How Paul Marks Jr got his second blue trophy at Murray, SC

Is Paul Marks the Herring King? You could make a good argument for it since his first win was fishing the herring bite at last year’s Hartwell Elite, and now his 2nd one was the herring bite at Murray.

The interesting thing is that a lot of those guys know how to fish herring lakes and do well on ’em too. Paul somehow just gets bigger bites – maybe this time because he didn’t know much about Murray.

Going in and practice

> “I knew it would be a late herring spawn, but it honestly wasn’t that late a one. I caught a lot of fish still shallow.

> “The whole practice was calm weather so we never really got any of those real good bite windows…I had 19 1 day but over 21 the other 2 days.

> “I didn’t know really what I was going to catch. Then the weather turned out awesome almost the whole tournament.

> “It’s like a shad spawn – the morning’s usually the best time, but if it’s cloudy or rainy out, [the herring spawn] can last the majority of the day.

> “I ran around and checked long points, short points, some shallow humps, some saddles, anything where the herring might spawn. The the grass has kinda grown up in Murray.

> “I don’t have much herring spawn experience at Lake Murray, and I think that helped me out because the lake was lower this year and I think the grass changes it. I pretty much found the best spots possible for this year that maybe were different because the lake was down. It was good not having any history.”

He said he has fished Murray before, just not during the herring spawn. Him and his dad won a tourney there in 2022 and Paul Jr said his first fish was a 9-lber and they had 35 lbs! This time:

> “I just found little sweet spots…some on short points. I just mixed it up.”

Tournament

The first 3 days were rougher weather, so good for the herring-spawn bite, but the last day  was calm.

> “The first day we had cloudy and windy conditions, so I threw a Zoom Super Fluke in ‘chartreuse pearl’ all day. I weighed all my fish on that.

> “Day 2 I caught all my fish on ‘chartreuse pearl’ Fluke as well. It was a little tougher day 2. I caught a 6.5 at lunchtime over a deep rocky hump. It was about 15′ from the surface and I got it to come up and eat the Fluke.

> “Day 3…I had a 5 and 4 pretty quick, and caught some 4s the rest of the day. It took all day for me to get ’em. I fished a few cane piles off those long points…the fish moved out off the shallow points.

> Day 4 we had a little bit of wind that morning, but it was sunny and bluebird skies. I started on my 2 best herring spawn points and I had 1 3-lber. I had been leaving those places with 3 or 4 fish that were typically over 4 lbs so that kinda was a bummer.

> “I decided to make a game time decision and throw a SPRO Little John on some riprap. I caught 2 over 5 pretty fast. I ran some more riprap another hour or 2 and didn’t catch anything.

> “Then I ran to probably my 3rd-best spot, where I started the first morning…. I pulled up there and caught a 6 and a 4.25 on back to back casts. I didn’t catch anything the rest of the day.”

He did catch some small ones, but not a ton.

Baits

> Zoom Super Fluke (‘chart pearl’ and ‘chart herring’ on days 3-4). “‘Chart herring’ is like ‘disco green’ and ‘chart pearl’ combined. The weather was changing, different conditions…sunny skies and calmer weather.” 5/0 Gamakatsu Offset Round Bend Worm Hook, 15-lb Seaguar Smackdown Braid (flash green) to 15-lb Seaguar Tatsu Fluoro, 3000 spin reel, 7′ MH Gamakatsu Luxxe Efreet Spin Rod.

> Why chartreuse: “…them seeing it from a long ways away ignites them to bite. If they see it from further away, they ignite faster and you get more bites.”

> SPRO Little John 50 crank (clear chart with stock Gammy trebles), 17-lb Seaguar Tatsu Fluoro, 3000-size reel, 7′ 1″ M+ HideUp Macca Rod (SPRO is bringing HideUp JDM rods to the US).

Electronics

> “I used all my electronics efficiently. I used [all 3 brands] equally in my success.”

He said he caught maybe half his fish with LiveScope, and none of the fish he weighed on day 4 came with it:

> “I was pulling up and using my forward-facing eyeballs, looking a points and edges of the grass…light spots with no grass.”

Shoutouts

> “All my sponsors. John Megel Chevrolet and Ford, Freightro, Van Sant Law, SPRO USA, Gamakatsu USA, Zoom Bait Co, Phoenix Boats, Yamaha, Capshield Marine. Select Customs, Seaguar….”