Easton Fothergill and Keith Tuma took similar approaches to their practice time for the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN. Neither angler wanted any of their other competitors to see their best areas on the lake, so they simply didn’t even glance at those spots during the warmup period.
“I know I have an X marked on my boat,” Fothergill said. “If people see me on a place, I know I won’t have it to myself the rest of the tournament. Managing fish is going to be something that is running through my head.”
Tuma and Fothergill each have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on Leech Lake over the years, more than the rest of the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifier field combined more than likely. Each angler is hoping that their experience can help carry them to different goals during the now two-day tournament.
The 22-year-old Fothergill entered this tournament as the EQ points leader with a narrow advantage over the well-established anglers of Dakota Ebare and Cody Meyer. The Grand Rapids, Minn. Native is already locked into the 2025 Bassmaster Classic with a victory at Lake Eufaula Oklahoma earlier this season.
Now, he wants to make sure there is no doubt he’ll be an Elite Series competitor come next season, and there’s no better place to do that than a lake he’s spent so much time on.
“I’ve really been trying to keep the points part out of my head,” Fothergill said. “It’s just another tournament, even though it is my home lake. I need to keep an open mind and when things are thrown at me, I have to be able to adapt just like any other lake.”
Fothergill’s largest smallmouth so far on the lake is just under 7-pounds, and he knows a bass like that will go a long way towards achieving his goals. Even though he didn’t practice around many of his best areas, Fothergill found some new spots during practice that he will be adding into his rotation.
“All the work I’ve put in is smallmouth related, but I do have the largemouth rods ready to go,” Fothergill said. “I’m ready for anything.”
Tuma finds himself in a slightly different position, as the 54-year-old from Brainerd, Minn. finds himself in 54th position in the points race. Since he began tournament fishing in the early 2000s, Tuma has won close to 15 different tournaments on the lake and has watched it evolve from a largemouth destination to a lake where smallmouth are now king.
In fact, he was one of the first to bring limits of all smallmouth to the scales.
“I grew up here,” Tuma said. “My parents moved up from Florida in the 80s. We had a couple resorts on the lake. I didn’t realize bass were here until the late 90s. I can’t count how many times I’ve been on the lake. It has changed a lot over the years. I’d like to say that I was the first guy, along with my partner, to bring in smallmouth on the lake.
“We got called cheaters and it was a lot of fun,” Tuma added sarcastically.
With the advancements in forward-facing technology and the realization that giant smallmouth swim in these waters, Tuma knows plenty of popular areas on the lake will receive a lot of fishing pressure this week. That pressure will make the bite much more difficult, so he has been searching for less pressured fish.
“I’m looking for spots that aren’t consumed by a bunch of other anglers. The pressure of the electronics is going to do things to the fish,” Tuma said.
Another win at one of his favorite fisheries would send him to his second Bassmaster Classic.
“If things go right, and I can get on the areas that aren’t consumed by other anglers, I think I can sneak out a Top 10,” Tuma said. “It would be phenomenal (to win here). Trust me, it is in the back of my mind. I’m trying not to put it first and foremost because there is a lot of work to do in the meantime.”
As of 11 a.m. CT, Fothergill leads the BassTrakk standings with 20 pounds while Tuma has not made an entry just yet. Tune into weigh-in on Bassmaster.com at 2:30 p.m. CT to see how it all shakes out.
