Doug’s predictions were right on the money for Saturday’s CATT tournament. It took just under 18 pounds to win, 3 or 4 good sacks were weighed in, and the winning team made use of the suspended bite in catching their limit. Up the river was the most productive shallow pattern – but it wasn’t quite enough to win. Here are the details from my interviews with the winning teams.

Bo Dixon and Rhett Manus (Doug’s partner in the Tuesday night tournament series out of Shull Island) won the tournament with 17 pounds 15 ounces, including a big fish of 4-02. They had a 5 pounder on early, but it shook off. Rhett told me that they started off the day fishing around rocks in 10-15 feet of water with a jig and a shakey head worm. At that stage of the day they believed the fish were on the bottom feeding on crayfish and small fish like perch. After an hour or two they started fishing mainly for suspended fish, casting Spooks, Flukes and similar topwater lures to draw strikes on the surface. That bite slowed after 10:00, and as the sun got higher they mainly fished deep brush in 20-25 feet with a jig.

Rhett and Bo caught and weighed fish on all three of their major patterns. I should also note that Rhett pointed out that there was some overlap between the rock, suspended fish and deep brush patterns. That is, even if they were still fishing in the window where they were targeting suspended fish, if they came across some good brush they would certainly not pass up the chance to cast at it. Over the day Rhett and Bo fished most of the lake, moving from the middle lake to the upper lake and then down to the lower lake. The only section of Lake Murray that they didn’t fish was the rivers. Congratulations to Bo and Rhett on the win!

Rhett and Bo with the winning sack


Demonstrating impressive consistency and an ability to locate the fish from week to week, regular season points champions Mark McCormick and Howard Stephens finished in second place for the third straight tournament. This week they had a nice 17-10 sack, only 6 ounces short of the win. As usual Howard was good enough to share their pattern with me.

As they have done for the last week or two, Howard and Mark started off the day fishing shallow. The shallow bite was a little slower than last week, and although the team picked up three fish shallow only one eventually weighed. The shallow fish came on a Fluke fished on the top.

After a time Howard and Mark moved deep, where they spent most of their time fishing an underwater ridge a half mile offshore in 23-28 feet of water. In addition to good depth changes, the area has scattered brush and rocks. The key baits were plastic worms on a drop shot rig, a Carolina rig and a Zoom Old Monster worm. They also caught fish on a ¾ ounce Buckeye Lures Football Jig, including their second biggest fish of the day. The shallowest fish they caught after the morning bite ended was in 17 feet at 1:15, and all of the fish were on the bottom.

Howard and Mark with their fish


Again demonstrating impressive consistency, the second place team in the regular season points standing, Rob Thames and Mike Ward, finished in 3rd place Saturday with a nice 16-07 sack. They also had the tournament big fish, a 5-03 chunk. Rob told me that last week he and Mike decided to change things up and started fishing up the river, and they repeated the same pattern yesterday. They caught all of their fish casting into current breaks that formed eddies up the river. These current breaks were formed by willow snags, logs, and points – anything that blocked the current. Early in the day they fished topwater lures, and had no luck that way. Eventually they turned to soft plastics, including worms and creature baits, and caught most of their fish in around 7 feet of water. They had to cover lots of spots, but by doing so they managed to bring in a very nice bag – especially for the end of June when surface water temperatures on most of the lake have passed 90 degrees.

Mike and Rob's sack caught up the river


It’s also worth mentioning that earlier this summer Mike and Rob weighed in the best sack of the year caught in a CATT tournament on Lake Murray, and the second best of the year in any CATT event, when they landed a whopping 30-02 sack on May 29. The bag featured a 9-09 hawg! I interviewed Rob about how they caught those fish a couple of weeks ago, and with the water this hot this probably won’t be a good pattern again until next year this time, but here’s what he said.

Rob and Mike spent most of their time on the 29th fishing in one little bay that had 7 or 8 docks, and 3 that were very productive. Bream were bedding in the cove, and for some reason a group of big fish had moved in. They caught the first couple of fish on a buzzbait quickly, and then caught the rest of the fish on a jig. They figured out that the fish weren’t on the bottom, and the key to getting bit was swimming the jig instead of letting it sink and then hopping it. The other key was swimming it very close to the posts, which the bass were orienting to. By the next weekend the pattern wasn’t as productive, but it will be interesting to see if swimming a jig by dock posts in coves where bream are bedding works next year.

Finally, I talked to Captain Doug Lown (803-924-8946) Saturday evening and got his thoughts on what the fish will do next. Doug pointed out that there is only a narrow window when the suspending pattern turns on – the sun has to get to the right angle for the fish to start feeding, and then after 10:00 or so it dies off. Doug also thinks that the suspended bite won’t last through the summer, and in fact will probably only last for a couple more weeks. For now, though, it certainly seems to be at least one component of a winning pattern on Lake Murray.

My thanks to Rhett, Howard and Rob for talking to me after a long, hot day on Lake Murray, and to Doug for talking to me before and after the tournament. The fall CATT series on Lake Murray will start on October 2, again out of Dreher Island State Park, and will feature four regular season events and then a championship on December 4. For more information visit: http://www.carolinaanglersteamtrail.com ... 0-Fall.htm.