One local angler who plans to fish the Carolinas Bass Challenge South Carolina Division opener for 2013 on Lake Murray Saturday says it has been “a weird year” so far for bass fishing on the lake.

“The biggest thing I see that is different from last year is the lack of bait, especially down in the lower part of the lake,” said Doug Lown, who despite having boat trouble that shut down fishing for him and partner Rhett Manus at 11 o’clock last Saturday morning, still managed to finish 11^th in the Carolina Anglers Team Trail’s first Lake Murray season qualifier.

“We struggled, but we still caught a limit on a Shakey Head,” Lown said. “You can catch numbers of fish on the Shakey Head, but not a lot of big fish.”

Lown admitted he is struggling to figure out what is going on with the normally abundant baitfish this time of year.

“I don’t understand why the bait is like it is. Even two years a when it was so cold with the water temperature in the 40s there was plenty of bait up. I don’t know why it is so deep this year,” he said. “Aside from not marking any bait, you can go out in the morning and not see any surface activity. When the bait is up you will see herons sitting around, waiting to eat, and right now you just don’t see that.”

Lown said there are some fish fairly shallow, some at mid-depth and some anglers will still be trying to catch them deep.

“I have not had any luck catching them deep,” he said. I’ve caught them shallow – less than 10 feet. I think we will probably fish a jig a good bit and see if we can catch them on the bottom,” he said.

It took almost 21 pounds to win the CATT opener last Saturday and Lown said he believes it will take 24, maybe 25 pounds to win this Saturday.

“Maybe more. It will take 17 to 18 pounds just to get a check,” he said.

Carolinas Bass Challenge owner-director Brett Collins said he expects the field to top the 141 teams that fished in last year’s CBC opener on Lake Murray.

“We will have well over 100 teams pre-paid by Saturday morning. We’ve got several teams new to CBC and we also have a few teams from Georgia,” he said.

The entry fee is $200 and teams can pay at the Dreher Island State Park ramp Saturday morning, Collins said. He will be taking entries starting at 3:30 a.m. Team members must also pay a membership fee of $35 each to fish the CBC tournaments series.

“The weigh-in will start at 3 p.m. and we invite all the families of the anglers to attend. Of course we will be cooking and a lot of the guys look forward to weighing their catch and enjoying a good meal.”

Each CBC has an off limit period starting the Sunday night before the event at 12 a.m. and extends the entire week up to Saturday morning. Winners at each tournament are polygraphed.

“We are guaranteeing First Place a minimum of $8,000 at each CBC Qualifier,” Collins said. “In 2012 First Place winners at CBC events averaged taking home $10,000.”

Also new for 2013, he added, the highest placing Skeeter/Yamaha owner will take home a $5,000 bonus, no matter the year of the boat. The Skeeter Real Money Program sanctions all the CBC events.

“This year we added Lakes Hartwell and Clarks Hill to the South Carolina CBC schedule and we added Lakes Jordan and Falls to the North Carolina schedule,” Collins said.

“Two Skeeter TZX190/150 Yamaha HPDI boat rigs will be awarded with one going to the winning team at the South Carolina Championship at Lake Hartwell in September. Another will be awarded at the September North Carolina Championship on Lake Wylie. The winners of the Oct 26-27 Lake Murray CBC Classic will take home a ZX200/200Yamaha SHO rig worth $48,000.”

Carolinas Bass Challenge – South Carolina Division

Sat Feb 9, 2013

Lake Murray

Dreher Island State Park

Call Brett Collins 803-413-7521

www.carolinasbasschallenge.com