Bassmaster Classic winner Easton Fothergill spent most of his time in a key area to set a tournament record. (Photo courtesy of Strike King/Lew’s)
April 02, 2025
By David A. Brown
The recent Bassmaster Classic at Texas reservoir, Lake Ray Roberts, saw Elite Series rookie Easton Fothergill turn in the heaviest three-day total of five-fish limits (76 pounds, 15 ounces) in the event’s history. Breaking the previous record of 69-11 set by B.A.S.S. legend Kevin VanDam (Louisiana Delta, 2011) proved particularly impressive considering some of the worst weather the event has ever endured.
From this meteorological mayhem arose several broadly applicable bass fishing pointers.
Pre-tournament practice days saw a cold front bring 20-30 mph winds (occasional heavier gusts) that muddied Lake Ray Roberts and blew out many of the prime areas. More wind during much of the event presented limited access and time-management challenges, but those who fared well did so with prudent decisions.
Lemonade from Lemons Fothergill lamented the wind’s impact as much as anyone, but he turned that limitation into benefit by spending more time in a key area than he otherwise would during calm conditions. This proved particularly relevant on Day 2 when Fothergill moved into the lead with the event’s biggest limit — 29 pounds, 6 ounces.
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As he noted, the promising signs he found during pre-tournament practice bespoke a much larger potential. Generally, one big bite in the prespawn season often means the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
“I knew I was on the right caliber of fish; I just didn’t think the numbers were there,” he said. “Looking back, I just didn’t hunker down in the areas like I did in the tournament. In practice I’d buzz through an area, pick off a big one, drop a waypoint and get out of there.
“In the tournament, I think the wind was a blessing because it made me slow down in these areas, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to run around as much as I wanted.”
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Lighten Up Fothergill described a Day-2 adjustment that delivered his biggest bag. During what would be the event’s calmest period, he caught one key fish on a jerkbait, but the rest came as the result of a finesse rig adjustment.
“All week long, it had been extremely windy and the fish I’d been catching were at the bases of the (cedar) trees and at the bottom on the rock piles,” he said. “That day, they were suspended very loosely around everything. A lot of the fish were 6 inches to 2 feet under the surface.
“I’d been throwing a Neko rig with a 3/32-ounce weight to a 1/32-ounce weight. I was throwing it on their head, but the key was it had to land extremely softly, otherwise, they’d spook. I had to be extremely stealthy and if I made the right presentation, they’d eat it.”
Stay In Your Lane Like much of the field, second-place finisher Trey McKinney focused most of his effort on using forward facing sonar to find fish amid flooded cedar trees. Those spindly, snag prone targets can be intimidating, but as McKinney pointed out, one man’s trap is another man’s treasure.
“The key was getting my bait somewhere other people were not, or fishing somewhere a lot of people won’t,” McKinney said. “It was flipping to the thicket, heaviest cover I could find, or drawing a fish out of the heaviest cover I could find.”
Relying heavily on a jerkbait, McKinney said his success required preliminary examination and micro-game planning for each tree.
“A lot of times, if you’re throwing a jerkbait it’s very hard to get the right cast,” he said. “So instead of just hurrying up and casting at the fish, find the best angle that allows you to get the most depth and the longest cast.
“I learned to set up before I cast. You want to get a clear lane so when you hook that fish, whether he goes left or he goes right, he’s not going to run you into the biggest tree branch.”
One of McKinney’s tricks for catching fish that were holding deep in the cover: Hover a suspending jerkbait at the perimeter of the branches to draw the fish out, then work the bait down to the target depth and twitch it past the fish.
Lee Livesay ripped Z-Man Chatterbait to finish third in the Bassmaster Classic. (Photo courtesy of Mossy Oak) Rip It Right Texan Lee Livesay placed third, largely by ripping a pink Z-Man Chatterbait with a bubble gum colored 6th Sense 5.2 Flush (soft jerkbait) through milfoil. As he explained, his bait specs produced the right action without bogging into the grass.
“I was throwing a 3/8-ounce Chatterbait, a little bit lighter, but that 5.2-inch Flush was keeping it up real high in the water column, because that milfoil was really thick,” Livesay said. “That Flush is a straight tail soft jerkbait and it hunts. When you rip it out of the grass, it’ll go left and right. With a paddletail, it’s always gonna have drag and go straight.”
Hunter Shryock made a lure change in Day 2 (flipping a tube bait) to stay among the leaders. He finished fourth. (Photo courtesy of Gavin Haworth) Throwback Vibe Hunter Shryock was 10 years old when Denny Brauer won the 1998 Bassmaster Classic on North Carolina’s High Rock Lake, but the Elite pro from Ooltewah, Tenn. nodded to the flipping legend when describing his fourth-place Classic finish.
Shryock caught his Day-1 fish on a bladed jig, but when the second day’s calmer conditions and clearer water diminished his reaction bite, he went retro and pulled out a 3 1/2-inch green pumpkin Berkley Power Tube .
“The tube is a staple in bass fishing, but it doesn’t get as much (attention) just because it’s old school,” Shryock said. “I hope it made Denny Brauer proud to see me flipping a tube in the Bassmaster Classic.
“When that cylinder tube falls, it goes several different ways. It’s not always a straight fall. When those fish are used to seeing something fall straight in front of them, that tube glides left, glides right.”
Rigging specifics were critical. Shryock explained: “The lighter you can go on the weight, the more action you’re going to get out of that tube. It’s gonna do a lot of the work you. You just gotta get it out there around one where it looks like a crawfish, a bluegill, everything a bass eats.
“I used a 3/16- to a 3/8-ounce weights depending on the depth and wind level. I had eight flipping sticks rigged up with different weights. I went with the 3 1/2-inch tube with the water clearing up, because it was stealthier. If it had stayed dirty, I probably would’ve gone with a 4 1/2-inch.”
As Shryock noted, a heavier weight helped him keep his tube close to his targets when stronger winds tugged at his line.
Fifth-place Cory Johnston keyed on staging prespawn bass at the Bassmasterf Classic at Lake Ray Roberts, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Ranger) The Green Carpet From the Oscars to the Met Gala, we’re used to seeing celebrities strut the red carpet, but spring on many southern reservoirs finds a verdant pathway hosting the prespawn march. Knowing this, fifth place Cory Johnston traced the migration lane and looked for the natural stopping points.
“I was winding a bladed jig in milfoil; that’s where the (prespawn) bass go to stage,” he said. “Any piece of hard cover — wood — that’s what they wanted to be on. You’d catch the odd one just winding the milfoil, but the highest percentage were on the wood.
“The bladed jig is a good cooler water bait. It gets the fish to react better than fishing slow.”
