So, I'm in South Carolina for the Bassmaster Kayak Series event on the Santee Cooper lakes. I came to town with a handful of coikes and a plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.

For me, one of two things are consistent with my tournament fishing. Many times I just show up at a lake I've never fished before, don't have time for practice, and wing it based upon map study and an AI prompt. That never works.

Sometimes I get there early to practice, but I usually bring bad weather with me. When I fished the Kissimmee event in February I'd get up in the morning and knock the ice off my kayak. In Florida. During that same week, winds of 15-20 mph were the calm days. For two days of practice the winds were 25 - 30+ mph and I stayed off the lake.

This week, I rolled into town midday on Monday, and went to a ramp close to my rental. Some guy who had no business being at the ramp walked up to me and another kayak angler asking about our gear and how much it cost while also peeking into the back of my Bronco. He walked away, but then I saw him in his old, beat up car parked in the bushes at the end of the parking lot. No thanks - I don't need anyone breaking into my vehicle. I went to another ramp a few miles down the road, launched, and 30 minutes later turned back when a thunderstorm rolled in. End of day.

On Tuesday I launched out at Jack's Creek where a lot of the Elites were fishing a few weeks ago. The hydrilla was thick, thick thick. So much that it reminded me of Toho, I was finding nothing in the hydrilla. I started fishing Cypress trees but they were now choked off with hydrilla. So as the sun peaked through I switched to fishing lily pads but even they were chocked with hydrilla. I found some clean water in a larger pocket along with the type of shore grass I was looking for and landed a 2 pounder on a frog. But after a few more blow ups and misses it attracted a big gator who let me know that I was no longer welcome in that area.

I should have pushed further out to the main lake, but the weather was dicey and I didn't want to get caught in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm and have to take cover in the creepy Cypress groves where the big gators live. Side note - I was told today that they began spraying the hydrilla out at Jack's Creek.

Wednesday rolls in and my plan is to fish main lake and skip and pitch docks with a coike and see what it's all about. I launched from a marina in a protected creek channel, slip around the breaker channel and wall and it's nautical out there. The wind is probably 18-22 mph in in this shallow lake the waves are rolling. Since I was going into the wind it wasn't too bad. I could pull up to the dock, spot lock, and do my thing. I had my FFS and all electronics shut off because I wanted to practice patience and pick apart docks. But after 30 minutes or so in that wash tub I felt the waves pick up and decided it wasn't worth the risk. I headed back for that protected cove.

What I failed to mention is that my battery for my electronics is in a battery box in my tank well and when I charged the battery and put the box in the tank well the night before I forgot the wind nuts that tighten the power cable. All I had with me was some masking tape to try and hold the connectors in place. So I'd have electronics for a while, then the connection would fail and I'd have to tape it up again. So when the connection was working, I decided to take time to play with my FFS and holy cow did it pay off. I finally got the picture I was looking for. Unfortunately, all I saw were little fin nippers chasing my bait.

I packed it up and headed to the ramp where that guy had spooked me off a few days ago. I start making a run to my first waypoint and mt lightning alert goes off, so I had back to the ramp. Cell phone connection is spotty at best out there, but when I got to the ramp I checked the radar and the storm had moved off. So I make my run again, get about a mile out and the skies open up with a HUGE downpour. Luckily, I have rain gear in a bag in my tank well. But one rule we have in this series is that your PFD must be outside your clothing. So by the time I get off my PFD and get on my rain jacket I'm soaked. It's getting late and more weather is on the way so I call it a day.

After two and a half days I have nothing. A few fish and no pattern. So today I head to an area that wasn't really talked about much in the Elite Series event. For the tournament this weekend, we launch at 5:30 am and lines in at 6 am, but today I didn't launch until almost 8 am. For the tournament, lines out is at 2:30 pm. I bring this up because it plays into what happened today.

As I launched I saw an area across the lake that looked interesting and decided to check it out even though it was in the opposite direction of my first waypoint. I'm glad I did. On my 3rd or 4th cast I got a blowup on a topwater and landed a 23 incher. As luck would have it, the batteries were dead on my scale, but she probably weight 7+pounds. The picture is below.

Then for the next three hours or so I had nothing. I tried tossing a coike under docks, but the water under the docks in this creek channel was only 1-3 feet deep. I got one little bump, probably from a bluegill, and nothing else. Next, I fished spinnerbaits and bladed jigs over hydrilla and caught nothing. Next I moved to the hydriilla grass lines and caught nothing. The wind picked up a little and I started throwing buzzbaits over hydrilla and along the banks but that only attracted every alligator in a 5 mile radius.

Speaking of gators, at one point I'm out there and I thought to myself I'm going to throw a bait next to that big old log offshore. Wait - why is that big log moving towards my quickly. Crikey - gator! I whipped my kayak around and back and forth quickly a few times (sperpentine?!) to create a wake and noise and luckily the gator took off in another direction.

So now I'm hours into the day with just one fish and thinking, "Here I go again with another crappy tournament and not putting it all together." So now I head back to and past the ramp and push deeper into the creek channel despite my instincts and the Depp Dive app telling me to head to the main lake. I won't say what I was throwing or what I was targeting, but I can tell you that it was game on after that.

My five best fish came in at 106 inches and my smallest was 18 inches. The biggest was still that first one I caught. Not only did I find a pattern that worked in a large stretch of the lake, but when I looped back to check the fish had also reset on my main stretch.

Tomorrow is another day and the last day of practice and I plan to fish a completely different part of the lake. And while chances are I won't pull off another 106 this week, I do have confidence that I can find fish. The weather will cool a little bit this weekend, and that may change things some. But the cloud cover will be relatively the same.

So far there are 200 anglers in this event, and it will probably push 250 by tournament day. My goal is a top 100 - but I can always dream.

14 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

My five best fish came in at 106 inches and my smallest was 18 inches.

Wh-wh-WHAT??? What a total!!! And you overcame gators, the storm, wind, and the thief.

Maybe consider adding a sawed off shotgun to your arsenal

1 hour ago, flatcreek said:

Maybe consider adding a sawed off shotgun to your arsenal

I know some people that carry handguns out there.

That's not a bag - that's a whole suitcase!

This morning I was on the lake for only a few hours, mostly scouting a new area of the lake and not doing much fishing. The hydrilla is really taking over the lake and I didn't find any of the conditions that met the two patterns I established the other day.

I spoke with a local who is in this tournament (we can share information with other competitors) and he told me the lake is junk right now. At the tournament check-in tonight I listened to a lot of anglers saying the can't find fish and even when they do they're not catching a limit. I get it, because I only found fish under specific conditions.

We get a cold front moving in tomorrow with temperatures dropping 10 degrees and a few downpours of 1/3 inch of rain predicted each of the two rain periods. I still think my patterns will hold out, but I do have some backup plans. I did mark some hydrilla weed lines and shell beds. We'll see what happens,

We now have 215 anglers in the tournament. Most guys have been fishing the Bassmaster Elite series areas. I'm nowhere near those and hopefully that continues.