LA CROSSE, Wis. — At Thursday’s tournament commencement, Cody Stahl was one of 213 pros in the hunt. Two days prior, a completely different hunt gave him the clues he needed to amass a three-day total of 53 pounds, 1 ounce and win the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Mississippi River presented by SEVIIN.
Placing 29th on Day 1 with 15-09, Stahl added a second-round limit of 18-0 and moved up to fifth. Day 3 saw the pro from Barnsville, Ga., weigh 19-8 — the event’s biggest bag — and edge Day 2 leader Chris Hellebuyck by 10 ounces.
Along with the top prize of $40,607, Stahl received an invitation to fish the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts.
“I’m speechless,” a clearly emotional Stahl said. “To start the season out with a 187th place at Lake Okeechobee, I didn’t think I deserved to be here and compete with these guys. After all the years of hard work and time on the water, it feels good to finally bring one home. I feel like I belong here.
“It’s been a phenomenal week. I never would have thought this would happen.”
As Stahl explained, his tournament unfolded much differently than he had originally planned. Upon arriving, he decided he’d avoid the often-crowded Pool 8 and lock up to Pool 7.
“Coming into this, I knew there was going to be a pile of boats that fish Pool 8 and I really wanted to get away from the crowd, because I knew that shallow water doesn’t do well with a lot of pressure,” Stahl said. “The first day of practice, I put in at the upper end of Pool 8 and just looked around and caught one pretty good one.
“Day 2 of practice, my plan was to practice in Pool 7, but me and my buddy (fellow Opens EQ pro) Trevor McKinney talked coming up here about goose hunting one day. I was out of it in (EQ) points going into this event, so I was like, ‘I’m just going to have fun, and I’ll probably goose hunt one day.”
McKinney located some geese in Pool 8 and the pair set out for the backwater area. The morning went well, but Stahl’s post-hunt observations put him on course to victory.
“After we got done goose hunting, I went right behind where we were hunting and I ended up catching a 4-pounder,” Stahl said. “I said, ‘Okay, there’s quality around here. If there’s one 4-pounder here, there’s going to be some places where I can get one or two 4-pounders throughout the day.”
Stahl said that revelation had him leaning toward reworking his game plan for a Pool-8 focus, but the cementing factor came by way of a commercial shipping vessel.
“About 11:30, I watched a barge just come through the lock into Pool 8,” he said. “It had been in the lock all morning and I realized if that barge came through the lock on the lower end of Pool 8 (during the tournament), it’s gonna have to go up and I’m going to have to deal with it.”
Opting to avoid wasting time on tournament days, Stahl committed his event to Pool 8, where he fished shallow vegetation and focused on what he called the sweet spots — key fallback areas.
“I knew the dropping water level was going to change a few things,” Stahl said. “A sweet spot was a drain, a point or anything where the fish would pull back to when the water fell.
“They’re not obvious because of all the (vegetation) on these big, massive grass flats, but there are subtle little places inside the flats that are more high-percentage areas. I knew from the water level forecast it was going to continue dropping and I’d have to find secondary stuff where those fish were going to funnel out to.”
Anchoring his final limit with a 5-4, Stahl caught his fish on multiple frogs, including the SPRO Bronzeye 65, the SPRO Bronzeye King Daddy, and Stanford Baits Boom Boom Frog, a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Chatterbait JackHammer with a Big Bite Baits Kamikazi Swimon trailer and a Berkley CullShad swimbait.
Hellebuyck, who resides in White Lake, Mich., finished second with 52-07. Placing 19th on Day 1 with a limit of 16-3, he rose to the top spot with a second-round limit of 18-3. Hellebuyck closed it out with a limit of 18-1.
Working a large flat, Hellebuyck focused on a high spot where funneling water washed away sediment and exposed shell bottom. This hard spot was a fish magnet where he caught most of his Day 1 and Day 2 fish on a BOOYAH Boss Pop.
“I was fishing in current (all week) and it definitely seemed a little stronger today,” Hellebuyck said. “I don’t think I could have drawn up better topwater conditions (with the final day’s cloudy skies and intermittent rains), but it was a little tougher to get them going on a topwater.”
Hellebuyck ended up catching most of his Day 3 fish on a 3/8-ounce hand-tied brown jig with a Berkley MaxScent Chigger Craw.
“It seemed like every time I’d get the jig stuck on a stump, when I’d snap it off, I’d get a bite,” Hellebuyck said.
Chris Beaudrie of Princeton, Ky., finished third with 50-13. Beaudrie led Day 1 with 19 pounds, then added 15-4 and 16-9.
In his first visit to the upper Mississippi River, Beaudrie dialed in a couple of productive areas with the vast fields of vegetation and focused on deeper zones along the grass edges. Channeling his Kentucky Lake experience with fall drawdowns, he targeted bigger fish that were holding in these safe zones.
“I started on the same spot every day,” Beaudrie said. “I pulled up on the spot this morning and caught two really good ones really quick and missed a couple of good ones.
“I caught my fish on a frog and a Picasso Lures spinnerbait.”
Stahl won the $750 Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors with his 5-4.
Easton Fothergill of Grand Rapids, Minn., leads the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers standings with 1,422 points. Cody Meyer of Eagle, Idaho, is second with 1,395, followed by Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala., with 1,350, Emil Wagner of Marietta, Ga., with 1,331, and Andrew Loberg of Grant, Ala., with 1,327.
ExploreLaCrosse.com hosted the event.
