Cory Johnston never competes for fifth place but the Canadian was more than content with that finish in the Bassmaster Elite event at South Carolina's Santee Cooper Lakes.
Johnston, of Cavan, Ont., weighed a five-fish limit that exceeded 20 pounds daily over the four-day event. His overall weight Monday was 88 pounds, nine ounces — a total that's usually good enough to either be in the lead or not far off it.
But Dwight Cook went wire-to-wire for the victory with 105 pounds, five ounces. Caleb Kuphall was second at 103 pounds, one ounce.
"Santee Cooper is a special place," Johnston said Tuesday. "Twenty pounds a day is great but everyone knew going in you'd need 100 pounds to win so it wasn't a shock by any means that 100 pounds was going to be broken.
"But I had a great tournament and had fun doing it."
Johnston said about all he was lacking over the four days was some fishing luck.
"All these other guys were rolling across an eight- or nine-pounder a day and I just never came across one," he said. "All of my fish were quality, I had a couple of six-pounders, but I never got lucky and ran across a couple of eight- or nine-pounders to get my weight up to where I needed it to be."
Johnston said sight-fishing was the key to his success, adding he saw all but two of his largemouth bass before catching them. Early in the season, fish usually move shallow to spawn and the general rule of thumb is if an angler can see them, they can also see the fisherman and become very skittish and difficult to hook.
"It's different fishing for bedding largemouth than it is for bedding smallmouth where we live," Johnston said. "You're trying to find fish that are paired up with a female and very rarely will you see two smallmouth paired up when we can fish them.
"It's hard to find a female (which is much bigger than her male counterpart) and get one to bite. It's not easy but it's how I like to catch them."
Johnston and the other anglers also had to deal with varying conditions at Santee Cooper.
"It's extremely challenging because it's two lakes," he said. "There's a bunch of different creeks and the upper lake is full of trees so you can't just run around and drive your boat wherever you want because it will take your motor off.
"It's extremely hard to navigate, there's a lot of water to cover. Some of the lake is dirty and some of it is clean."
Johnston was the only Canadian to crack the top-10 through Sunday — he was sixth — and qualify for Monday's final round. Johnston's brother, Chris, of Peterborough, Ont., finished 51st while Jeff Gustafson, of Kenora, Ont., was 66th.
Cory Johnston has had a solid start to the 2022 season, standing seventh overall through three events. He'll have some down time before the next Elite Series competition, April 7-10 at Chickamauga Lake in Dayton, Tenn.
Then it will be off to Lake Fork in Quitman, Tex. (May 19-22) before shifting to a prime smallmouth bass fishery on the St. Lawrence River at Clayton, N.Y., on July 14-17. The Canadians all grew up fishing smallmouths and have traditionally excelled in those events.
"Lake Fork will be a fun one," Johnston said. "We've been there a few times now and I think I've got a pretty good handle on it.
"Chickamauga will be different. The water is down right now, it dropped over the winter so it all depends if they bring the water up before we get there or after. The fish won't spawn until they bring the water up so if it's still low, it will be a pre-spawn thing which will make it a little tougher. I'd rather it be a spawning tournament but we'll see what happens."
Cory Johnston also competed in the US$1-million Bassmaster Classic — the circuit's premier event — earlier this month for a third straight year. He was tied for 26th in the 55-angler field on South Carolina's Lake Hartwell as Chris Johnston finished fifth and Gustafson was 41st.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2022.
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press
