Soaking Santee

Final Stren Series Southeast event gets off to wet start

MANNING, S.C. – It’s hard to believe, but the fourth and final Stren Series event of the Southeast Division is already under way at Santee Cooper lakes in South Carolina.

At the conclusion of this event, the $1 million Stren Series Championship on the Mobile Delta in Mobile, Ala., Nov. 8-11 will have its first 40 pro and 40 co-angler qualifiers and a Southeast Division points winner will be named.

Currently, Jesse Draime of Long Beach, Miss., leads the Southeast points race in the Pro Division with 569, but Santee Cooper local Ken Ellis of Bowman, S.C., is only 24 points behind and fishing his home lake for the final event.

Santee-Cooper is known for the giant bags of bass it produces in the latter parts of March and early April, when fish are on the beds, but the catch might be a little off this week.

Wild weather over the United States the last few weeks has turned the bass spawn up on its ear for a lot of lakes across the Southeast, and Santee Cooper is no exception.

Two weeks ago, portions of the country were experiencing record highs for March and bass began their bedding activities a little early.

Then, over the past weekend, a wicked cold front blasted the Southeast, sending overnight lows into the 30s for four nights in row.

“That’s not a good thing,” laughed Santee Cooper ace Ricky Shumpert of Lexington, S.C., as he readied his lures for action Wednesday morning. “And this rain isn’t going to help things warm up today, either.

“The water temperatures here have taken a 15-degree nosedive in the last four days,” he continued. “We were nearly at 70 degrees last week, and the fish were up on beds good. Then it dropped to about 55 degrees. It has since rebounded to 60 degrees, but we need more sun to keep things going in the right direction.”

Sunshine, however, will not be plentiful today as the final Stren Southeast event for 2006 started under cool, rainy skies this morning.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Shumpert said. “But that’s the way I like it. If I can catch 12 pounds a day for the next three days, I’ll be happy. I think that will make the cut after day three.”

Gain pro Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., who won the last Stren Series Southeast event on Lake Eufaula, notes that sight-fishing is going to be tough on Santee over the next few days.

“I’m not even going to try sight-fishing today,” Kreiger said. “I’m going to the swamp to fish cypress trees. Sight-fishing may play a role later in the event, but as for today – with the cool water and rain – you can forget it.”

Logistics

Anglers will take off from John C. Land III Landing located at County Road s-14-260 in Summerton, S.C., at 7 Eastern time each morning.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m.

Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 481 W. Boyce St. in Manning, S.C., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 519VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and EverStart batteries if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if “Powered by Yamaha” guidelines are met.

Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.

On the Web

For those who can’t catch the weigh-in action in person, FLWOutdoors.com offers FLW Live, an online application that brings fans real-time weigh-in results, streaming video and audio.

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 6:57 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 53 degrees

Expected high temperature: 75 degrees

Water temperature: 58-62 degrees

Forecasted winds: E at 5 to 10 mph

Day’s outlook: rainy