It took a day longer than expected for many bass fishing fans around the globe to get their first glimpse of Leech Lake.
Easton Fothergill wasn’t one of them.
The 22-year-old Grand Rapids, Minn., native is one of the hottest young sticks today and he’s fished Leech for most of his young life. He used that intimate knowledge of the fishery to take the lead on Day 1 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN.
Fothergill weighed a limit of five smallmouth bass on Friday totaling 26 pounds, 10 ounces. The haul included the heaviest catch of the day — a 6-4 lunker that buoyed his big bag. That’s an impressive showing by any standards, no matter the lake or location.
Still, Fothergill was surprised by his total. By his count, he “only had about 25 pounds” in his livewell heading to Friday’s weigh-in at Walker Public Dock, about an hour west of his hometown of Grand Rapids. Not surprisingly, the bass fishing prodigy was met with boisterous cheering when he climbed atop the leaderboard with authority.
“With all the pressure (to perform well at home), to pull that off today was incredible,” he said. “It was definitely unexpected.”
Fothergill said he has dozens of waypoints to target on Leech and that he didn’t hit more than half of them on Day 1. With the three-day tournament shortened to a two-day derby following high winds on Thursday, that leaves him with at least another 30 seemingly productive spots he could exploit Saturday.
“I probably have five gallons (of fuel) left in my boat. That’s how much running I did today,” he said, adding he relied on three primary baits Friday, fishing rockpiles in anywhere from 5 to 20 feet of water.
“The game plan is the same tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll just run every corner of the lake and see if I can find five big ones again.”
Fothergill has already proved his has the chops to close a tournament. He won the 2023 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s last October on Kansas’ Milford Lake to earn a spot in the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors. He finished 16th of 56 anglers in the Classic on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in March and won the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Eufaula presented by SEVIIN, also in the Sooner State, in June.
Now, Fothergill is fishing on home water and from the pole position.
He knows that’s a favorable vantage point, but he’s taking absolutely nothing for granted, even though Friday’s 26-10 was the biggest bag he’s caught in one of his many competitions on Leech Lake.
Still, he can’t help being confident — and rightfully so.
“I just have so many places to hit,” he said. “I know that if I pull up on one and there’s nothing happening, I can come back three, four, five times, and there eventually will be one there. It’s actually very mentally trying. You just have to keep in the game and know your bites will eventually come if you keep working.”
The tournament marks the first time a B.A.S.S. event at any level has been held on Leech Lake — a 112,000-acre jewel located in remote northern Minnesota. And Leech didn’t disappoint in its coming-out party, with 79 of the 203 pro anglers in the field weighing at least 15 pounds on Friday. The competitors hail from 36 different states and two foreign countries.
Brett Cannon, a 40-year-old pro living in Kiln, Miss., is in second place with a 25-1 limit. Cannon said he didn’t expect to catch 25 pounds either, but he discovered a lure that eventually sparked his smallmouth bite.
“When you catch a smallmouth here, it’s a big one, but they’re really hard to get to bite,” he said.
“So, I messed around and tied everything on … I found the right bait and wound up catching about 12 (bass). I threw back a 4½ pounder, a 4 pounder … Every fish I kept was right at 5 pounds. And if … today wasn’t a fluke, I think I can catch 25 again tomorrow.”
Rounding out the Top 5 on Friday are third, Virginia’s Chase Clark, 22-13; fourth, Georgia’s Emil Wagner, 22-2; and fifth, Tennessee’s Jimmy Washam, 21-12.
With the tournament limited to two days, there’s a smaller margin for error for the many pros fighting for points in the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers (EQ) standings. The top nine anglers who fish in each of this year’s nine Opens tournaments will qualify for the Elite Series in 2025. Those nine anglers won’t be determined, however, until the final Open of the year which is scheduled Oct. 10-12 at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C.
A total cash purse of $300,034 will be split among the Top 45 pros fishing at Leech this week. The winner will claim $45,186 in cash, as well as 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.
Not be forgotten are the 102 non-boaters competing at Leech this week, too. The Top 40 will divvy up a total of $39,916 in prize money when the tournament concludes Saturday.
Tennessee’s Gary Haraguchi leads that bracket with a limit of three bass for 10-12. Minnesota’s Curt Blomquist is second with 9-11, and fellow Minnesotan Eric Naig is third with 9-9. Missouri’s Mark Cowart, Wisconsin’s Brad Goetz and Minnesota’s Mack Trayner all caught a 4-10 Friday and share the big bass lead among non-boaters.
The second and final takeoff of the tournament will begin at 6:30 a.m. CT from the Walker Public Dock. Weigh-in is 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.
The Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting the event.