For the Grand Rapids, Minn. native, 26 pounds, 10 ounces is the biggest bag he’s ever caught in a tournament setting on his home pond and he anchored that bag with a 6-4 smallmouth, the heaviest of the day.
Fothergill’s Day 1 performance surprised even himself for a couple different reasons. For one, he was often fishing in highly pressured areas of the lake and at days end, his scale read close to 25 pounds.
“I’m very surprised,” Fothergill said. “There was so much pressure around me and to do that with all of the pressure those guys are putting on the lake was incredible. It was unexpected for sure. I can’t believe it.”
Fothergill’s Day 1 performance is just another highlight in an incredible 12 month stretch for the 22-year-old.
To recap, Fothergill and University of Montevallo teammate Nick Dumke earned the College Series Team of the Year title in 2023 before Fothergill won the College Classic Bracket at Milford Lake presented by Lew’s, sending him to the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake presented by Jockey Outdoors where he finished 16th.
With a win at Lake Eufaula Oklahoma in June, Fothergill qualified for his second straight Classic and with five Top 30 finishes this season in the Opens, he entered this Leech Lake event the leader in Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifier points.
Let’s not forget, all of this was after Fothergill underwent emergency brain surgery to remove an infected abscess from his brain, an ordeal he described as, “the scariest moments of my life.”
The arrow has only pointed up for Fothergill since leaving the hospital and he has a chance to make history this week at Leech as one of the few anglers to ever win multiple Opens in a season and the first to do it in this Elite Qualifier format.
If he can finish out this event with a top finish (he’s still leading on BassTrakk as of 10 a.m.) and put together solid finishes at the Mississippi River and Lake Hartwell, Fothergill will achieve yet another goal: becoming an Elite Series pro. But he needs to finish out Day 2 at Leech Lake strong first.
“I was thinking about (my strategy) as I was running in,” he explained. “It’s not just the Top 10 (today), it is the full field. So, I really have to keep that in mind. I still can’t flop. I have to treat it like a Day 1 or Day 2. The first couple hours I’m going to go out there and try and win it for sure.”
Fothergill’s big bag certainly wasn’t the only shock on Leech Lake. Here are a couple of surprises some of the other top pros have discovered this week.
Jimmy Washam (5th, 21-12): The largemouth bite has thrilled me. But the biggest thing that has surprised me is, to have the quality smallmouth in here, they just aren’t everywhere. You can fish so many good looking places and then all of a sudden you run into them and there is a few bass there.
Emil Wagner (4th, 22-2): Normally smallmouth up north are easy to catch, but the thing is I don’t think there are that many in here and there are so many people fishing for them. They get so dang pressured.
Chase Clarke (3rd, 22-13): I’ve never been anywhere in Minnesota other than Mille Lacs. The most surprising thing here is the rice. I’ve never fished it before or heard of it and how good it is when you find it. I was concerned about how much that was going to play and all of the largemouth bags.
