Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
We’re just one full day into the Strike King NPFL Stop One at Santee Cooper Lakes, but lakes Marion and Moultrie have not disappointed.
“They” say that records are made to be broken, and they may be right. Records certainly seem destined to fall here this week.
On Day 1, one major NPFL record was broken and another was tied. Both set the stage for more records to fall, including the mark for heaviest winning weight
Early in the weigh-in, Harmon Davis of Marlow, Oklahoma came to the scales with a modest bag weighing “just” 13 pounds, but it included a tie for the biggest bass ever weighed in during NPFL competition — a 10-pound, 9-ounce lunker he flipped out of a shallow mat. The fish tied for biggest bass ever with one Jesse Wise caught on the final day of the 2024 NPFL Championship on Lake Amistad.
A few minutes later, the floodgates opened on another high-profile League record. Buck Mallory of Lawton, Michigan, an NPFL winner in 2021 on Lake Winnebago, smashed the single day weight record with a 5-fish limit tallying 31-1. It eclipsed the mark set here at Santee Cooper in 2023 by Quentin Cappo of 30 pounds even.
Mallory’s record lasted less than hour. That’s when Oklahoma’s Jason Christie — the 2022 Bassmaster Classic champion — weighed in 31-6 to take a five ounce lead and extend the League record for heaviest daily catch by five scant ounces.
Christie held the record for about half an hour … until Jordan Osborne of Longview, Texas grabbed the lead with 33-1 and held on for the rest of the day. To get those fish, he covered a lot of water on both lakes — Marion and Moultrie — but used just one bait to catch them all, a ChatterBait bladed jig.
Osborne snapped the 2023 record by more than 10% — a big jump, especially considering the challenging weather in South Carolina this week. The tournament was delayed by a day due to dangerous winds. Friday through Sunday — competition days — it looks like the anglers will face sun, rain, wind and calm, depending on where they’re fishing.
It’s Osborne’s first year in the NPFL, and he’s off to an extraordinary start. Can he maintain his record-breaking pace? More records seem destined to fall this weekend, and the records broken yesterday may tumble yet again. Find out at this afternoon’s weigh-in. It starts at 3:00 p.m. ET.
