Santee Cooper Midday Update – Day 3
Lots has changed since day one
After high winds canceled day two, the full field went out today not knowing what yesterday’s weather did to the fish. After a half day of fishing, most guys still don’t seem to know, other than they can’t find them.
The weather is downright gorgeous for the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division finale on Santee Cooper presented by Power-Pole. Much like day one, it’s blue skies, sunshine and little wind. That said, any sort of spawning deal seams be over.
Both FLW Tour pro Buddy Gross (sitting in 30th) and Bryan New (16th) were both cycling through the same area on the lower end of Marion pitching wacky rigs to isolated cypress tress. Both said they had quick, solid limits doing it Thursday, but after a few hours, Gross only had one and New just two, though New also lost two more.
After a number of guys excelled flipping up in the swamp on the north end of Marion, so we sent a photographer up there. He never found Laramy Strickland or Robert Crosnoe, but he did find sixth-place’s William Fletcher. He had four fish for little less than 10 pounds around 9:30 a.m.
He was the only one up there catching them, though, as our guy stopped on a bunch more pros, and none had more than one fish, though Frank Kitchens’ one fish was a 5-pounder.
On the lower end, local Lex Costas’ deep cranking bite in the canal between Marion and Moultrie hadn’t fired yet. He had just three fish, as he and his co-angler were catching more stripers than bass.
Into Moultrie, we finally connected with leader Bradford Beavers right before we got off the water. He had at least 16 pounds, with one kicker closing in on 7 pounds. That said, he was worried someone punching up in the swamp would bring in another big bag, and thus he said he might have to pull a few tricks out of his bag to seal the victory.
Weigh-in starts at 2:30 p.m. ET, and as the sun heats up, so should the fishing. Will Beavers crack the 20-pound mark and take it home? Or will someone from deep in the swamp bring in a monster bag to catch him? We’ll find out.