Richard Wimmer III and James Saxton took the day one lead at Cabela’s King Kat Eastern Championship on Lake Wateree at Camden, South Carolina. The event, hosted by the Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center, attracted anglers from several states to compete on the popular lake.
“We hadn’t caught fish that big this week,” reported Wimmer. “But we were close Monday thru Thursday. We just trusted the Lowrance to catch 8 teenagers. Then we went to find the bigger arches that had been there all week but never bit. They decided to bite today. I had not tried them but once this week but checked on them every day.”
“We caught 20-25 fish today. It’s going to be a long 24 hours now, just like Santee in February,” said Wimmer as he recalled leading day one at the Cabela’s Tournament on Santee earlier this year.
Wimmer and Saxton also had second big fish at 32.70 pounds.
Blake Williams and Jamie Williams are holding down second place after the first day. “The bite was awesome,” said Blake Williams following the weigh-in. “We put our five biggest fish in the boat by 8:00 am and searched for bigger fish after that. We ended up catching 30 fish today. It was an awesome day. We just hope to be able to do it again tomorrow!”
Blake and Jamie weighed in the third biggest fish at 29.80 pounds.
Big Kat of the tournament is held by Dennis and Valarie Dulin with a 39.08 pounder after day one. They also hold down the third place spot with 94.18 total pounds.
The Championship is a two-day event, so on Saturday October 7, 2017 the winning team will take home an Alumacraft 2072 side console boat valued at $25,000.00. The boat is equipped with a 90HP Mercury 4-stroke engine, Minn Kota foot control trolling motor, Humminbird Helix series electronics, Driftmaster Rod Holder package and Cat River Anchor.
Legal waters for the Eastern Championship are all of Lake Wateree. Day two anglers will begin fishing at 6:30 am and are allowed to fish until 3:00 pm. After that all anglers must be in the weigh-in line by 4:00 pm at the Clearwater Cove Marina, 2029 Baron Dekalb Street, Camden, SC. In the interest of conservation only 5 live fish are allowed to be weighed in. All fish are released after the tournament.
The public are welcome and invited to attend the final weigh-in on Saturday at Clearwater Cove Marina. The first and second place teams are only 6 pounds apart. It could make for a very interesting day. If you cannoth attend the live weigh-in you can watch a live feed from Camden, SC on the King Kat Facebook page beginning at 3 pm Eastern Time.
For more information visit the website: www.kingkatusa.com, or their Facebook page. They can be phoned at (502) 384-5924.
