Southeastern Big Money Showdown Win Goes to Timothy London and Danny Ball
by Ron Presley
Photo credit: Southeastern Catfish Club
The 2023 Southeastern Big Money Showdown allowed 4 fish per day in the two-day event on Lake Wateree. It required a total weight of more than 160 pounds to win it.
The Southeastern Catfish Club trekked to Lake Wateree State Park in SC for the Southeastern Big Money Showdown. The 2-day competition on November 8th and 9th, 2024 was presented by Catch the Fever. It attracted 60 teams competing for the first-place prize of $6,000. Jamie Williams and Clay Henderson directed the tournament that paid the top 15 finishing teams. It also featured a raffle, giveaways, and bonus money.
Of the two days of competition, Friday produced the best bite. Anglers reported catching more fish on Friday than on Saturday. Cooler weather and higher winds likely caused the tougher fishing on day two. Even though fewer fish were caught they seemed to be of better quality on the second day of competition.
After one day of fishing, Team Last Cast led the field with 110.75 pounds. David Stanley and Hunter Stanley took the Showdown challenge in a borrowed boat (thanks to Kevin Buskirk) and had the right strategy to win day one and make some memories.
When all the weights were recorded a team moved up the leaderboard to take the win with a total weight of more than 160 pounds.
First Place 
The top spot at the Showdown went to Team Mako. Timothy London and Danny Ball weighed 68.95 pounds on day one to land in 6th place going into day two. They upped their weight considerably on day two bringing 92.75 pounds to the scales. Their weight moved them up the leaderboard from 6th place to the top with a total weight of 161.70 pounds.
The team rented an Airbnb cabin as their headquarters for the weekend and Ball got to the lake first. London joined him on Thursday. The early arrival allowed Ball the opportunity to do some scouting and scanning.
“Danny did some research to begin his search for some fish,” reported London. “He found some fish stacked up just off the main channel.”
When London arrived on Thursday afternoon he put the G3 in the water and headed to the cabin because it was quicker to run by water than drive.
“While on the way to the cabin I stopped by to make sure the fish were still there,” recalled London. “They were still there so we decided to target this particular area first thing Friday morning.”
It was very foggy on that first morning. It caused them to get a late start because they had to idle out of where they were staying. Once they arrived at the spot they chose to fish they deployed their B-Kat planner boards. It did not take them long to find some action.
“We had immediate action,” London said. “The Hellcat Rods got a workout on Friday. We boated about 20 fish. We were baiting with cut white perch. Our biggest fish on Friday was about 33 pounds.”
Good results on Friday led London and Ball to return to the same area on day 2. They continued to target water in the 25-foot-deep range. The second day of competition turned out to be a tougher bite than Friday. Team Mako only caught about a dozen fish but they were better fish.
“We decided to target the same area on Saturday,” explained London. “The bite was a little slower but we caught better quality fish for sure. We got on the board early with a 25-pounder.”
After catching that good fish early the wind picked up and the fishing became more challenging. Friday had hardly any wind and Saturday winds picked up to 10 to 15 mph. A lot of anglers moved off the main lake to get out of the wind. London and Ball decided to stay in their area and fight it out with Mother Nature.
“We decided to tough it out,” declared London. “We knew that particular area had some good fish and we weren’t gonna leave fish to go find fish. We put out some extra drift socks to control the boat and it paid off for us. We boated our best fish of the weekend at 36 pounds.”
“I noticed a lot of the fish from Friday were buried in the mud,” concluded London. “In my opinion the wind and the cooler weather had the bigger fish moving around a little more on the second day. It was 10 degrees cooler on day 2.”
Team Mako is sponsored by Catch the Fever, Slimline, Dry Creek Marine, Dirty South Dragging Weights, Regular Dude Outdoors, Xtra Inning Sportz Apparel, Fish Easy Outfitters, B-Kat Boards, Caveman Clips, Fish Bite Rod Holders, Fish USA, Hookers Terminal Tackle, and Mayhem Tackle.
Second Place and Big Fish 
The runner-up spot went to David Stanley and Hunter Stanley. After leading the field with an amazing weight on day one they were challenged by the tougher bite on day two. The father/son team added 28.65 pounds to their day one total of 110.75 for a total weight of 139.40 to claim the 2nd place check. Their bag included a 41-pound blue cat to also claim Big Fish honors!
Third Place 
The third spot went to Benji Brown and Todd Kendrick fishing as Team Polecat. They weighed 74.85 pounds on day one and added 62.80 pounds on day two for a total of 137.65 pounds, just a couple of pounds out of 2nd place.
Youth Big Fish 
This year’s Youth Big Fish Award went to Waylon Adkins. Young Waylon was fishing on the Tinkers Creek Outlaws team which included Garrett Adkins, Jason Clinton, Kevin Lytle, Chad Taylor, and Waylon.
More Winners
You can view a complete rundown of all the anglers with weights for each day on the Southeastern Big Money Website by clicking here.
Final Thoughts
The 2024 Southeastern Big Money Showdown was a great success. A review and comparison of the weights for days one and two demonstrates how the bite changed from Friday to Saturday. Many of the anglers brought less weight to the scales on Saturday. Nevertheless, the top 22 teams all weighed more than 100 pounds in total weight for the two days of competition. 
“It was a tale of two different days,” confirmed tournament weighmaster Mark Coburn. “Day one was calm and sunny with temps in the 80’s. The bulk of the teams finished in the 50-pound range. There were lots of fish caught. Team Last Cast set an outstanding weight to beat at 110 pounds.”
The second day looked much different. The winds picked up quite heavily and the temps dropped into the high 60’s. This change in the weather created tough fishing conditions for the leaders and most other teams.
“Timothy London and Danny Ball figured it out,” continued Coburn. “They came to the scales with more than 92 pounds on day two. They came from 6th place and stormed to the lead on day two.”
There were large crowds in attendance both days for the weigh-in. Many of the spectators had never seen a catfish tournament before and weighmaster Coburn put on a show for them.
“The crowd was in awe of the skills and techniques these premiere anglers use to locate and catch these great creatures,” concluded Coburn. “We were pleased to see Mr. Kaleb Page of Catch The Fever in attendance as the headline sponsor of the event. He saw to it that the top 30 teams took home cash or merchandise from Catch The Fever. I weigh tournaments all up and down the East Coast and the Tournament Directors are as good as any and their passion for the anglers is immense!”
To stay abreast of what’s going on with Southeastern Catfish Club visit their website and follow them on Facebook.
