“We are getting 20,000 bass fingerlings from the SC Department of Natural Resources and we are going to bag them up and give every contestant a bag,” said Nelson Walker of Santee Bass Matters which is conducting the tournament. “We are asking them to let the fingerlings go when they get to their first spot Saturday morning. It is not a huge amount of fish, but they will get spread out in some prime cover so hopefully they will have a better chance of survival.”

The bagged fingerlings will serve two purposes, Walker said.

“Not only will they directly improve the fishery, but they will give the fishermen ownership and ultimately make everybody aware we need to take care of the lakes. These fishermen will say something if they see something wrong.”

Walker said the tournament is sponsored by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce which is providing the guaranteed portion of first place and Santee Bass Matters is helping put the tournament on in conjunction with the annual Striped Bass Festival.

The entry fee is $150 for a two-man team, which includes the $25 membership fee for both anglers. Both partners must be 2011 members of Santee Bass Matters. First place is guaranteed $5,000.

“We put in a late registration fee ($25) so we won’t have to register so many the morning of the tournament,” Walker said. “We had 105 boats last year and we are already ahead of last year with entries, but I think we will still have a lot of anglers show up that morning and register.”

Walker said fishing should be good on Saturday, but probably not as good as it was for the tournament last year when it took 27 pounds to win and there were a lot of 20-pound bags of bass weighed in.

“I expect it will take 27-28 pounds to win again this year, but we probably won’t have as many 20-pound bags weighed in,” he said. “We are kind of hitting the tail end of the spawn this year and a lot of the big females have already pulled out.”

Walker said a lot of the bass spawned a month to six weeks ago so there should be plenty of post-spawn fish that are ready to bite.

“There will still be some shallow and some guys may get on the post spawn fish,” he said. “I always feel that after they move out a lot of times they kind of go dormant. They will pull out to the first little depression in 5 to 10 feet of water, then they will move up and feed before it gets too hot.

“This past weekend we could not catch anything but little bucks, but with so much water somebody will figure them out. I can’t say if it will be won on the upper lake or lower lake, but we will have them both covered.”

The good thing, he said, is that the lakes have been very nice this spring, with consistent water levels and temperatures.

“We’ve seen a lot more consistent bags of fish this year than in a long time. I think we are recuperating from the drought and coming back strong. Three years ago we were hurting bad,” he said. “And, based on this spring, I imagine next year will be even better.”

Santee Cooper Open Team Tournament

Santee Cooper Lakes

John C. Land III Landing

Sat, 2011-04-30

Call Dawn or Erica for information at 803-435-4405

www.santeebassmatters.org