ANDERSON, S.C. — Despite a Day 1 kicker that clearly helped his cause, rookie Paul Marks played the long game, and his patience paid off with his first blue trophy in the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell.
The former North Forsyth High Class 6A state champion started strong with a third-place Day 1 limit of 19 pounds, 7 ounces, then held the second-place spot for the next two days with weights of 17-4 and 16-5. Adding a Championship Sunday limit of 15-8, he tallied a tournament total of 68-8.
Edging fellow rookie Tucker Smith by 14 ounces, Marks collected the top prize of $100,000. (READ MORE HERE)
“I don’t know what to think; it’ll probably take a week to set in — maybe a month,” the 23-year-old Marks said. “I think I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid.
“I love spotted bass; I love fishing the way I do. It’s the best thing ever in my eyes.”
Marks started his event with a Day 1 bed-fishing effort that produced a 5-pound largemouth. That fish ate a white Zoom Z Craw Jr. in about 2 feet of water.
After that, it was nearly all offshore fishing, as Marks committed himself to grinding through numbers of spotted bass and daily culling his way to competitive limits.
“There are fish everywhere on the bank, and I knew it was going to be really hard to win with spots,” Marks said. “I got lucky on Day 1 and caught a big one on the bed. That fish made my tournament.”
Marks, who lives about 2 hours west of Hartwell, brought with him a lifetime of knowledge and experience. Whittling down his mental library to an actionable plan was the key, and Marks said he did so on the fly.
“I just ran around and went with my gut feeling,” Marks said.
Marks started daily on the blueback herring spawn, the spring baitfish reproductive aggregations that attract opportunistic bass predation. This frenzied feeding typically attracts large spotted bass and largemouth, so Marks did his best to leverage this big-bite potential.
“I started out throwing a Zoom Fluke Stick Jr and a Super Fluke on a 5/0 round bend worm hook, and I’d catch a couple of good fish every morning that would be in my bag when I came to weigh in,” he said. “The rest of the day, I’d spend most of my time backing off a little deeper in 10 to 20 feet of water — sometimes 30.
“In the deeper water, I’d throw a 3/16-ounce SPRO Skip Gap shaky head with a Zoom Fluke Stick Jr.
Marks fished from the Green Pond area to the Hartwell Dam and worked a mix of points and brush piles. Success, he said, required frequent relocation.
Herring fish are notoriously random, and when they feed, it does not last long. Marks maximized his time by constantly seeking fresh activity.
“I never let off the gas today; I ran so hard,” Marks said. “It was a long day for me. I really didn’t think I had enough. Somehow, it worked out.”
