Teammate Confidence Leads Team CATTYSHACK to Cooper River Win
by Ron Presley (Photos by Kevin Lakin of Palmetto Cats)
Anglers were challenged by wind and choppy water at the Santee Lakes Catfish Club event on the Cooper River.
Teams fishing the Santee Lakes Catfish Club (SLCC) on the Cooper River were challenged by high winds and big waves. Even with the forecasted storms and high winds, 23 teams competed in the April 1, 2023 event. It was one of those days when anglers’ favorite fishing spots didn’t mean as much as spots out of the wind.
The SLCC is blessed to have some of the best catfish anglers in the catfish community. Where ever they fish they come up with quality stringers. On this day, many of the anglers mentioned an early bite, but fish were caught throughout the day. The biggest challenge for all the anglers was staying anchored in the strong winds.
“The wind was bad all day,” said angler Kevin Lakin. “But it wasn’t dangerous in the morning. It became dangerous later in the day.”
First Place and Big Fish
The top spot went to Team CattyShack. Mark Coburn, Kevin Lakin, and Daniel Googin put the right strategy together to take the win with a total weight of 71.15 pounds. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament at 40.45 pounds.
“Palmetto Cat’s Kevin Lakin led the way today,” said Mark Coburn as he praised Kevin for putting them on the winning fish. “Kevin joined our team a few tournaments ago and we were ready for him to showcase the river for us today because we had confidence in his knowledge of that river.”
Coburn’s praise was well deserved. Lakin put the team on 3 fish within about 45 minutes of starting. They didn’t have anything big but had their limit to relieve the stress.
“Once the pressure was off he moved us to a different area,” continued Coburn. “We started culling, trading out our smaller fish. As the tide begin moving out, we were able to target our primary area as we wound our way up a backwater canal.”
“We went upriver when most went downriver,” reported Lakin. “We did so because the rice fields provide more tree cover from the wind. Downriver there’s mostly tall grass.”
The team came prepared with fresh American shad, chicken, live bream, and live perch. The bait of the day was the American shad where it is usually bream in the Cooper River.
“Every single fish came off of fresh American shad, cut in fillets,” confirmed Coburn. “We fished with standard Carolina rigs using red Demon Dragons Brutes.”
The outgoing tide was very fast where Team CattyShack set up in the rice fields. They picked a choke point that was very narrow and very shallow. They fished there for the final hour and added their two biggest fish.
Most people commented on a morning bite and Team CattyShack caught 3 in the morning. But their two big fish came about 1 pm in the rice fields on the narrow creek. One weighed about 40 pounds and the other about 20.
“The wind was tough,” added Goggin. “It was all we could do to stay anchored. When my partner Kevin noticed the rod down and Mark grabbed it, we knew it was the one we needed.”
Their next challenge was getting the pontoon boat out of the rice field and back to the river channel.
“Once we were ready to leave, we didn’t realize how far the water had dropped,” noted Lakin. “The front end of the toon was on a grass bed. Luckily the engine still had enough water to get us out.”
Lakin, a skilled pontoon boat captain, said it was super frustrating to fish in windy conditions in a pontoon boat. Especially when there is current, it can be very tough. On tournament day the wind was blowing opposite the current and creating a bad chop on the water.
Anglers were sacrificing fishing plans just to find spots that were out of the wind. A popular tactic anglers were using was dropping an anchor out the front with a drift sock out the back to help compensate for the wind.
“We stayed back there a bit too long,” confirmed Coburn. “We almost got ourselves landlocked with the outgoing tide. We were able to successfully get out and return to the ramp about an hour early where I had to set up and prepare to serve as weighmaster for the great Santee Lakes Catfish Weigh-in show.”
“It was a great day on the river,” concluded Coburn. “After today I feel that our teammate Kevin Lakin now has the same confidence in his knowledge of the river as Daniel and I have had for months leading up to this tournament.”
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Team Poor Boys Fishing. Johnny Derrick, Zen Wicker, Alyssa Derrick, and Stephanie Wicker teamed up to bring 66.40 pounds to the scales and earn the second-place spot.
Third Place
Team SC Cats made up of David Kingsmore, Homer Wright, and Tyson Wright brought in the third place weight at 65.70 pounds.
Final Thoughts
The final tournament of the SLCC season will be on May 20, 2023. It is a night tournament on the upper lake at Santee Cooper (Lake Marion). To keep up with the SLCC follow them on Facebook.
