Second place finisher Lex Costas was on Howard’s heels, bringing 5 fish to the scale that weighed 27-06. Unexpectedly, these torp two anglers were the only ones to catch more than 25 lbs on the lake that has given up numerous 30 lb bags this spring. In a testament to how tough the fishing was, 3 anglers finished in the top 10 without catching a limit of fish—and one of them only had 3 fish.

In third place, Jayme Rampey’s limit pushed the scales to 22-14.

Dearal Rodgers pulled off an impressive feat, taking 4th place with one fish less than the limit. The weight of his 4 bass was aided by two brutes that weighed over 7 lbs apiece. “I caught the biggest one on a buzzbait early near some grass. All my other fish came on Texas-rigged plastic worms,” said the Camden native, whose bag weighed 21-13.

5th place saw Chad Cook just 3 ounces back of Rodgers. Cook weighed in 21-10, which included the tournament’s big fish, an 8-01 that added $435 to Cook’s pocket. “I caught that fish on a jig, and I missed another one early this morning that was about as big,” Cook said, stressing the fine line that separates a top five finish from a win. No stranger to big fish honors, Cook earned the same award last month at the Bassmaster Weekend Series event at this same landing.

In 6th place was Eddie Herlong Sr, who was bested by Cook by a mere ounce. Jay Keith  was  right behind Herlong with 21-08, followed by Lyn Langston, whose 4 fish weighed 19-11. Dennis Reedy took 9th place with just 3 fish that tipped the scales at 18-13. Ron Brown finished off the top 10 with 5 fish that weighed 18-12.

The top 17 anglers earned checks on the day, and 68 of the 87 anglers weighed fish.

In the co-anglers division, Scott Frye entered the tournament atop the overall standings in the SC non-boater division, and did his part to keep things that way. Frye boated 5 fish that weighed 15-02, topping the second place finisher of Kenneth Morrison by 4 lbs. Frye ended the day with a check for over $1700.”I used Texas-rigged Zoom trick worms all day,” said the Sumter angler.

Frye and Morrison were the only 2 co-anglers to bring 5 fish to the weigh-in platform. Todd Gambrell took 3rd with 4 fish that weighed 8-03. Michael Smith and Bart Jacobus rounded out the top 5 with 3 fish apiece. Smith’s bag weighed in at 7-15, with Jacobus weighing in 7-10.

One co-angler, 18-yr old DJ McEachern, knew the day was going to be tough after prefishing Friday. “I only got a handful of bites yesterday, so I expected it to be a tough day,” said the Columbia native. “Then, someone stole my boater’s keys, so we couldn’t use the outboard. We just fished close by with the trolling motor all day.” McEachern, who plans to fish on USC’s fishing team starting this fall, made the best of things, catching one keeper that weighed 3-08 and landed him in 26th place.

87 co-anglers fished, with 45 weighing in at least one fish.

The next stop for the BFL’s South Carolina division will be June 2 at Lake Wateree out of Clearwater Cove Marina.