Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
I should start by saying that Strike King NPFL Stop One at Santee Cooper Lakes did not have perfect timing. The wind blew hard, postponing the start of the tournament. A cold front came through before the event started, and the weather cooled again for the final day. Nonetheless, lakes Marion and Moultrie “showed out” last week. The fishing was not easy—at least not for most of the field. It was a challenge to get bites, but when the anglers got them, they were big fish. In fact, they averaged the biggest in NPFL history.
Over three days, 116 anglers brought 4,757 pounds, 13 ounces of bass to the scales. That’s a new NPFL record, besting the old mark—from Saginaw Bay last year—by more than 200 pounds even though there were more anglers at Saginaw Bay last year and they weighed in 300 more bass!
The average bass brought to the scales at Santee Cooper weighed 3.69 pounds—also a new record—nearly one-half pound bigger than the previous record from Pickwick Lake last year.
And even though bites were few and far between—even for local hammers like Patrick Walters, Corey Casey, and Skeeter Crosby—and the average angler caught just 3.6 keepers per day, Santee Cooper set a new NPFL record for heaviest average daily catch at 13.44 pounds. That’s almost half a pound heavier than the previous record from Sandusky Bay in 2022, when keepers were far easier to come by.
Santee also set a new top mark for average total tournament weight. The average angler at the 2025 season opener weighed in 40-5 over three days, more than a pound better than at Sandusky in 2022.
What the bass at Santee Cooper lacked in quantity (due to timing), they more than compensated in quality. It led not only to the new records for the overall field that we’re covering here, but also to new records for heaviest winning weight, heaviest daily catch, and a tie for biggest bass in NPFL history that we covered yesterday.
Imagine the numbers if the weather was right, the anglers could get to all the water they wanted to fish, and the bite was “on.”
Even without those advantages, the 2025 season opener on Santee Cooper was a slugfest—the biggest and baddest in NPFL history.
It’s enough to make anyone want to hitch up the boat and take a road trip to South Carolina!
