Posted  May 15th, 2008  4:25 pm CST

Grand Goldbeck's 20 Pound Limit Leads in SC

Story by Brent Conway - Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Columbia, SC – It’s been a nearly a decade since a BASS tour-level event has visited Lake Murray, site of this week’s sixth stop on the 2008 Elite Series campaign. During that time, much has changed – most notably the absence of the abundant mats of elodea and other aquatic vegetation that once lined the 650 miles of shoreline of the palmetto impoundment.

However, like many lakes in the southeast, Murray has been the beneficiary (or unlucky recipient, some might say) of blueback herring. The bluebacks, as witnessed at Clarks Hill two weeks ago, have the ability to single-handedly dictate a tournament’s outcome given the fact that the bass enthusiastically center their movements around them. 

It’s all about timing at Murray this week, and ultimately if you can figure out the herring you stand a good chance at holding the keys to unlocking a win come Sunday. If you can’t, chances are you’ll be heading home empty handed Friday afternoon. 

Pre-tournament reports conclusively pointed to an early boat draw as a “must have” given the brief window for early morning success. If you couldn’t be the first to arrive at your best spot it would undoubtedly have another angler already there, and without a strong showing during top water’s pre-sun primetime, the day would be a grind. 

Much of the field emphasized that, while they’d found scattered pods of bass, a quality group of three- and four-pound bass was hard to come by. Additionally, with the lake being higher than most have seen it – and the fact that only a handful of anglers in the field have fished a tournament on Murray in May – community spots are all the norm making the 50,000-acre lake fish incredibly small.

While the top water bite was key on the first day – and likely for the remainder of the week given the post-spawn conditions and weather forecast, there were a few anglers who had something besides to two-hour surface bite working – and it shone through in Thursday’s first period.

Virginia Pro, Grant Goldbeck proved that, in addition to a strong morning bite, he’d found a somewhat steady bite throughout the day producing a the day’s only 20-pound stringer. Grant’s liming went 20-4 to be exact, and claimed Day One honors by nearly a pound. In second place was Oklahoma pro Edwin Evers, who, unlike Goldbeck, didn’t have the steady supply of bites but nonetheless totaled 19-5 by day’s end.

A half-pound back from the leaders in third place was Matthew Sphar, who brought 18-14 to the scales Thursday. Chris Lane ended his day one with 18-10 – good enough for a fourth-place start.

In fifth place to get things started was Mike McClelland, who ended the day with five bass that went 18-7 overall. Elite Series rookie Wade Grooms and Russ Lane ended the day in a tie to round out the Super Six with a limit of bass a piece that weighed 18-4.

Goldbeck on the ‘Gun’
Monday was the first day that Grant Goldbeck had ever seen Murray. However, he was able to use experienced he’d gained on lake back home in Maryland, which fishes very similar to Murray, and turn it into his tournament day of the season – though it didn’t start that way. “It was definitely the kind of day that you want to have, but it didn’t start out that way,” he said. 

Only allowing 20 minutes or so at each spot, Goldbeck explained that he was able to keep his fish firing all day. The problem is that he’s sure he’s not the only competitor fishing them. “There are a lot of guys running around right now, which could potentially hurt,” he said. “I’ve got a good boat number tomorrow, so that should help me. But my best three of four spots didn’t get any pressure today – at least while I was there.”

Goldbeck explained that he found these fish the afternoon of the first day. At that point, he put his flipping tackle away and only now has just two rods out. “After I found those groups of fish, I put all of the things I really like to do, like flipping a jig to docks, away,” he explained. 

“I knew what I would be doing and where I’d be doing it at when I went to be Monday night. After that, I spent the next day-and-a-half just refining what I’d found.”

Evers Has Two Key Bites
After Clarks Hill, Edwin Evers knows how easy it is to go from hero to zero. He’s hero for the day, but explained that it could have been middle-of-the-pack ending to the first round just as easily. “I just had two big bites today that made all the difference for me, that’s all,” he explained. 

“If it wouldn’t have been for them, I would’ve had a mediocre bag and been in the middle of the pack. I was blessed today, that’s all.”

With only 10 bites through the day, Edwin explained that the morning bite was key for him as the lake slicked off around 10:00 and became a grind. “I didn’t catch them today like I thought I would,” he said. “I caught them right up until around 12:00, but after it slicked down it got tough. So I’m really thankful to have gotten the bites I did before it got slick.”

While he was never in competition for a particular point, Evers is sure that he’s not alone in fishing them, which gives him obvious room for concern. “There are so many guys cycling through these spots that you might be sharing water and not even know it,” he said. 

“That’s a big deal too because these fish are seeing so many lures, and you’d really like to let them rest for a few minutes.”

Looking to Day Two, Evers knows only one thing for sure – he’s going to give it all his has. “I’m happy to have what I did today,” he said. “I fished as hard as I knew how to, and plan on doing it all over again tomorrow and just hope for the best.”

Sphar Finessed Instead
“It’s a good start,” sophomore pro Matt Sphar said of his Day One performance. “I’m a little spooked out because I know that those big fish are going to start biting for the other guys.”

The big fish Matt mentions is concerning given the way he’s fishing right now. Everything he weighed the first day came on a drop shot. “I’ll stick with it until I get a limit again tomorrow,” he said. 

“After that I’ll make the call on whether or not I switch to plan b and try to get some bigger bites. I’m around a lot of fish, and will have a good draw tomorrow so hopefully I can finesse out a pretty good bag and then go looking.”

The bite got tough after lunch, but rather than chasing schoolers Sphar tried to milk areas he’d been bit on earlier and, in the process, culled two limits of fish. “I didn’t chase the schoolers like most everyone’s doing right now,” he said. “I pretty much hung around an area that I had gotten bit and just worked it over. 

“The guys are bouncing through these points and throwing over hundreds of fish to get the reaction bite. I’m just going for the fish that aren’t reacting with a drop shot.”

As evidence, Chris pointed to one of his best “community points” where his big fish – a five pounder – was caught. “I came in there and had a two pounder come up and shake the hooks,” he said. “I left for an hour and came back and caught the big fish on the first cast. It’s like that all day.”

“You have to pick points that another boat isn’t just leaving,” Chris added. “You also have to make the fish school. You actually have to drive the herring up on the bank in some cases. That’s pretty much my plan this week – hit the points and make them bite and then go into some of my backwater areas.”

McClelland Started Slow
Mike McClelland is having the sort of season that most dream of, and he’s doing it by being patient and fishing to his strengths. “I started on six or eight places that I felt like I could catch them on, but I didn’t,” he said. “It was 9:30 before I had my first fish, but that’s kind of how it’s been this week for me.”

When the bite finally came, it came quick; however, McClelland wasn’t able to take full advantage. “The first fish I put in the boat was a good one, which gets you going a little bit, you know,” he said. “After that, I had five bites on one little stretch and was only able to boat two of them. So it was sort of disheartening for me to tell you the truth.”

McClelland made a key bait change in an attempt to put his bad mojo to rest. “I sat down and made a bait change before lunch that really helped me I think,” he said. “I should have done it earlier, and maybe would’ve been able to boat some of those shallower fish, but I’m glad I had the presence of mind to do it when I did.”

While McClelland didn’t address the specific bait change that he made, he pointed out a portion of what saved his day was going back to his strengths. “I’m going to look for structure wherever I go,” he said. 

“I fished 30 of those pretty humps out there in practice and only found a couple that had good structure and fortunately was able to go out there today and catch some of my better fish.”

“I really feel like there’s some better fish moving up on them right now,” Mike added, while explaining his outlook on the rest of the tournament. “If I can catch a few shallow fish early and pick up a couple deepwater bites every day I feel like I’ll be in good shape.”

Grooms’ Late Draw Worked Out
Rookie pro Wade Grooms knows one thing for sure – he won’t be in the final flight Friday. And while the day turned into his best start of the season, it required a lot of patience and persistence. “I didn’t really know how the day was going to start because I was boat 99,” he said. 

“I just waited for the points that I wanted to fish to clear off and ended up pulling up on one and caught two fish on back-to-back casts. That really settled me down and got me focused.”

Going through two limits of fish over the course of the day, Grooms was certain he’d need every ounce to be in contention for Saturday’s Top 12 cut. “That actually concerns me, to tell you the truth,” he said. 

“I didn’t want to burn through my fish but I though it would take 25 pounds to lead it. If I would’ve known that 18 pounds would have me in fifth place, I would have laid up a backed off a little. It’s pretty sad because I caught fish up until weigh-in. Oh well.”

Though he lives only a couple hours from Murray – and he’s fished it plenty over the years – the is the first tournament he’s fished here, but he knows the drill. However, he’s not looking forward to the wind because it will hamper his long-range sight bite. “Well, if it’s windy tomorrow I’m going to have to change up a little and do some things that I don’t really want to,” he said. 

“I’m probably one of the few out here that actually want it to be slick as glass right now because I’m actually looking for signs of bass in the shallows before I fish the point.”

Grooms was one of a few who had a steady bite, but isn’t naïve enough to believe it’s going to be that way everyday of the tournament. “I’ve got an all day bite going, or at least I did today,” he explained. “You’re going to be real fortunate to be able to have that for four days straight, but if you can get a couple bites early it’ll set the tone.”

Lane explained that Friday will be a new day. “I’m going to totally forget everything I caught today and just go fishing again tomorrow,” he said. “I might start where I left off this afternoon. Who knows where that will take me after that.”

Morris Surprised 
“I had no idea I would catch what I did,” Rick Morris explained after ending the day in eighth place, which was about 15 places higher than he’d planned. “I just got really lucky and had some schoolers come up in front of me. I was hoping to be able to catch 12 pounds today, so I’m tickled to death with what I did.”

Morris, like Russ Lane is junk fishing and he explained that he caught all five fish on different baits. “I know that sounds odd, but it’s the truth,” he said. “I actually caught a fish off a bed. I just went for it today man.”

Tomorrow, if possible, Morris plans to junk it up even more. “I’m going to have to mix it up more tomorrow than I did today,” he said. “The weather’s going to change and with a later draw I won’t be able to get onto my best spot. I still think I’ll be able to catch 12 to 18 pounds again. We’ll see.”

Quote of the Day:
Jordon: “You’d think you could just go down the bank and whip ‘em flipping bush with the lake as high as it is. You can’t though because the bass are all outside chasing herring. That’s why the bass are all long and skinny and mean – because everything they eat is running about 1000 miles-per-hour.

DAY ONE STANDINGS

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