Ryan McMurtury has been known as a great bass fisherman around Abbeville and the Lake Russell area for years, but it was not until 2010 that he got much outside recognition.
Fishing as a rookie on the Bassmaster Weekend Series, he qualified for the national championship on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville in mid-November, and then won the event and its $100,000 first prize.
McMurtury turned misfortune into money that weekend. Because of motor problems, he was forced to focus on one spot that he found, and it turned out to be the winning area. He was one of the few anglers who reported catching large numbers of fish each day and sometimes catching them two fish at a time.
His final day’s catch of 18.10 pounds pushed his total to 69.53 pounds, more than 2 pounds heavier than his nearest competition.
While using a technique on the northern end of the lake that produced frequently back home in South Carolina, McMurtury’s catches kept getting better.
“I used a double-rigged fluke — that’s how I caught two fish at a time,” he said. “That’s the same thing I did for four days, and my weights kept going up even though it got colder. I had to change a little on the last day by letting it sink for about 10 seconds.”
Not only did McMurtury win a check for $100,000, but he qualified to fish the 2011 Bassmaster Classic, which was held on the Louisiana Delta out of New Orleans in February. He won another $10,000 during that event.
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