Elite

AdvBassStats: Santee Cooper report

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The 2023 AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes was a tale of two halves. For the second week in a row, Matt Robertson was on top of the Day 1 Leaderboard. Top-end weights on Santee were as good or better than Lake Murray the previous week, but the averages were lower, mostly from the mid-range. Santee was lacking the sheer number of 3-4 pound fish that Murray had.
After 2 days, Robertson held a commanding four-pound lead over Brandon Cobb in 2nd, and 13-pounds back to Bryant Smith in 10th. He looked to be a very safe bet to advance to the final day. As it turned out, he needed that lead because his Lake Moultrie bite would disappear on Saturday and there would be a big shuffle on the leaderboard.
Day 3 is moving day and Luke Palmer used his consistently increasing weights to create separation. Only one other angler in the field had a three-day increasing trend – Bryan Schmitt in 11th. Brandon Cobb remained in second, four-pounds behind the new leader Palmer. Palmer’s lead was more than eight pounds over third place and more than 11 over fourth place. Mark Menendez made the move of the tournament, rebounding from a nine-pound Day 2 with 27-13 on Day 3 to jump into the final day field in fourth place.  
The final day was a wild one on the water, with rain, wind, sun, storms and more wind. The lower lake, Moultrie, was essentially unfishable. The field needed monster bags (red lines) and for Palmer to slip to make it interesting. Instead, Palmer flexed on the field with 25-15 on Day 4 and ran away to a 14-pound victory. Menendez tried to put pressure on but was coming from too far back.
How do you win an Elite event by 14-pounds? The Luke Palmer path was to catch three of the Top-10 bags. Mark Menendez was the only other angler to appear more than once, scoring Top 10 single-day bags with his Day 3 & 4 run.

(This is just a sampling of the analysis available from AdvBassStats on Instagram and Facebook. Check it out, leave some feedback, and we’ll be back with the Elites again on Lay Lake next week.)

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