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Best of 2024: Opens top lures

See the winning lures of all nine events during the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN season.

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Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Photography by
Craig Lamb
Photography by
Grant Moxley
The focus of the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN was the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers series. The season began at Lake Okeechobee. This was the scene at the Day 1 takeoff on Feb. 1, 2024.
A gradual warmup following a cold front had the largemouth moving towards a spawn on Lake Okeechobee, with water temps rising into the upper 60s. The big girls came in, and the bite turned on for those lucky to be in the right place at the right time. 
Lake Okeechobee’s unprecedented high water had largemouth — and anglers — favoring concentrated areas of bass activity. Up to 80 boats fished this area during the tournament, including the eventual winner. 
Clewiston, Fla., native Scott Martin was among them, and luckily, he has big bass prowess in his family genes. “To win here in front of my mom, in this parking lot where my dad (nine-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Roland Martin) won the 1991 Bassmaster Florida Invitational is a blessing.” Indeed. Like father, like son. 
Martin won with 90 pounds, 6 ounces, and even more he set B.A.S.S. records. With his victory, Martin set the record for the all-time heaviest winning total in a three-day Bassmaster event. Also, Martin’s Day 1 limit weighing 33-2 broke the record for the heaviest one-day catch in a Bassmaster Open.
Martin’s key strike zone was in 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet of water, where he targeted the submerged remnants of cattail clumps. 
The winning setup was this Googan Baits Bandito Bug, rigged on a 4/0 Lazer Trokar EWG Worm Hook, with a 5/16-ounce weight.
Martin’s next best bait was this straight-tail worm that he also rigged on a 4/0 Lazer Trokar EWG Worm Hook, with a 5/16-ounce weight.
Alternatively, he used a paddletail worm on the 4/0 Lazer Trokar EWG Worm Hook, with a 3/16-ounce weight. 
In mid-February, challenging conditions faced anglers at Lake Ouachita. This was the first time in more than 20 years the Bassmaster Tournament Trail visited the beautiful lake in central Arkansas.
For Benton, Ark., angler Jeremiah Kindy, fishing to his strengths was the key to success. While many of the out-of-towners elected to fish deep for bass still in their winter holes, Kindy went shallow to catch early prespawners to secure his first Opens victory with a winning weight of 52 pounds, 3 ounces. 
The Arkansas native used an old-school approach to claim victory on his home lake.
He utilized this Norman Deep Little N in the chili bowl color when conditions were calmer.
This 3/4-ounce Booyah lipless crankbait in Rayburn red was also a key bait.
To achieve a faster fall, he also threw a 3/4-ounce Duo Realis lipless crankbait.
In March, the schedule moved to the Santee Cooper Lakes. A Championship Saturday shortened by 90 minutes due to forecasted severe weather set up a challenging set of fishing conditions.
Even so, local knowledge and mental perseverance paid off for Kyle Austin, a guide on the Santee Cooper Lakes. He won the tournament on his home fishery with 83 pounds, 7 ounces, including an impressive final-day limit weighing 27-8 that anchored his winning weight. 
Austin first set up on a shallow current-swept hard bottom area. Another of his spots was located in cypress trees used by staging spawning largemouth. His winning lure lineup covered all the bases, from current to heavy cover. 
For intercepting spawning cycle bass, he used this 1-ounce Treeshaker Tackle Spinnerbait. 
For reaction bites, Austin chose this 1/2-ounce Strike King Red Eyed Shad Tungsten 2 Tap lipless crankbait. 
For finesse tactics, he used a soft-plastic stick bait, rigged weightless on a No. 1 Neko-style hook. 
An early morning shad spawn and bass in all phases of the spawning cycle — those were the opportunities in play in early May at Logan Martin Lake.
The bite was on for prespawn, spawn and postspawn bass from one end of the Coosa River impoundment to the other. Josh Butler, a local angler with pro credentials, scored a wire-to-wire win. 
Butler’s three-day total was 49 pounds. On Day 1, he caught a game-changer largemouth weighing 7-13 that ultimately sealed the deal. Even better, Butler received an invitation to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. 
Butler used a shaky head and wacky rig for his top lures. He never got on a shad spawn bite, instead keying on spawning spotted bass, which accounted for the success of his wire-to-wire finish.  
He made the shaky head with a 3/16-ounce Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury Shakey Head and a Zoom Trick Worm. 
Alternatively, Butler used a 5-inch Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General, rigged with a VMC Crossover, on a 1/0 Decoy Big Bite Finesse Worm20 Hook. Depending on current flow, he added a 3/64- or 1/8-ounce tungsten screw weight. 
Up next was three days of the Bassmaster Opens pros and co-anglers plying the muddy waters of Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma.
Even still, plenty of limits crossed the weigh-in stage as well as several bass that measured more than 5 and 6 pounds. Several of the top finishing anglers found bass grouped up while others had to scramble around and junk fish to achieve success in this tournament.
On the final day, Easton Fothergill made an unscheduled stop, and it paid off in a big way. The 2023 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket winner landed the biggest bass of the tournament, an 8-12 largemouth, that ultimately lifted him to victory with a three-day total of 52-8.
Fothergill earned his second Top 10 of the 2024 season using primarily one bait.
He built a Neko rig using a PB&J colored Strike King Finesse Worm, a No. 1 Ryugi Talisman Wacky/Neko hook and a 3/32-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Neko weight.
Lake St. Clair validated its fourth-place ranking in the 2024 Bassmaster Best Bass Lakes list with an incredible showing at the mid-July event. The 60th-place angler had 40 pounds after two days of fishing, and the weights went up from there. Topping the daily weights was Trevor McKinney’s incredible Day 2 smallmouth limit weighing 27-12. 
Jay Przekurat racked up limits weighing 24-3, 25-1 and 26-1 for a final tally of 75-5, yet another validation for St. Clair’s lofty position in America’s best bass lakes. 
In Anchor Bay, Przekurat focused on several key stretches of hard sand bottom featuring sparse grass. He alternated between a drop shot and a swimbait rig. 
A key bait was a Strike King 3X Baby Zoo Too rigged on a 1/4-ounce Northland Tackle Smeltinator. The lighter weight allowed him to feather the bait over the smallmouth. 
Alternatively, he made a drop-shot rig with the same bait, rigging it on a 1/0 hook with a 3/8-ounce WOO! Tungsten Drop Shot Weight. 
Many anglers didn’t know what to expect when they arrived in Walker, Minn., for the late August event on Leech Lake. What they discovered was a lake with world-class smallmouth and dynamite largemouth fishing. More than 20 bags of smallmouth weighing 20 pounds or better were brought to the stage during the two-day, weather-shortened tournament.
Easton Fothergill of Grand Rapids, Minn., executed a perfect smallmouth game plan on his home lake, landing bags of 26-10 and 23-3 to achieve his second Opens win of the season with a total of 49-13. He is the first angler since Randall Tharp in 2008 to win multiple Opens in a season.
Fothergill landed several quality smallmouth using one key bait.
Fothergill tossed a OSP Saikoro Dice Rubber Max Salt Soft Bait. He rigged the Japanese finesse bait on a No. 2 Ryugi Talisman hook and weighted it with a 1/32-ounce nail weight.
Add commercial barge traffic to the list of factors that dictated timing of fishing strategies at the mid-September Open on the upper Mississippi River. The anglers could lock up into Pool 7 or down into Pool 9 with a hitch. Barges got priority, and some miscalculations proved costly for some anglers. 
Cody Stahl wisely decided to play it safe and stay in Pool 8 to maximize his fishing time. Doing so rewarded the Georgia angler with the win, $40,607 and an invitation to fish the 2025 Bassmaster Classic. Stahl amassed a total weight of 53 pounds, 1 ounce, catching most of his fish on a topwater frog. 
Stahl focused on key fallback areas where the bass would pull back to when the water dropped. Drains, points or any obscure structure providing ambush cover were sweet spots.
For topwater action he used this Sanford Baits Boom Boom Frog. Not pictured are other frogs adding to the weight: SPROG Bronzeye 65 and SPRO Bronzeye King.
Covering water required this 3/8-ounce Z Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jackhammer, with a Big Bite Baits Kamikaze Swimon. 
Lastly, he used a Big Bite Baits 6-inch B6 Line Thru Swimbait for picking bigger fish without disturbing the school.
The season was to conclude in South Carolina at Lake Hartwell, until impacts from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene caused the finale to move to Lake Martin. At the central Alabama highland impoundment, Bobby Bakewell was the tournament winner with a three-day weight of 35 pounds, 15 ounces anchored by a 4-10 largemouth, which earned Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors. 
The champion’s primary lure was a buzzbait fished along shallow seawalls with visible rock in 3 feet of water or less. 
The winning lure was this 1/2-ounce Greenfish Tackle Toad Toter Buzzbait obtained from 44 Tackle. He used several different trailers, including a Bruiser Baits Crazy Craw and then a Zoom Horny Toad. 
Alternatively, Bakewell used a 1/2-ounce Bakewell Custom Jig.
Bakewell also used this Bruiser Baits Rad Shad.

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