WALKER, Minn. — Summertime patterns will be in full swing at Leech Lake when qualified teams arrive for the 2026 Strike King Bassmaster College Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops Aug. 20-22. However, according to 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour champ Easton Fothergill, Mother Nature will have the final say in which patterns will shine and lead anglers to the trophy.
“The weather will completely determine how the tournament is won and what area it is won in,” said Fothergill, who’s from nearby Grand Rapids, Minn. “In perfect conditions, a three-day total weight would be between 74 and 77 pounds. That’s in perfect conditions for three days, which will never happen. So, if they get to fish for three days, I’m guessing around 60 pounds.”
Daily takeoffs and weigh-ins will be held in Walker, Minn. Teams from across the country qualified via the six regular-season Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops events held throughout the spring.
The winning team at the College Championship will earn a spot in the 2026 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s, an event that will send one angler to the 2027 Bassmaster Classic. The overall Team of the Year will also be crowned at the College Championship and will qualify for the Bracket event. They’ll be joined by the Lunkers Trail and Legends Trail Teams of the Year.
During the past two seasons, the Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens presented by Battery Tender have put Leech Lake in the spotlight. Fothergill, the hometown kid, won the Open held there in 2024 with 49 pounds, 13 ounces in an all-smallmouth performance. Laker Howell won the 2025 Open with all largemouth weighing 39-13.
Both tournaments were shortened to two days due to strong winds, which will no doubt be a potential factor for college teams to consider when putting together their championship game plans.
“We saw vastly different conditions in those two Opens,” Fothergill said. “That’s why the one I won took all smallmouth to win and the other took all largemouth. It is very conditional. There are massive ones in both species. If you have calmer, sunnier conditions, the smallmouth will dominate. If it is windy and nasty, the largemouth will dominate.”
Smallmouth will be in their summer patterns, staging on boulders and rock where they have plenty of rusty crawfish to feed on. Another group of smallmouth will be eating perch and cisco, Fothergill added.
Jighead minnows, drop shots and finesse football jigs will be key presentations.
“Boulders are the No. 1 target for smallmouth,” Fothergill said. “The smallmouth are still filling up the lake, and there are still parts of the lake with not many. Those areas, however, are often where the biggest ones are living. You have to pick your poison on whether you want to go for numbers or giants.”
Anglers looking for quality largemouth will find those bass feeding on bluegill and crawfish around vegetation and docks. In the summer, the largemouth will gravitate to the wild rice fields as well as lily pad fields. Look for frogs and flipping baits to play the biggest role up shallow.
“They love wild rice. But it is very area-specific for the largemouth,” Fothergill added. “You’ll go a long way without getting a bite, and then all of a sudden you’ll run into a ton of them.”
Teams can certainly be competitive with all largemouth, but green fish will play an even bigger role if the weather turns nasty and smallmouth fishing becomes difficult.
“You may have one day of each condition,” Fothergill said. “So you might have to do both. It is going to take an angler who is ready to do anything to win this tournament.”
The Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting this event.