By B.A.S.S. Communications Staff

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — At the final-day takeoff, an ominous weather forecast told of a coming storm. By day’s end, it was clear Luke Palmer was the storm.

Turning in an absolutely crushing final-round performance, the fifth-year pro from Coalgate, Okla., posted a four-day total of 96 pounds, 14 ounces to win the Bassmaster Elite Series event at Santee Cooper Lakes.

Palmer started the event strong with a Day-1 limit of 21-03 that put him in 10th place and followed with a second-round bag of 23-09 that moved him up to third. After adding 26-03 on Saturday, Palmer slammed the door on the victory with a massive limit of 25-15 on Sunday.

He earned his first blue trophy and the $100,000 first-place prize, besting second-place angler Mark Menendez (82-11) by a whopping margin of 14-03.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you say that,” Palmer told Bassmaster emcee Dave Mercer after his ‘Elite Series Champion’ announcement. “I was so close to doing it last year, to finally get it done – I wanted to break 100 pounds, but I’ll take 96-14.”

Notably, Palmer’s winning margin was the sixth-largest in Bassmaster history. The victory, Palmer said, provided an important shot of confidence.

“This is special,” said Palmer, who finished fourth in the 2022 Elite on Santee Cooper. “You work your whole life and you start second guessing yourself and you wonder ‘Am I good enough to do it?’ I was good one time and one time is better than no time.”

Anchoring his final bag with a 7-05 Santee Cooper stud, Palmer was the only angler to catch a limit every day of the event. The final day would bring significant limitations, but Palmer outpaced the impediments.

After three relatively calm days, Sunday dawned damp from overnight/early morning showers. The mid- to-late morning period saw a mix of sun and threatening clouds, with a daunting weather system unleashing substantial rain and strong winds from about noon through the end of the fishing day.

Fortunately, Palmer got all of his work done early. According to BassTrakk’s unofficial standings, he had his weight at 10:05.

Spending all four days on Lake Marion’s southwest side, Palmer’s main technique was old school – big rod, heavy line and flipping to cypress trees. In the early going, he threw a bladed jig with a Gene Larew Long John Minnow through the eelgrass, but switching techniques late on the first day ignited his run to the top.

“It took me until 1:30 of Day 1 to realize what was happening,” Palmer said. “It had warmed up; we finally got some sun. It seems those fish were staging out in that eelgrass (during practice) to go up and spawn on those trees.

“When that sun came out and it warmed up, those fish went ahead and moved to the trees.”

Arming himself with a 7-foot-3 heavy action Falcon Amistad rod with a high-speed reel spooled with 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon, Palmer flipped a YUM Wooly Bug and a YUM Bad Mamma, both Texas-rigged with a 3/16- or 5/16-ounce Rougarou Tungsten weight, depending on depth.

With thousands of cypress trees spread throughout Marion, Palmer focused on the ones closest to deep water. Knowing the tournament fell at the tail end of the Santee Cooper spawn, he fished the zone most likely to host the late spawners.

Palmer said his Power-Poles allowed him to hold in perfect position, while his Humminbird MEGA Live forward-facing sonar provided a clear picture of what each tree held. Finding the particular “sweet spot” on each tree he fished was the key to triggering bites from territorial bass.

Menendez, the tenured pro from Paducah, Ky., got off to a good start with a sixth-place limit of 21-14. A Day-2 stumble left him with only four fish for 9-07 and dropped him to 34th place.

Menendez rebounded on Saturday by weighing 27-13 — the event’s second-heaviest bag. That pushed him up from 34th place to fourth. He gained two more spots with a final-round limit of 23-09.

“I knew Day 2 would come back to haunt me,” Menendez said. “Anytime you don’t fill a limit, it generally does. I’m really kicking myself because I fished right over those fish on Day 2. I wanted to make sure I made the 50-cut so I could fish Day 3 and I fished too fast.

“I got back to my area on Day 3 and I slowed down. It was just a slow process. You’d make lots of casts and all of a sudden, you’d get a bite and you were off to the races. Sometimes you’d catch a whopper, sometimes it was a double whopper.”

Menendez caught some of his bass on a Strike King 4.0 squarebill, but he did most of his work with a Texas-rigged Strike King Rage Cut-R-Worm in the junebug color. Proximity was key, as Menendez said he had to hit the base of a tree to trigger a bite.

Drew Cook of Cairo, Ga., finished third with 74-09. The 2022 Santee Cooper Elite winner, he turned in daily limits that weighed 21-13, 17-12, 23-04 and 11-12.

Despite this year’s event falling considerably later in the season, Cook remained committed to the sight-fishing techniques that delivered his first Elite win. He caught his bass on a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog and the Big Bite Baits Quarantine Craw that he designed – both Texas-rigged.

“I can’t complain at all,” he said. “I’ve done exactly what I’ve wanted to do in the last two events (including a seventh place at last week’s Elite at Lake Murray).

“Today, with the weather like it was, I made the decision to stay in Taw Caw Creek (where daily takeoffs occurred). I had seven bites today and caught four.”

After three events, Angler of the Year standings with 387 points. Cook is in second with 369 points, followed by Tyler Rivet of Raceland, La., with 349, Carl Jocumsen of Queensland, Australia, with 335 and Kyle Welcher of Opelika, Ala., with 333.



Day 4 (Final) Standings

1. Luke Palmer -- Coalgate, OK -- 20, 96-14 -- 104 -- $101,000
Day 1: 5, 21-03 -- Day 2: 5, 23-09 -- Day 3: 5, 26-03 -- Day 4: 5, 25-15

2. Mark Menendez -- Paducah, KY -- 19, 82-11 -- 103 -- $35,000
Day 1: 5, 21-14 -- Day 2: 4, 09-07 -- Day 3: 5, 27-13 -- Day 4: 5, 23-09

3. Drew Cook -- Cairo, GA -- 19, 74-09 -- 102 -- $30,000
Day 1: 5, 21-13 -- Day 2: 5, 17-12 -- Day 3: 5, 23-04 -- Day 4: 4, 11-12

4. Brandon Cobb -- Greenwood, SC -- 18, 74-07 -- 101 -- $27,000
Day 1: 5, 21-00 -- Day 2: 5, 24-15 -- Day 3: 5, 21-08 -- Day 4: 3, 07-00

5. Brandon Palaniuk -- Rathdrum, ID -- 17, 68-15 -- 100 -- $20,000
Day 1: 4, 21-14 -- Day 2: 5, 14-05 -- Day 3: 5, 21-11 -- Day 4: 3, 11-01

6. Paul Mueller -- Naugatuck, CT -- 16, 67-02 -- 99 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 25-10 -- Day 2: 5, 15-15 -- Day 3: 4, 15-08 -- Day 4: 2, 10-01

7. Bryant Smith -- Roseville, CA -- 15, 60-13 -- 98 -- $18,000
Day 1: 5, 26-15 -- Day 2: 3, 09-10 -- Day 3: 4, 18-00 -- Day 4: 3, 06-04

8. Steve Kennedy -- Auburn, AL -- 15, 58-09 -- 97 -- $17,000
Day 1: 5, 17-14 -- Day 2: 5, 22-03 -- Day 3: 3, 12-01 -- Day 4: 2, 06-07

9. Jacob Powroznik -- North Prince George, VA 15 -- 55-10 -- 96 -- $16,000
Day 1: 5, 18-00 -- Day 2: 5, 20-12 -- Day 3: 5, 16-14 -- Day 4: 0, 00-00

10. Matt Robertson -- Kuttawa, KY -- 12, 54-04 -- 95 -- $17,000
Day 1: 5, 28-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-13 -- Day 3: 2, 04-06 -- Day 4: 0, 00-00