COLUMBIA, S.C. — Amidst all the stories of anglers burning gas and running all over Lake Murray’s 50,000 acres, Jake Whitaker’s method for success is so much simpler. He’s just Power-Poled down on one point, waiting on the birds to tell him when to fish. Whitaker is one of six anglers who has sacked 20 pounds on each of the first two days of the Marathon Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray.
“The bait’s there, the fish are there and the birds are there,” said Whitaker, who noted there’s a long dock near the point he’s fishing. When the birds are sitting on the dock, the bass aren’t biting. “When the birds come off the dock, you better get ready because the bass are fixing to come up. It’s pretty fun.”
Whitaker added a limit weighing 21 pounds, 4 ounces Friday to his 20-pound limit Thursday, giving him a 6th place total of 41-4.
“Where I’m fishing it’s about 3 feet deep,” he said. “For whatever reason, the birds know when the bait is getting corralled. It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve found one spot that’s really cool, and I’m just camping out on it.”
Whitaker estimated he’s catching only about 10 keepers a day, but there are plenty more fish there.
“When they come up, it’s 20 at a time,” he said. “It’s fun. One time I just froze because I didn’t know which one to throw at.”
The 31-year-old pro from Hendersonville, N.C., said all his keepers came on a topwater lure Friday. He believes he’s catching mostly post-spawn bass that have had time to feed up and put weight back on after the stress of spawning. However, he did catch one female that was dropping eggs as he boated it. It seems there are bass in every stage of the spawning process all over this lake.
Whitaker thinks the fishing will improve with the wind and clouds forecast for Saturday.
“Any time you get wind, especially on a herring lake, they don’t get a good look at your bait,” he said. “It just makes them more active. If they’re chasing something, and they can’t see it very well, they’re more apt to hit it.”
