The South Carolina Division of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine is already in full swing. For its third stop of 2025, the circuit will head east to the Santee Cooper lakes on Feb. 22. While the relatively shallow, dirty waters of Santee Cooper will present a change from Lakes Murray and Hartwell (the first two events), a full-blown prespawn derby on the legendary fishery should offer anglers the chance to catch some true giants.
Signups for the event are open now. Remember that in 2025, the BFLs will feature an expanded slate of Regional events, which will give anglers more chances to qualify for the BFL All-American and further minimize travel costs. This expansion ensures that grassroots anglers can fish closer to home on lakes they know and love for a chance to win a $50,000 Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower outboard as a boater and a new $20,000 cash award as a co-angler, plus qualification into the All-American.
What to expect
Santee Cooper is a vast playing field comprised of two lakes, Marion and Moultrie. Together, they include more than 160,000 acres – and with countless cypress trees, stumps, docks and other forms of hard cover dotting the fishery, it might fish even bigger.
No one knows the system better than South Carolina native Kyle Austin. The winner of last April’s BFL on Santee Cooper as well as a Bassmaster Open on the fishery, Austin will be one of the anglers to beat. He believes whoever takes home the trophy will have to earn it with a big limit – possibly more than 30 pounds.
“There’s going to be some big weight, no doubt,” Austin said. “I’m going to try to catch 30.”
Many tournaments, including both of Austin’s wins last year, visit Santee Cooper during the heart of the spawn. This year, while there might be a few fish already on beds, Austin thinks most will still be staging and feeding up.
Last year’s Bass Pro Tour event on Santee Cooper, held around the same time of year, should provide some clues about what to expect. While several anglers found success fishing shallow around cypress trees, Jacob Wheeler won by running offshore brush with a jighead minnow. Justin Lucas put together the best day of the event (an insane 42 pounds, 6 ounces on six bass) following a similar game plan.
Austin said conditions will likely dictate the best approach. But if the lake’s current low, clear water persists, he thinks submerged wood could be the way to win.
“They had kind of dirty water, so guys were able to catch those prespawners shallower than what is probably going to happen in this one,” Austin said of last year’s BPT event. “On the low end of the lake, there’s probably not going to be a lot of power fishing going on. But there could be somebody going up in the swamp and finding that stained water, they could do good this tournament fishing up that way. It really all depends; it’s that time of year where it could change day to day.”
Part of the beauty of Santee Cooper is it’s easy to run from the crowd, and Austin thinks an angler could do well fishing on his own in this event. However, he predicted the most popular area will be the lower end of Lake Marion, where there’s more defined contours and offshore cover for bass to stage on.
“Santee has always been a place where it could be won from one end to the other, and you could have a really good tournament and never see a boat all day,” Austin explained. “That’s just how the lake is. It’s really all good. The takeoff side of the lake, around Potato Creek and Wyboo, that’s where a lot of your brushpiles and offshore fishing is going to go down. There’s going to be a lot of guys stay relatively close to takeoff and do pretty good.”
Regardless of how competitors choose to target them, Austin said generating big bites – and putting them in the boat – is going to be mandatory to contend.
“The fish are getting heavy,” he said. “They are wanting to go to the bank. It’s just that time of year. But they’re not there yet. So, it should be good fishing. Should be a heavyweight prespawn tournament.”