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TIM DOMINICK/tdominick@thestate.com
Davy Hite, from Prosperity, practices for this week's Bassmaster Elite tournament on Lake Murray.
Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008
Bassmasters: Lake Murray ready to make a splash
By PAT ROBERTSON - Special to The State
VIDEO: Fishing on Lake Murray with B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year Skeet ReeseBassmaster Elite Series Carolina Clash
WHERE: Lake MurrayWHEN: Today-Sunday
PURSE: Winner earns $100,000 and points for the seasonlong Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
FORMAT: The angler having the most cumulative weight over four days wins. After two days, the field is cut to the top 50 and the final day to the top 12. The first three days of competition, anglers are randomly paired with co-anglers or amateurs, who compete in the back of the boat in their own division.
DAILY WEIGH-INS: Will take place at 3 p.m. at the Lake Murray Marina and Yacht Club, located on Marina Road off U.S. 76 in Ballentine.
ADMISSION: Free
Some of the biggest stars in professional bass fishing will be competing on Lake Murray today through Sunday, but look for the lake to be the star of the Bassmaster Elite tournament that has been dubbed the Carolina Clash.
“It’s going to take a lot of weight to win it,” said Davy Hite of Ninety Six, who would love nothing more than to claim victory on the lake he grew up on and still calls home.
“Other than winning the Classic, winning an Elite tournament on Lake Murray would probably be my No. 1 goal for a tournament to win,” said Hite, two-time BASS angler of the year and 1999 Bassmasters Classic champion. It’s got a very, very special place in my heart.”
Hite said Lake Murray is not only one of the premiere bass lakes in the country, it is playing host to a tournament at a unique time.
“There will be a lot of different patterns and a lot of guys catching fish in a lot of different ways, from way up the river all the way down to the dam,” he said.
The reason for such divergence is bass are making the transition from the spawning season to the post-spawn phase. There will be some fish on the beds in the shallows, some post-spawn bass chasing herring to feed on and regain strength from the rigors of reproduction, and some moving into deeper water in preparation for the summer phase.
“There will be a lot of limits weighed in, an awful lot of limits, so to win you will really have to focus on catching 4-, 5- and 6-pound bass,” Hite said.
Hite is eager to get on the water. While a win on his home lake would be ideal, just as important is finishing strong for the second consecutive tournament to boost his standing in the Angler of the Year rankings after a slow start to the season.
After failing to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic, held on Lake Hartwell in February, Hite finished 92nd in the first Elite tournament of the season, on the Harris chain of Lakes in Florida in early March, then slid further down the rankings with a 108th-place finish on Lake Kissimmee a week later.
He began to claw his way back with a 17th-place finish on Texas’ Falcon Lake in early April, but he slipped again the following week with an 84th-place finish on Lake Amistad in Texas.
His revival began with a second place on Lake Thurmond the first week of May, when he nearly repeated his victory there two years earlier.
“It was almost deja vu. When I won two years ago, Kenyon (Hill) finished second. This time, Kenyon caught bigger fish, and he consistently brought in 15- to 18-pound stringers,” Hite said. “He deserved to win it.”
His showing at Lake Thurmond vaulted Hite into 50th place in the AOY standings. A win or top-10 finish this week on Lake Murray would bolster his climb up the standings and into contention for a spot in the 2009 Bassmaster Classic. The top 37 qualify.
