The thunder storms and heavy rain were gone from day one as Santee Cooper Monster Cat Quest tournament anglers hit the water on the final day of competition, Saturday, April 1, 2017. The promise of better weather was on everyone’s mind after the first day’s competition was fished in severely bad winds, rain and choppy water.
Day one ended with Wesley Bridges and Joey Hix leading the way with 4 fish weighing 152 pounds. They caught their fish with a combination of anchoring and drifting in the choppy water. They reported swells as high as 6 feet on the opening day.
The team of Josh Coggins and Lee Hardee held big fish honors after day one with a 47.31 pound Santee Cooper blue cat. Big fish in the Youth Division was held by Hunter Fussell with a 41.63-pound blue cat. These two teams now had the vision of owning a Santee Cooper Monster Cat Quest Championship Belt that would be given for Big Fish in each division. All the other teams were hoping to unseat them to win the prestigious big fish belts.
Final day anglers began fishing at 6:30 and could continue fishing until 4:00 pm. They then had to be in the weigh-in line at Black’s Camp by 5:00 pm. Early morning dock talk had Black’s Camp owner, Kevin Davis, predicting that it might take as much as 170 pounds to win day-two.
That prediction did not materialize, but a new SC state record blue cat was caught on tournament day from Santee, and it was not an April Fool’s joke. The new record is 113.8 pounds, caught by Paula Haney while she was fishing with her husband, Steve.
The new record was certified at Hills Landing, just a mile or two from the tournament weigh-in. Paula and Steve were not fishing the tournament, but should have been. They also caught a 74-pound fish that day. Santee Cooper is a big fish lake!
The final day weigh-in was conducted only yards away from a bass tournament that had about 150 boats competing. Add in 76 teams, from 11 different states, in the Monster Cat Quest and the waterfront at Black’s Camp was a beehive of activity.
The team of Capt. Doug Coyle, Ronnie Johnson and Will Lowery claimed the top spot with a weight of 240.01 pounds in the two-day competition. Teams could weigh in 4 fish each day. Their 240.01 weight calculates out to a 30-pound average on 8 fish. The secret to their success was hard work, faith, friends and longevity.
“You gotta’ work for what you do,” said Coyle, a fishing guide from Kentucky. “I been blessed by the good Lord, I got a good family, I got some good friends. I been in this business for close to 40 years. I had a lot of good guys show me a lot of things and I put it all together. Just blessed to be here today.”
The team caught all the fish on the rope. “We were free-lining 10/0 hooks and using cut roe shad,” said Coyle. “That’s what we caught em’ on.”
“Team work is a big part of it,” said Coyle. “Everybody has got to do their job. If you come together, you gotta’ go home together.”
“We had an outstanding team and an outstanding week of fishing,” added Johnson.
“Our Tangling with Catfish rods did us pretty well today.” said Lowery. “But, all the credit goes to the captain. If it wasn’t for Captain Coyle we could not have pulled it off.”
The first-place team earned $5,700 for their top finish. Capt. Coyle’s boat is equipped with Driftmaster Rod Holders, so they also won the Driftmaster Bonus. Capt. Coyle has suggested that he may be guiding on Santee in the future.
Kelly Godbolt, Ron “Roundhill” Howard and Dustin Smith finished a close second with 236.64 pounds on what Godbolt described as a slow day. “We only got 5 bites all day long,” said Godbolt. “It was enough to move us up to second place.”
“We caught 10 fish yesterday in about an hour,” added Godbolt. “We were weighed in by 8:30 am. We had a fish that was hooked deep. He was bleeding out and getting weak. We just didn’t want to set there and sore mouth all those fish and with that weak fish we just decided to weigh in early. We had 4 fish and 130 pounds on day one and it has only been taking 120 to 130 with 5 fish. We threw back a lot of fish yesterday that we needed today.”
“My team was all professional,” joked longtime angler Howard. The team earned $2,180.
Third place went to Josh Coggins from Charlotte, NC and Lee Hardee from Dillon, SC. They claimed the third spot with a two-day weight of 231.82 pounds. Even with the severe rough conditions on day-one they found day-two to be the biggest challenge for them.
“Today was a little tougher than yesterday,” offered Coggins. “We went to our first spot and did not catch a fish for the first couple of hours. At that point we knew it was going to be a tough day. We decided to started moving. We drifted for the next 4 or 5 hours and started picking up some fish. We did a little bit better and were able to finally catch our limit.”
With a limit in the boat the team hoped to cull a few to step up their total weight. That’s when they made the decision to go to the rope. “We were hoping to find some bigger fish,” said Coggins. “We anchored up for the last part of the day.”
“We were actually trolling, pulling planer boards, today,” clarified Hardee. “We caught some fish anchored, but caught most of them trolling. We were using shad from Jamie K Outdoors. We caught all our fish on the first day anchored, because of the wind. The second day, with those bluebird skies, we had to work harder and be on the move.”
“I wish we had the same weight the second day as we did the first day,” joked Coggins. “Any way, it was a lot of fun and these guys did a great job putting it on.”
Hardee and Coggins also thanked their sponsors, The MudbuMs, “They sponsor us with the 8-foot Railsplitter Rods. Those guys hook us up with apparel and do a lot of good stuff for us.” The team earned $1,610 for their efforts.
Ray and Tracey Waldrop took the 4th place spot with 227.57 pounds. They caught 111.17 on day one and 116.40 on day two and earned $1,100.
Fifth place went to Spencer Hodges and Walter Carter with 211.23 pounds. They caught 113.00 pounds on day one and 108.23 on day two. Their consistent efforts earned them $510.
Big Fish honors and the coveted Championship Belt was shared by the team of Ben Billingsley and Evan Martin for their catch of a 54.16 pound Santee Cooper blue catfish.
“Today started off a lot better than yesterday,” said Billingsley. “We prefished Thursday and caught 5 good fish. Yesterday we caught the wind and anchored up on the flats. We managed a couple during the storm. Then it slowed the rest of the evening.”
“This morning we started out fishing on the flats again,” continued Billingsley. “We caught a couple fish. Then we moved out and started drifting again. That did not pan out, so went back and fished the deeper water. We found a couple bumps out there about mid-lake and seemed to get on them every time we set up.”
“We changed up our bait style,” added Martin. “We started cutting fillets instead of chunks. We were running those fillets on the bottom instead of running corks. Actually we had about half and half. Just giving them a different style of bait and presentation worked out for us today.”
“Anchored up was best for us today,” concluded Billingsley.
Second place big fish went to Michael Hanks with a 49.64 pounder. Josh Coggins took the 3rd place big fish with a blue cat that weighed in at 47.31 pounds.
Hunter Fussell claimed the Big Fish Youth Division to earn his Championship Belt with a fish he caught on day one. He weighed a 41.63-pound blue to claim the prize. Fourteen-year-old Hunter, from Goose Creek, SC, believes in taking care of the fish. He was spotted in the water at the release point accepting other anglers fish and making sure they were released in good shape.
“I’m happy and I’m very excited I won the youth class in my first tournament,” said a jubilant Hunter. “I’m looking forward to trying to win again next year. I want to thank my daddy and my stepmom for being there.”
“It’s a honor to win and meet new people who also like to fish,” added the articulate young cat man. “I also want to thank Black’s Fish Camp and Santee Cooper Monster Cat Quest for putting on the tournament.”
All in all the inaugural Santee Cooper Monster Cat Quest was an overwhelming success. Organizers Jimmy Holbrook, Chris Gaines, and a host of volunteers, spared no effort in creating a great tournament with a focus on the anglers. What seemed like hundreds of door prizes were awarded and happy anglers were heard talking about next year.
The next date has not been set yet, but you can stay up to date on Monster Cat Quest activities by following them on Facebook.
