The anglers showed out again on Day 2 of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes. The weights were strong, though perhaps misleading. Anglers had to grind their way to five bites, finding it nearly impossible to catch small keepers to fill their limits. Instead, almost every bass that made it into the boat was a kicker.
We’ll look at the data collected through BassTrakk on Day 2 in just a moment. But first, here are the hard numbers from the weigh-in yesterday. Only 54 limits were caught, as compared to the 72 on Day 1. There were 413 bass weighed on Day 2, and 450 on Day 1. And the total weight amassed by the 104 anglers on Day 2 was 1,295 pounds, 4 ounces. And 1,465 pounds, 12 ounces were weighed on Day 1.
So, there was an obvious dip on Day 2. Considering we’re on the tail end of the spawn, this makes sense. Most of the few remaining spawning bass were plucked off bed on Day 1. And the post-spawn funk that we heard mentioned dozens of times on stage accounts for the dip in production from the anglers that now had to just go fishing.
Using BassTrakk, let’s see if there was any shift in the bite windows from Day 1 to Day 2. There were 480 fish logged into BassTrakk on Day 2, compared to 520 on Day 1. Here’s the breakdown of those bass by hour.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 39 | 43 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 71 | 65 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 66 | 71 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 77 | 72 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 66 | 51 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 59 | 50 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 66 | 60 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 55 | 48 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 21 | 20 |
| Total: | 520 | 480 |
Though the fishing has been tough as far as numbers are concerned, it has been surprisingly consistent from Day 1 to Day 2. There was less than a 10 fish-catch differential per hour across the first two days, with the exception of one hour. There was a drop from 66 fish caught between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Day 1, to 51 on Day 2. But as far as numbers go, this is as consistent as you’re likely to see and a good illustration that it is simply a grind out on the water. But it’s one that is rewarded with big bites. Let’s look at those now.
There were 66 bass over 4 pounds caught on Day 1. Here’s the breakdown of those bass by size.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 4-pounders | 30 | 31 |
| 5-pounders | 28 | 21 |
| 6-pounders | 16 | 12 |
| 7-pounders | 2 | 2 |
| 8-pounders | 1 | 0 |
| Total: | 77 | 66 |
Here’s the breakdown by hour:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 7 | 9 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 16 | 11 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 7 | 9 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 9 | 4 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 7 | 8 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 10 | 9 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 7 | 7 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 9 | 7 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 4 | 2 |
The big bite on Day 2 was a little more spread out, with 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. being the most productive. There was really only one midmorning lull when only four bass over 4 pounds were logged into BassTrakk between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Day 3 started off with a flurry of big bass activity. We’ll have more data to report on today’s activity tomorrow, but in the first 44 minutes of competition, there were 7 bass over 3 pounds caught by our Top 10 alone. The fishing has been strong and steady this morning. Expect that trend to carry on for the rest of the day.
