|
Columbia, SC
– Lake Murray was initially constructed as a hydroelectric generation facility, but it has evolved into one of the most storied bass fisheries in the nation. With Santee Cooper drawing much of the springtime glory, many will tell you that Murray is the best all-around bass fishery in South Carolina.
As any good Realtor will tell you, it all comes down to location. And for the 77 pros and their respective co-anglers who have earned their way into this week’s Forrest Wood Cup, they are each hoping that they’ve found it during practice. If not, it’s going to be tough to recover.
The weather is always an issue in fishing, and this week is no exception. While there isn’t any daunting weather expected, the week leading up to the event hasn’t done much to help the fishermen. It was hot during practice, as it typically is in the Deep South during August, but an unusual cold front passed through the area dumping rain and lowering temperatures considerably.
This, obviously, took much of the information pros learned during practice out of play so that Thursday’s opening round will, basically, be fresh for everyone. At 41 miles long with just over 52,000 surface acres, there are plenty of nooks and crannies, points, and shoreline cover to target, but pinning down what the bass are oriented to is the tricky part.
The weather change only further exacerbated the location issue as the bass at Murray aren’t at all predictable – at least this time of the year. Most generally, tournaments are held in the spring when bass are either feeding up for the spawn or are feeding after it’s over. In both cases, their forage of choice is the lake’s abundant supply of blueback herring. So, conventional wisdom would say that if you find the herring you’ve found the fish.
This pursuit of herring makes Murray fish a lot like a merry-go-round in spring tournaments as the bass act more like striper than largemouth and anglers rotate from shallow point to shallow point trying to pick up a key keeper off each. Early reports indicate that this week the shallow bite is present but tough to pattern.
For the most part, it’s typical summertime fishing where big football jigs and Carolina Rigs, along with a healthy dose of luck and timing, will serve as the main ingredients for quality bags of bass. The “What if?” here is if the forecast for clouds this week pans out making the shallow bite stronger.
In either case, at the FLW Championship this week there will be someone who rises above the challenge. To get a better grasp on the situation, The BASS ZONE caught up with a handful of pros for their take on how the week might unfold:
Alvin Shaw
“I’ve fished (Murray) a lot, but mainly in the spring, when it fishes so well. It’s just a phenomenal fishery but during practice it’s been tough. Knowing what I know about the lake this time of the year, that’s to be expected though.
“It’s going to be a tough tournament, but I like to think that I can excel when conditions are tough like this. Although my practice was really tough, I like to think that I’m versatile enough to be able to adjust to whatever the conditions dictate. That’s going to be the key here this week…being open-minded and flexible.
“I think that for the first two days, 20 to 25 pounds will get you to the weekend. That would be a pretty good weight, I believe. The fish are just really scattered right now.”
Carl
Svebek
“Practice has been pretty tough for me this week. I spent about 75% of my time the first two days trying to find those guys out deep, and it just wasn’t happening. Tuesday I was finally able to go out and get some bites. I don’t know if they had any size to them because I shook them all off, but I had eight bites. We’ll just have to see what happens once the tournament starts but I’m ready to get started either way.
“I don’t think that the weather front that we had really affected them too much. A lot of times I think the fish are a lot smarter than we are because we try and rationalize what the weather will have done to the fishing, and maybe over-think it a little sometimes.
“I still think that regardless of the weather changes this week, there’ll be a lot of fish that come to the scales. I really haven’t spoken to a lot of folks, but I think right now it will take 11 to 12 pounds a day to make the Top 10. I just haven’t found anything grouped up, so I believe that it’s going to come down to being at the right place at the right time. The game plan for me is to cover as much water as possible this week.”
Steve Kennedy
“I’ve covered a lot of water this week. I thought that I was going to stay in one creek, but I went in there and never got a bite. So I went down by the dam into another creek and someone had been doing a lot of work cutting some logs in there, but I only got one bite.
“I found out through all of that that it’s fishing tough. I didn’t expect it to fish anything like it was when (The Elite Series) was here. It’s going to take some special conditions to get them to bite consistently. I just plan on going up the river and flipping everything I can. If I get a check out of it, great. If not, oh well.
“I think that 11 or 12 pounds a day will get you in the Top 10. I haven’t talked to anyone else, but based on what I’ve seen that’s about as good as you can hope for. You’re not really going for a limit this week; you’re going for one bite at a time. The deal here is that if you’re in the right place at the right time you can get healthy in a hurry. That’s going to be a big factor.”
Gabe Bolivar
“Practice has been up and down. I’ve had a couple of good days, and a couple of not-so-good days. I really haven’t found a whole lot during practice, but I think that I’m going to be fishing off the bank because I really think that’s how it’s going to be won. But based on my practice, if I can get five fish in the boat (Thursday) I’m going to be real happy.
“The blueback herring are in all depths right now. I’ve seen some on the bank, and I’ve seen them on my graph out deep. I really don’t know how big a factor they’ll have this week. The real key that I’ve been focusing on is offshore cover – like brush piles. It can’t be anything that’s new though. The older the better is what I’ve found. I think that’s how the big stringers will be caught.
“If there was some weather than came in that let them move to the banks that could play a big factor too. They aren’t calling for that kind of weather this week, but the little front that passed through this week most likely hurt the guys that were fishing shallow. I know that the water has gotten muddy with all of the clay banks here.”
Greg Pugh
“I had one of the best practices here that I’ve had all year. A lot of big fish this week, but I don’t know what this rain has done to them. I feel really confident going into this tournament, so hopefully it will all work out for the best.
“I think that 10 pounds a day will be real good based on what I’ve seen. It may take more, and hopefully I’ve got enough to stay in there. I’m going to shoot for 16 pounds a day and see what happens. There are just so many ways to catch them, but the key is whether or not the fish stay in the same place from one day to the next.
“Based on that, I think for all four days you’re going to need a mixture of deep and shallow fish. With the weekend traffic that will come in, the shallow bite will likely go away.”
Art Ferguson
“I wish I could say something really great, but the truth is that practice has been really confusing for me this week. They are just so scattered out right now that you can’t really put anything together. I’ve caught a few small fish on a Carolina Rig, and I’ve caught a few fish flipping a jig. They’re just all over the place.
“If things go well, I will have 8 pounds (Thursday). If things go really well, I’ll have 12 (pounds)…that’s just how it’s been during practice. In all reality, I’m just trying to catch five fish a day. I’m not really as excited as I’ve been going into this tournament as I have in the last three that I’ve fished. I’ve just had a horrible practice.”
Anthony Gagliardi
“I didn’t have a great practice…I didn’t catch a lot of fish, but that’s kind of how I practice too. I spent a lot of time out here before it went off limits and put a game plan together. The four days
of practice, I spent a lot of time looking for stuff that was similar to what I found
then.
“The only wild card for me is the weather. Right now, with the weather we’re having, I don’t know what’s going to happen because it’s so unusual for this area to have weather like this right now. I feel like I know enough about the lake to be able to adjust, so the nerves aren’t a factor right now. But fishing for a million dollars though – especially once you’ve made the cut – will make the nerves come out.
“With the weather we’ve had this week, it could actually make it a lot easier for some of the guys. All it takes here is one good bite to go from middle-of-the-pack to a contender.”
Andy Morgan
“Practice was decent. I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is…it’s just a typical summertime deal. I’m kind of skeptical of how things will go after this rain though. Who knows, it might actually help things.
“Fishing at Murray is kind of a ‘hustle game,’ and I can do that as well as anyone. I’m really looking forward to this week. I’ve been mad about my last tournament for a while, so I’m ready to get back on the water. Being that close is kind of disheartening.
“I’ve come into this week with the mindset that I’m going to fish knee-deep or less. Doing that, I feel like I can get 10 pounds a day. I think if you can get more than that, you’re going to be a lot richer come Sunday.”
|
