Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill leads the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers race going into the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN Aug. 22-24 in Walker, Minn.
Photo by Andy Crawford/B.A.S.S.
August 15, 2024
Anglers eagerly eye diverse waters as Bassmaster Opens head to Leech Lake for the first time
WALKER, Minn. — Leech Lake might not be the final frontier, but it’s certainly the first time B.A.S.S. has visited the remote fishery in northern Minnesota.
Leech is far from the great unknown, however, at least to bass anglers here on the fringe of America’s Midwest. To hear them talk, it’s been a destination lake of sorts for several decades now, despite the fact that it’s closer to Canada’s southern border than it is to the state capital of St. Paul (sister city of Minneapolis about 3½ hours southeast).
Competitors from around North America and beyond will get an up close and personal look at the place Aug. 22-24 for the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN. It’s the second Division 3 Bassmaster Open of the season, and as many as 225 competitors are expected to battle for some career-defining accolades.
The winner’s bounty includes a berth in the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors when it’s held March 21-23 at Lake Ray Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas. There will be as much as $332,550 in prize money split between the top participants at Leech and some, who are fishing each of this year’s nine Bassmaster Opens, will be vying for crucial points in the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers (EQ) standings. The top nine anglers who fish in each of the nine Opens in 2024 will qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series, which opens a world of opportunity to pro anglers.
But before anyone can start focusing on those spoils, they’ll have to conquer Leech, which area pros say provides competitors a buffet of choices to whet a bass angler’s appetite.
“Leech is one of our bigger lakes,” said Minnesota pro Josh Douglas, who is no stranger to the upper echelon of the sport, having fished the Bassmaster Opens since 2012 and two Elite Series seasons in 2022 and 2023. “It’s different from Mille Lacs (which is about an hour south of Leech) in that it’s broken up more. There’s the main basin, and it filters off into backwaters and bog water. It’s filled with wild rice, milfoil – just all the vegetation you could want. And like Mille Lacs, it’s a glacial lake, so there’s plenty of rock ledges and rockpiles to fish.”
Those backwaters, however, might look familiar to a number of anglers whether or not they’re new to the area.
“Leech is a traditional smallmouth lake that looks like (Lake) Okeechobee in some spots,” the 44-year-old Isle, Minn., resident said. “The guys from Florida should feel at home, really,” he added, with a laugh.
Douglas said Leech Lake, which at 112,000 acres is the third-largest lake in a state with some 12,000 of them, was primarily known as a largemouth fishery when he was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s.
“And it was a really good one, too,” he said. “And then somewhat recently, maybe five years or so ago, it started getting a name for smallmouth fishing and people started exploiting that. I’m sure the smallies have been there all along, but only just recently people have started to fish more for them there.”
That duality gives anglers of any persuasion a chance to fish to their strengths, said Douglas, who is entered at the Open on Leech. It’ll be only the third time he’s competed on the lake, however, so he’s not nearly as familiar with this fishery as he is his home waters of Mille Lacs.
Still, he knows the layout plenty well enough to know what’s likely to transpire on Leech.
“You have this big body of water with some wave activity, and that’s all smallmouth area if that’s your thing,” he said. “But if you get off into the bogs, you’re in more shallow water (and are) flipping jigs (or) throwing a frog. It’s two distinctly different things at Leech.”
The sloughs off the main lake contain thick layers of aquatic reeds, cattails, lily pads and the like — all familiar to the bevy of Southern anglers who frequent most tournaments. The open water at Leech is filled with wild rice, which Douglas says “lays down like Kissimmee grass, thick on the water.
“The fish love it. Ducks love it. The Native Americans in the area will be harvesting it pretty hard while we’re there, so there will be some challenges as to where we can go, what water is navigable. But there’s plenty of space for anyone to find something they like … August would be what we consider the dog days of summer here in Minnesota, and it’s been hot most days, getting around 90 degrees. So, I think it’ll be a challenging tournament, but if you can get 15 (smallmouths over three days) you can expect to do well.”
How well remains to be seen, of course.
“I think a good five-fish limit for smallmouth will be about 22 pounds a day,” Douglas said. “If you’re fishing largemouth, I’d say 20 pounds a day is a good day. There are some 5- and 6-pounders in those backwaters. It could be a grind for some, but at the end of the day, it’s northern Minnesota. The fish are gamers. They want to bite.”
Douglas expects traditional lures (tubes, Ned rigs, drop shots) to be best bets on the main body, while anything from topwater baits to flipping Texas-rigged worms and even buzzbaits could be staples in the backwaters.
“My guess is the majority of checks that week will come from people catching largemouth,” he added.
Daily takeoffs begin at 6:30 a.m. CT from the Walker (MN) Public Dock at 310 5th St. in Walker. Weigh-ins on each of the three days are scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Coverage of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN will air on FS1 on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all three days.
The Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting the event.
