With the largemouth bass bite on fire lately, and 91 teams fishing the Santee Open Team Tournament, director Nelson Walker predicted it would take at least 30 pounds to win the $5000 top prize for the biggest bag of 5 fish. Mark Hutson and Greg Elsey came to the scales early during the weigh-in, and put a total weight of 34.8 lbs on the leaderboard, proving Walker right. Hutson and Elsey were never seriously challenged by any of the remaining teams, and won by almost 8 pounds.

Hutson, who caught a 10.5 lb largemouth on his way to 1st place in the BFL from this same landing two weeks earlier, said he and Elsey fished both the upper and lower lakes, and caught their biggest fish on the bed early in the day. The rest of their fish came on brush piles and around cypress trees. Soft plastic crawdads and Senkos served as their main lure choices. Their biggest fish weighed 8.73 and was good for 2nd place big fish, putting $260 in bonus money in their pocketes, and was just one of two 8+ pounders they brought to the scales.

Marc Deschenes and Ray Walsh took second place with 26.87 lbs, pocketing $2500. Deschenes, who said he grew up fishing the lower lake, said they spent most of the tournament fishing the shallows and cypress trees of the upper lake.

Ronnie McCoy and Kevin Bazen finished third with 26.44 lbs, winning $2000, followed by the 4th place team of Todd Smith and Cid Fowler, who caught 24.77 and won $1500. Kent Ware and Greg Boone won $1000 for their fifth-place catch of 24.39.

Lonnie Marchant and Jeff Hutto won $600 for bringing in the big fish, an 8.99 pounder.

The tournament paid through 20 places, and no team in the top 20 caught less than 20 pounds.

1. Mark Hutson/Greg Elsey                       34.80 lbs                           $5000

2. Marc Deschenes/Ray Walsh                 26.87 lbs                           $2500

3. Ronnie McCoy/Keven Bazen                 26.44 lbs                           $2000

4. Todd Smith/Cid Fowler                          24.77 lbs                           $1500

5. Kent Ware/Greg Boone                         24.39 lbs                           $1000

6. Larry Avins/Joe Avin                               24.12 lbs                           $900

7. Nathan Burgess/Brent Riley                  23.51 lbs                           $800

8. Bryan Cook/Steve Harmon                   22.99 lbs                           $700

9. Lee Morris/Dustin Bryant                      22.97 lbs                           $600

10. (tie)Daniel Howell/Danny Howell      22.48 lbs                           $465

10. (tie)Brett Mitchell/Terry Mountjoy   22.48 lbs                           $465

12. Chuck Howard/Ken Ellis                      22.40 lbs                           $400

13. David Bronson/John Coers                 22.33 lbs                           $375

14. Linwood Thornhill/Brian Thornhill    22.22 lbs                           $350

15. Ryan Bowles/Jason Barrett                21.94 lbs                           $325

16. Terry Barn/Doug Barth                        21.64 lbs                           $300

17. Billy McIntosh/Gene DuBose             21.59 lbs                           $275

18. Xan Costas/Lex Costas                         20.67 lbs                           $250

19. Le Huggins/Justin Boykin                     20.56 lbs                           $225

20. Tripp Poplin/Andy Owens                   20.38 lbs                           $200