Trying to snare a win
Just six pounds separates tenth from first on final day of Stren Series
MANNING, S.C. – As the top-10 pros departed the dock for the third and final day of the Stren Series event on Santee Cooper, one thing was agreed upon by all competitors: the tournament is still anyone’s game to win, from the leader Mark Hutson with 34-6, to 10th place pro, Scott Canterbury with 28-7.
Final day fireworks are pretty common at the Santee Cooper Stren. Each year the Stren has visited Santee, at least one pro shocks the crowd with a massive bag of fish on the final day.
The 2007 Stren event here was particularly memorable, especially since it involved two anglers who are once again in the top 10 this time around: Locals Mark Hutson and Ken Ellis.
In that event, Ellis won with a final-day limit weighing 27-5, but not before Hutson challenged him with a limit weighing 28-2. That provides some idea of what can happen on the last day at Santee Cooper.
Third place pro Randall Tharp knows what can happen on the last day of a tournament at Santee Cooper, too. Last May he brought in 25 pounds on the final day of BASS Open to snare victory.
Tharp is fishing in the same area on the lower lake where he won that event last year. Yesterday, he caught 21-3 from the area and he hopes to rekindle the winning magic in there again today.
“It’s a very unique area,” Tharp said. “It’s got deepwater that comes to it from three different directions. And it has mixture of vegetation like nowhere else on the lake. If you didn’t know better, you would think you were on Lake Okeechobee. The water is clear, it’s protected – it’s just a perfect spot.”
Tharp, however, will have company as second place pro Jason Cordell is also in the same area. Cordell, though, is fishing much different than Tharp. Cordell is fishing more out in the middle, focusing on post-spawners with a wacky worm. Tharp is throwing a surface bait up in the shallows.”
But one pro you can never count out at Santee Cooper is local pro Ken Ellis. This morning Ellis had two spinning rods on the deck and a pocket full of his favorite Zoom Trick worms, ready to be wacky-rigged around some of his premium trees, stumps and brushpiles.
Ellis has won the Santee Stren event twice and both times he hauled in over 27 pounds on the last day to snare the win.
The final day weigh-in of the Stren Series event on Santee Cooper will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Walmart in Manning, S.C.
Saturday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:31 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 63 degrees
Expected high temperature: 83 degrees
Water temperature: 74-78 degrees
Wind: SW 10 to 25 MPH
Day’s outlook: warm, breezy