 1 straight-shank hook and a 1/16-ounce tungsten Bass Pro Shops nail weight. Gill focused on the mid-lake area not far from takeoff in either direction and, interestingly, had a wide range of places to choose from.
“I found a zone that I could get bit consistently without having to be around a bunch of other boats,” Gill said. “I only saw one other competitor around there in four days, so I knew I had it all to myself. That kept me optimistic that if I was around a bass, it was a fresh one.”
2. Jacob Wheeler – 55-15 (20)
Like Gill, Jacob Wheeler started each morning targeting fish feeding on baitfish in deeper water before heading to the shallows. His plan nearly paid off with another win, but he ultimately fell one bass short. Still, he took over the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year points lead nearly halfway through the season.
“Each morning, I was catching fish in the back of pockets that were eating shad,” he said. “That seemed like the better deal for the morning, so I went with a Crush City Mooch Minnow because the smaller size was how big the shad were. I fished it on a 1/8-ounce VMC Redline Tungsten Swimbait Head, and the lighter weight was key. These fish are smart, and you needed a more finesse approach and natural look as it was falling; they wouldn’t eat one on a 3/16- or 1/4-ounce as well.”
For the final two periods, Wheeler mixed it up with some cranking, pitching, and a Neko rig.
“I caught some fish on a Rapala DT-6 in mule cranking around some rock early in the week and also caught some flipping a laydown with a Crush City Bronco Bug on the final day,” he said. “The primary bait was a Neko rig, though, with a Crush City Janitor worm with a 1/16-ounce nail weight and Size 1 straight shank hook. I was fishing it around docks, but as the water warmed up, they started to get on the walkways better every day after they started at the floats on the ends of them earlier in the week.”
3. Marshall Robinson – 37-10 (11)
Bucking the trend, Marshall Robinson utilized his forward-facing sonar in the second period but went with a drop-shot and Neko rig instead of a minnow. He opted for this approach after struggling to find a consistent morning bite.
“I could not catch them first thing in the morning, man, so it was all Period 2 and 3 for me,” he said. “If have figured them out in the first period, I may have made a run at winning it, but I’m satisfied with my finish.”
Focusing on the lower end of the lake near the dam, Robinson targeted docks in cleaner water.
“This lake is full of docks from one end to the other, and it’s no secret you need to fish docks on Murray, but you had to be very patient,” he said. “I would skip a Neko rig or cast a drop-shot up there, leave it on the bottom, and twitch it. Eventually, it would make them mad enough to come down and eat it.”
His two key baits were a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko in green pumpkin and watermelon shades fished on a Size 1 or 2 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger Wacky/Neko Hook with a small nail weight.
“I added a little plastic sleeve to the Senko so I could skip it way under there and not mess up the bait,” he said. “On the drop-shot, I used both 4.5- and 6-inch Roboworm Straight Worms in margarita mutilator, morning dawn and oxblood. The key was using a real light 1/8- or 3/16-ounce drop-shot weight and keeping it finesse.”
4. Mark Daniels Jr. – 36-2 (13)
Mark Daniels Jr. used forward-facing sonar sparingly, including a whole day without even turning it on, but secured a solid finish primarily fishing docks. He spent his time up the lake, near the split of the two rivers coming into the lake.
“This was a heavy prespawn event, and the bigger female fish were on the docks, the floats themselves, and the catwalks,” Daniels said. “We lost the sun on the final day, and that changed how I liked them to be positioned, which hurt the bite a little.”
He went with a Neko rig, a Crush City Janitor, or Zoom Trick Worm in various green pumpkin shades.
“The primary bait was the Janitor, but I ran out of them, even after bumming a bunch of them from Dustin Connell,” he said. “Then I switched to the Trick Worm and fished them on a Size 2 Owner Weedless Sniper Finesse Neko Hook, but then I ran out of those, too.”
5. Brent Ehrler – 30-4 (10)
California’s Brent Ehrler scored yet another Bass Pro Tour Top-10 finish with a wide range of baits, but primarily focused on docks on the lower end of the lake.
“I had a bunch of different stuff going on, but started my first period with forward-facing sonar fishing around brush piles,” Ehrler said. “The first day was with a Yamamoto Scope Shad in Tennessee shad on a 1/4-ounce Buckeye Lures G-Stroll Jig Head. I also caught them with a Yamamoto Senko on a Neko rig and drop-shot out there deeper, casting to individual fish.”
He chose a green pumpkin purple Senko, 3/32 Ark Tungsten Nail Weight, and a No. 1 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Weedless Stinger Wacky Hook for his Neko rig. He went with a 6-inch Roboworm Straight Worm in morning dawn with a 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook and 1/4-ounce Ark Tungsten drop-shot weight for his drop-shot.
“After the morning, it seemed like they wanted a wacky rig with a Senko better,” Ehrler said. “I was targeting docks, but it was weird; there wasn’t a real pattern. You’d get one on point, one in the back of a pocket, some on walkways, and some on the end of the docks. It was hard to figure out where you would get a bite, but one key was they were all in the shade. They wouldn’t be on the sunny side.”
6. Bryan Thrift – 27-4 (9)
Bryan Thrift earned his first Top-10 finish of the season fishing with the style he’s known for – moving often and hitting many different spots. His approach was all power fishing with a host of moving baits.
“I was catching all of my fish on reaction baits. Crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, and jerkbaits, it was kind of a hodgepodge,” Thrift said. “I was catching some on a Damiki Tremor 65 lipless, a SPRO lipless, a Berkley Frittside crankbait, a Damiki Abyss 90 jerkbait, and some on a Megabass Vision ONETEN. I had 20 rods on my deck and probably caught fish on 19 of them.”
Aside from using so many different baits, Thrift kept things moving as he fished from the dam to far up the rivers and everywhere in between.
“The biggest key was keeping a moving bait in my hand and covering water,” he said. “It seemed like whenever I would catch one, I would catch several more because they were definitely in groups for me. That seemed to be the better pattern instead of dragging a bait around or running docks for single fish. Some of my areas were in pockets, some were secondary points, and some were right on the main lake; there was no real pattern.”
7. Jeff Sprague – 24-6 (7)
The first two days of the event were all Jeff Sprague’s, as he posted the highest weight totals of those days and the two highest individual totals anyone posted during the tournament. He won his group and skipped the Knockout Round, mainly with a crankbait.
“This week, I started practice throwing a prototype Lake Fork Lures finesse worm and was catching on isolated stumps and docks,” Sprague said. “That was just too slow of fishing for me, and I picked up a crankbait to fish faster. I picked up a Norman Deep Little N in a fire craw color, and it was lights out; they were crushing that thing.”
Sprague went all-in on the cranking bite and hardly used his allotted forward-facing time, even during the periods he had it on.
“I was mainly just cranking staging points and secondary stuff,” he said. “I looked at my Lowrance C-Map mapping and started looking for places where those contour lines tightened up close to the bank. Then, I looked for a turn and places where it would flatten out. The fish weren’t in the very backs of the pockets yet; they were staging in deep places where they turned into flats.”
He spent his time down the lake in some of the clearest water on the lake.
“I stayed on the lower end all week. I did run up and check the rivers in practice, but the quality of fish was better for me down the lake,” he said.
8. Matt Becker – 23-3 (7)
A past winner on Lake Murray, Matt Becker had another great event on one of his favorite lakes in the country. His pattern was similar to others who made it to the final day – starting ‘Scoping and then picking up a wacky rig around docks.
“The main pattern this week was looking for secondary points that the fish were using to stage, whether there was grass, rock, or clay type points,” he said. “Those points leading into spawning pockets were key; from there, I expanded to other areas.”
Becker started his morning with a jighead minnow, either a 4-inch Yamamoto Scope Shad in violet flash or a 5-inch Deps Sakamata Shad, before switching to a Yamamoto Senko on a wacky rig.
“After the morning bite, it was about skipping that Senko in the mowed grass color on a Size 2 TroKar TK137 finesse wacky hook,” he said.
9. Alton Jones Jr. – 19-8 (7)
Each morning, Alton Jones Jr. started targeting bass mixed with stripers and gorging on shad. This was when he utilized his forward-facing sonar and a jighead minnow.
“I was using a 3/8-ounce Decoy jighead and Crush City Mooch Minnow in shad colors,” he said. “There was really only one place I found in practice that had bass eating shad. You could find the stripers everywhere on the lake, but that was the only place I found where the bass were mixed in. Wheeler also found that area but was fishing further back in than I was.”
After the morning flurry, Jones ventured up the river searching for dirtier water and pulled out the spinnerbait.
“I could get around tons of fish down the lake, but they were really difficult for me to catch, and my percentage was higher in the dirty water,” he said. “I was using two different spinnerbaits, a 1/2-ounce with double Indiana blades and a 3/8-ounce with a Colorado blade, when I needed to get it down. Both were white with some strands of green in the skirt, and I used a Geecrack Jack Master swimbait as my trailer.”
He also ventured to the docks in sunny conditions with a wacky rig.
“I was using a Geecrack SAF Stick that will be out later this year,” Jones said. “It’s a stickbait style but has their SAF plastic, so it has a different hardness to it,” he said.
10. Jake Lawrence – 18-10 (7)
In just his third Bass Pro Tour event, Jake Lawrence added another Top 10. The decorated rookie mixed it up on Murray and found success early and late in the day.
“It was a two-pronged approach, starting early with forward-facing sonar and then going to the docks after that,” Lawrence said. “In the mornings, I was targeting fish eating threadfin shad, I never found the herring this week. The shad were in the back third of the bays and there was some good activity early in the mornings, but after about 9 o’clock every morning, they’d settle back down to the bottom and get hard to catch.”
For his early bite, Lawrence fished a 3-inch Yamamoto Scope Shad in stealth ice out on a 1/4-ounce jighead, and then he’d pick up a Neko rig and head to the docks, staying within a few miles of Dreher Island State Park all week.
“The only way I could consistently generate bites after the sun came up was skipping a Big Bite Baits Nekorama in green pumpkin with a 1/16-ounce weight under the nastiest dock you could find,” he said. “I fished on a 2/0 Owner Jungle Wacky Hook. Looking back, I wished I had spent more time on the back three docks in the pockets because every time I’d catch one back there, I had just enough bites midway back to keep me fishing those, but I spent a lot of time doing it.”