By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Luke Palmer doesn't reside anywhere near South Carolina, but the Oklahoman has made himself right at home in the Palmetto State during his 5-year Bassmaster Elite Series career. His excellence on the fisheries there advanced another level with his recent victory at Santee Cooper Lakes.
He now has six Top-10 finishes in tour-level competition and four of them have come in South Carolina. Two of those have come at Santee (he was 4th there last year), he was 6th in the 2022 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell and 8th at Winyah Bay in his rookie campaign.
His other two Top-10s were both at Lake Guntersville in Alabama.
"That place has been pretty good to me and I really can't tell you why," he said. "In the Classic I came in 6th with a spinning rod and this time it was cracking them on 20-pound line. It was nice to get my first win doing what I love to do."
The event didn't get off to a resounding start for him as he didn't have a fish in his livewell at 1:30 p.m. on the first competition day. He pulled up to one cypress tree and flipped up two good ones off it, then exploited what he called a "magic tree" that held multiple fish, one of which was a 7 1/2-pounder.
When the day was done, he'd laid a solid foundation with a 21-03 stringer that ended up being his lightest of the derby. His subsequent bags weighed 23-09, 26-03 and 25-15 for a 96-14 total that eclipsed runner-up Mark Menendez by a whopping 14 pounds.
He ended up weighing one fish he caught on a jerkbait and two that were enticed by a dropshot. The other 17 bit a YUM Wooly Bug in the Virgo red color.
His flipping gear consisted of a 7'3" medium-heavy Falcon Cara Amistad rod, a high-speed casting reel (7.5:1 gear ratio), 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, a Rougaroo tungsten weight in either 3/16-, 1/4- or 5/16-ounce and a 3/0 straight-shank hook. His fish came from a depth range of 1 1/2 to 4 feet.
It was a major reversal from practice, when he'd primarily thrown a bladed jig in water that was considerably deeper.
"It was kind of crazy how everything panned out, but it worked," he said. "The weather turned out different than what was called for in the forecast. If it had stayed cooler and I could've gotten five bites on a ChatterBait, I felt like I had a chance at 30 pounds a day. When I got bit in practice, it was 5 to 8 pounds (per fish).
"All the fish I caught in practice were pre-spawn. I never caught a post-spawner out deep."
He said his Power-Poles were critical for keeping him in the right position around the shallow trees. He also touted his Phoenix boat, Amped batteries and Huk rainsuit as key components.
The victory moved him up to 13th place in the Angler of the Year (AOY) points race. He hopes to maintain a bit of a cushion on that list before the circuit heads into smallmouth territory.
"I don't want to go north and have to catch them," he said. "Smallmouth set up differently than largemouth and those northern boys usually beat me up pretty good on them, although Lake Champlain is fun and I normally do pretty well there.
"These next two are in my wheelhouse, but they can be very sporadic, too. Lay Lake (the site of a derby that begins on Thursday) is not a giant lake and it fishes small to some extent. The Sabine River is massive, but it fishes small."
An installment on his 2023 entry fees came due last week and he said it was less stressful than usual to cover it due to the six-figure payday he had at Santee.
"It felt good to make that payment to B.A.S.S. and the beer tastes a lot sweeter right now, too. Of course, it's going to put me into a different tax bracket, but I guess that's a good problem to have."
