Robert Walser of Lexington, NC walloped the bass, as well as his competitors at the March 9th Bassmaster ABA tournament on Santee Cooper. Fishing out of John C. Land III landing, Walser said he expected it would take 30 pounds to win the tournament. With only 5 anglers bringing a 5-bass limit to the scale, Walser was wrong on that count, but he was right about everything else on the day. Throwing a Weapon jig and a Chatterbait around the base of cypress trees on the upper lake, Walser culled his share of fish and brought 5 fish weighing 25.28 to the weigh-in.

Ronnie McCoy of Lamar, SC took second place, weighing in a limit that tipped the scales at 20.83, including a 7.73 pounder. Tim Jones was one fish shy of a limit and finished just behind McCoy with 20.63. Sean Anderson finished fourth with 5 fish at 18.99, and Andy Wicker rounded out the top 5 with a 4-fish bag that weighed 18.08. Brad Fowler caught the tournament’s biggest fish, an 8.77 pounder that boosted him into a 6th place finish with 4 fish.

Nelson Walker finished 7th with 5 fish weighing 12.71, and was followed by Ron Brown in 8th place at 11.29. Alexander James took 9th place with 3 fish weighing 9.94, and showing how tough the fishing was, it only took 2 largemouth to take 10th place for Randall Langston, who had a 5.34 pounder to help his cause.

Clyde Whiteside of Forest City, NC won the co-angler division with 3 fish weighing 8.69. Whiteside was the only co-angler to bring 3 fish to the scales. Calvin Sharp took second with 2 fish weighing 6.66, and Robert Gambrell squeaked into 3rd place with 1 fish that weighed 6.48, the biggest on the co-angler side. Jon Smoak finshed 4th with 2 fish weighing 6.46, and Vernie Haltiwanger took 5th place with 2 fish weighing 5.42.