“No one can survive four days sight fishing on Santee this year,” said every expert on the matter.
(Drew Benton enters stage right)
Benton rallied from 10th last week to win his second Elite Series title on Lake Murray. Though he caught a few key fish on the final morning using a squarebill, most of his fish in that event came sight fishing.
It was no secret he planned to do the same here on Santee. After all, Benton’s roommate Drew Cook won sight fishing here last year. But the Elite event was a full month earlier in 2022. The bass by and large are post-spawn on Santee. You need only five big ones to pull up on bed each day though to have a shot. So Benton and Cook put all their eggs in the bed fishing basket.
Day 1 was a grind for both, but the end result was favorable for the Drew crew, Cook sitting in 8th and Benton in 39th. Cook has boated a solid limit already this morning, presumably off bed. He sits in 8th on BassTrakk. But Benton has been the one to prove all the naysayers wrong this afternoon.
Benton boated a 7-4 at 12:12, the current Phoenix Boats Big Bass. He followed that with a 5-pounder 20 minutes later. Not that Benton can’t catch them lots of different ways, but it’s very likely he has stumbled on a wad of bedders. Things can get right in a hurry if you dedicate your time to looking. Cook found a pack of shallow bedders on Day 1 and caught most of his 21-13 barely picking up his shallow water anchors. Benton has the biggest bag of the day currently, with 22-0 and sitting in 5th.
