Bennett Wins Toyota Series Tournamnet at Santee Cooper Lakes

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (Sept. 15, 2024) – Were it not for blustery conditions and massive waves at the bass fishing tournament on Santee Cooper on Saturday, Georgetown, South Carolina pro Bennett Lawshe may have turned a blowout into a beatdown. Instead, his trolling motor batteries died by lunchtime as he fought the conditions and came to the scales on the final day of the  Toyota Series Southern Division finale with 13 pounds, 8 ounces – good enough to best pro Reid Heard of Bainbridge, Georgia, by an ounce shy of 7 pounds.

Lawshe, 24, calls Santee his home lakes and rarely fishes anywhere else. For years, he’s been unlocking the secrets of Lakes Marion and Moultrie, which aided in his massive 25-7 bag on Day 2 and allowed him to fill out a limit on the final day despite gusting winds and a nonfunctional trolling motor. 

“I wasn’t really stressed,” he said of losing trolling motor capabilities early in the day. “If it would have been two years ago, I would have probably spun out. It wasn’t that bad. I didn’t panic or anything.”

Part of the reason for his calmness was knowing it would have taken a big bag to overtake him, and considering the stingy late-summer bite that pushed weights down and made big bites few and far between, Lawshe knew he was still in good position to win. And that all came down to making some sound decisions on Days 1 and 2 after observing a key factor on the last day of practice.

“There was a mayfly hatch,” Lawshe explained. “You could drive by the trees and shake them and mayflies hit the water and bream would be popping all over the place. I found it the last day of practice and I probably shook off 30 pounds.

“I’ve caught them like that before, but never this time of year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the fall. I just know what happens when they do that. It’s like all the big fish in the area scoot into that one place. I didn’t have one small bite in that area.”

That area was near Pack’s Landing, where Lawshe took advantage of the mayfly hatch by popping a SPRO Bronzeye frog around trees. That pattern accounted for a 4- and a 5-pounder on Day 1 and a 7-pounder on Day 2. After catching those kickers, Lawshe ran back to his primary offshore area to utilize forward-facing sonar to fill out his limit and cull up.

“It’s just a big area and I’ve just spent a lot of time there,” he said of his primary offshore spot. “I’ve graphed the entire area and can tell you where everything is on the bottom.

“At some point in the day there was a big school of fish that would pull up on one of two brushpiles, and I had to be sitting on the right one at the right time.”

To fish those brushpiles situated in 20 and 15 feet of water, Lawshe relied on a pair of jerkbaits: a deep-diving Rapala model and a shallow-diving Megabass model. While he used forward-facing sonar to locate those brushpiles and fish and know where to cast, he says he’s not proficient enough with the technology to see his bait on the screen and watch the fish eat it.

The win was only Lawshe’s third tournament with Major League Fishing, having previously turned in a couple Top-25 finishes in Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine events at Santee in 2022 and 2023. Those tournaments took place in early spring, though – a time of year during which he’s not all that confident fishing.

“I’ve always been good this time of year,” he said. “It’s my favorite time of year to fish. I’m good at junk fishing. I’ve gotten good at knowing when to pick your trolling motor up and leave somewhere. I literally burned an entire tank of gas each day all three days.”

Though still a college student (he’ll graduate in December from Francis Marion University with a degree in environmental science), he’s not sweating the gas money. Winning $32,142 will have that effect.

“All the contingency money for the boat and truck, I always give it to my grandad,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the winner check.”

The top 10 pros at the Toyota Series at Santee Cooper Lakes finished:

1st:        Bennett Lawshe, Georgetown, S.C., 15 bass, 64-1, $32,142
2nd:       Reid Heard, Bainbridge, Ga., 14 bass, 63-6, $12,955
3rd:       Bryan Cook, .Vance, S.C., 15 bass, 63-1, $9,643
4th:        Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 61-13, $8,036
5th:        Ben Harris, Haines City, Fla., 14 bass, 61-3, $7,232
6th:        Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 11 bass, 61-1, $6,428
7th:        Colbie Caigle, Edgewater, Fla., 13 bass, 61-0, $5,625
8th:        Casey Warren, Longs, S.C., 11 bass, 60-9, $4,821
9th:        Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 15 bass, 60-6, $4,018
10th:     Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 15 bass, 60-4, $5,214 (includes $1,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus)

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Pro Brad Robinson of Hagerstown, Indiana, earned Thursday’s $500 Big Bass Award with a bass weighing 7 pounds, 5 ounces. Pro Reid Heard of Bainbridge, Georgia, earned the $500 Big Bass Award on Friday with a bass weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

Keith Honeycutt of Temple, Texas, won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 11 bass weighing 27 pounds, 4 ounces. Honeycutt earned the top co-angler prize package worth $33,500, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard motor.

The top 10 co-anglers at the Toyota Series at Santee Cooper Lakes finished:

1st:        Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 11 bass, 27-4, Phoenix 518 Pro boat w/115-hp Mercury outboard
2nd:       Dan Basham, Taylorsville, Ky., nine bass, 24-4, $4,141
3rd:       Grant McPeters, Marion, N.C., six bass, 23-13, $3,313
4th:        Billy Foster, Leesburg, Ga., 10 bass, 23-11, $2,899
5th:        Alan Hults, Gautier, Miss., nine bass, 23-4, $2,485
6th:        David Underwood, Waco, Texas, eight bass, 21-9, $2,071
7th:        Wendell Grantham, Eatonton, Ga., eight bass, 20-11, $1,656
8th:        Patrick Brown, Swainsboro, Ga., eight bass, 20-0, $1,449
9th:        Clyde Cox, Silver Grove, Ky., six bass, 19-2, $1,542
10th:     Todd Mowery, Madison, Ala., eight bass, 18-12, $1,035

Strike King Co-angler Clyde Cox of Silver Grove, Kentucky, earned Thursday’s $150 Berkley Big Bass co-angler award with a 7-pound, 12-ounce bass, while Friday’s Day 2 $150 co-angler award went to Josh Williams of Orange Park, Florida, who weighed in a 5-pound, 14-ounce bass.