Many anglers are familiar with the Santee Cooper lake complex in South Carolina and the excellent bass fishing it provides. But on Saturday, Feb. 22 the well known lake complex went above and beyond, providing Bass Fishing League tourney anglers with a day they’ll never forget. One angler weighed in a five-fish bag in excess of 35 pounds, and another brought a 13-plus-pounder to the scales.
The 35-Pound Bag
Boater Brent Riley of Cross, South Carolina, put a hurting on Santee Cooper’s largemouth population by landing an incredible 35-pound, 3-ounce bag to clinch victory at the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League stop. The big bag was the 12th largest in BFL history, but it’s made even more impressive by the fact that one of the bass only weighed about 3.5 pounds, with the others weighing about 8 pounds each.
“I just had one of those days,” Riley told MLF after the tournament. “The first spot, I caught an 8-pounder. Second spot, I caught an 8-pounder and I lost two good ones – one about 7 pounds. Third spot, I caught one about 8. And fourth spot I caught one about 8. I had four right at 8 pounds and another one that was about 3 1/2. Then I culled twice for very little difference.”
Riley is certainly no slouch when it comes to tournament angling; once winning an old Red Man tournament (precursor to the BFL series) with another mid-30s limit. He and a partner once weighed in a 10-bass limit that came in at 60 pounds. He’s also fished the BFL All-American and the Bassmaster Classic. If he hadn’t dropped a big one at the boat, Riley’s bag could have been over 40 pounds (a feat we saw recently at Sam Rayburn).
“What was crazy was watching the one that I lost that was right at the boat with my partner trying to get to it with the net. It got into a little bit of grass, and we watched it just spit out the lure and swim away,” Riley told MLF. “That was like my second fish, and I thought, ‘Woah, there it goes. There’s no recovering from that.’ And then it just got better and better. I thought, ‘Wow, how good a day am I having here?’”
Second place went to James Gibbons, Timmonsville, South Carolina. He managed to put together a 31-pound, 3-ounce bag, which has a good chance of putting you on the podium most days. This is another testament to the fishery that Santee-Cooper has become.
Chuck Bagwell of Laurens, South Carolina, won the co-angler division after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 2 ounces.
13 Pound, 6 Ounce Monster
Boater Gary Pope of Georgetown, South Carolina, had a day that would have grabbed all the headlines, if not for Riley’s bag. He boated a bass that weighed 13 pounds, 6 ounces to take the Berkley Big Bass Boater award. The big fish is tied for the largest ever caught in MLF Bass Fishing League history, which is impressive considering the fisheries the tour stops at as well as the quality of the anglers.
Texas seems like the current big bass hotspot thanks to the numbers of ShareLunkers being caught, but you might need to put Santee Cooper on your hit list for outsized largemouths.
