Warren blasts 25-5 to grab Day 1 lead at Santee Cooper
CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — September is typically synonymous with tough fishing throughout the Southeast, so it didn’t come as a surprise that the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division anglers had to grind for bites on Day 1 at Santee Cooper. Still, the famed fishery proved that it’s always capable of yielding lunker largemouth.
Casey Warren found a few of them Thursday. On a day when only two pros cleared the 20-pound mark, the South Carolina native brought a 25-pound, 5-ounce monster bag to the scales, giving him a 5-3 lead over Jared Lintner.
On the Strike King co-angler side, Clyde Cox put together a stout bag weighing 15-8. One of just three co-anglers to weigh a five-fish limit, Cox also boated the Berkley Big Bass of the day among the co-anglers with a 7-12 lunker. He leads Dan Basham by 2-5.
Warren finds the right bites
Warren lives about two hours away from Santee Cooper and owns property nearby, so he’s quite familiar with the fishery, calling it his home lake. Still, even after spending about two weeks practicing for this event, he surprised himself Thursday.
Like many in the field, Warren didn’t get many bites, saying he caught 10 keepers throughout the day. But after catching a lot of 1- to 2.5-pound bass in recent days, he landed on the right ones. Warren’s bag included three bass around the 5-pound mark and was anchored by an 8-pound brute (which he believes would have earned Berkley Big Bass honors had he not forgotten to weigh it in his excitement).
“Everything that I have seen — which hasn’t been many — has been little,” Warren said. “A lot of 12-inchers to 2 1/2-pounders. I was going to be happy today with 13 to 15 pounds, so definitely surprised at the quality.”
Warren revealed only that he “covered a lot of water” Thursday. Incredibly, his total could have been even better. At one point, he tried to boat-flip a big bass, but the fish came unhooked in mid-air, bounced on his front deck and flopped off the other side, back into the water. Had he been able to replace the lone small fish in his limit with that one, Warren believes he would have weighed more than 30 pounds.
Still, it’s hard not to feel good about a 25-pound day and a 5-pound lead. Warren, who has five Top-10 finishes on his résumé, including two Phoenix Bass Fishing League events on Santee Cooper, said he was “super excited — and anxious, nervous at the same time” for the Toyota Series to return to the venue. So far, so good.
While he knows wild weight swings could be in store this week, he’s encouraged by the fact that he only saw one competitor fishing nearby on Day 1. He also believes fish are moving toward his area, which has him optimistic about his chances of earning his first professional win.
“Everything I caught today is coming to me, so there’s some more fish coming,” he said. “I hate to jinx myself and it get bad, but the way it’s looking, I’m going to be OK.”
Lintner milks one area to the tune of 20 pounds
The last time Lintner competed on Santee Cooper, when the Bass Pro Tour visited Lakes Marion and Moultrie in February, he felt optimistic after practice but struggled once competition began, finishing 71st. Vowing to explore all new water this time around, he found practice tough. But it didn’t take long to get off to a strong start on Day 1.
Starting in an area where he got two bites during practice, Lintner caught a 5-pounder around 7:45 a.m. He hunkered down, and while the action wasn’t exactly fast and furious (it took nearly 3 hours to catch another keeper), he went on to fill out his limit and add a 7-4 kicker to the bag, pushing his total above 20 pounds.
“I didn’t even know if I could catch a fish today,” Lintner said. “Practice was extremely tough. I found one little area where I had two bites in practice, and the conditions really weren’t good when I was in there, and I was like, well, maybe if we get a little bit of wind or some clouds. So, I started there, and right away I caught like a 5-pounder, and I was like, OK. I tried to just settle into this area, and I pretty much only started the boat twice, and that was basically just to make sure it would start.”
Lintner spent most of his time wielding moving baits and estimated that 80% of his bites came on those presentations, although he did slow down at times.
No surprise, he plans to return to the same area on Day 2. While he did note that it’s “decently sized” and that he didn’t see many competitors fishing nearby on Thursday, he’s not sure how many fish are left to be caught — especially considering Cox’s 15-pound bag came from the back of his boat.
“I don’t have like somewhere else I could go, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go over there and catch a limit,'” Lintner said. “So, I’m just going to grind it out. Hopefully I get some more bites.”
Top 10 pros:
- Casey Warren — 25-5 (5)
- Jared Lintner — 20-2 (5)
- Bennett Lawshe — 19-11 (5)
- Thomas Wooten — 18-11 (5)
- Colbie Cagle — 17-9 (5)
- Jessie Mizell — 17-2 (5)
- Michael Neal — 16-14 (5)
- Lonnie Oneal — 16-9 (5)
- Bryan Cook — 16-7 (5)
- David Goshorn — 15-6 (5)