Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill leads the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers race ahead of the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Open on Leech Lake presented by SEVIIN, August 22-24 in Walker, Minnesota.

Photo by Andy Crawford/BASS

15 August 2024

Anglers look forward to a variety of waters as Bassmaster Opens heads to Leech Lake for the first time

WALKER, Minnesota – Leech Lake may not be the final frontier, but it is certainly the first time BASS has visited this remote northern Minnesota fishing area.

Leech, however, is far from an unknown, at least not to bass anglers here on the edge of the Midwestern U.S. If you listen to them, it’s been something of a destination for several decades, despite being closer to Canada’s southern border than the state capital of St. Paul (Minneapolis’ sister city, about 3½ hours southeast).

Competitors from across North America and beyond can get a first-hand look at the venue at the 2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake, presented by SEVIIN, August 22-24. It’s the second Division 3 Bassmaster Open of the season, and up to 225 competitors are expected to compete for some career-defining awards.

The winner’s prize includes a spot in the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas. Prize money is up to $332,550 and will be split among the top finishers at Leech. Some who fish each of this year’s nine Bassmaster Opens will vie for crucial points on the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers (EQ) leaderboard. The top nine anglers fishing each of the nine Opens in 2024 will qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series, which opens a world of opportunity for professional anglers.

But before anyone can focus on the prey, they must conquer Leech, which area pros say offers participants a buffet of choices to whet a bass angler’s appetite.

“Leech is one of our bigger lakes,” said Minnesota pro Josh Douglas, who is no stranger to the top level of the sport, having fished the Bassmaster Opens since 2012 and two Elite Series seasons in 2022 and 2023. “It differs from Mille Lacs (which is about an hour south of Leech) in that it’s more rugged. There’s the main basin, and it trickles down into backwaters and bog water. It’s full of wild rice, milfoil – just all the vegetation you could want. And like Mille Lacs, it’s a glacial lake, so there are a lot of ledges and rock piles to fish.”

However, these backwaters might seem familiar to many anglers, whether they are first-timers in the area or not.

“Leech is a traditional smallmouth bass lake that looks like Lake Okeechobee in some places,” said the 44-year-old resident of Isle, Minnesota. “The guys from Florida should really feel at home,” he added with a laugh.

Douglas said Leech Lake, at 112,000 acres the third largest lake in a state of about 12,000 acres, was known primarily as a largemouth bass fishing area when he was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s.

“And it was a really good catch, too,” he said. “And then some time ago, maybe five years ago or so, it became known for smallmouth bass fishing and people started taking advantage of that. I’m sure the smallmouth bass have always been there, but it’s only recently that people have started fishing for them more.”

That duality gives anglers of all stripes a chance to play to their strengths, said Douglas, who is competing in the Open on Leech. But this is only his third time competing on the lake, so he’s not nearly as familiar with this fishery as he is with his home waters of Mille Lacs.

Still, he knows the situation well enough to know what is likely to happen on Leech.

“You have this big body of water with some swell, and that’s all smallmouth bass territory if that’s your thing,” he said. “But when you drift into the marshes, you’re in shallower water (and throwing) jigs or frogs. Those are two totally different things with Leech.”

The marshes off the main lake contain thick layers of reeds, cattails, lily pads and the like – all familiar to the crowd of Southern anglers who frequent most tournaments. The open water at Leech is full of wild rice, which Douglas says “lies thick on the water like Kissimmee grass.”

“The fish love it. The ducks love it. The Native Americans in the area will be harvesting it pretty diligently while we’re there, so there will be some challenges as to where we can go and what waters are navigable. But there’s enough room for everyone to find something they like… August is what we call the dog days of summer here in Minnesota, and it’s been hot most days, with temperatures around 32 degrees. So I think it’s going to be a challenging tournament, but if you can catch 15 (largemouth bass in three days), you can expect a good result.”

How good, of course, remains to be seen.

“I think a good five-fish limit on smallmouth bass is about 22 pounds a day,” Douglas said. “If you’re fishing for largemouth bass, I’d say 20 pounds a day is a good day. There are some 5- and 6-pounders in those backwaters. It might be an uphill battle for some, but at the end of the day, it’s northern Minnesota. The fish are players. They want to bite.”

Douglas reckons that traditional baits (tubes, Ned Rigs, drop shots) are the best choice for the mainwaters, while in the backwaters anything from surface baits to Texas rig worms and even buzzbaits could be standard.

“I’m guessing most of the checks this week will come from people who caught largemouth bass,” he added.

Daily starts will begin at 6:30 a.m. CT from the Walker (MN) Public Dock at 310 5th St. in Walker. Weigh-ins on each of the three days are scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Coverage of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Leech Lake, presented by SEVIIN, will air on FS1 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. Bassmaster LIVE will stream all three days on Bassmaster.com.

The event is hosted by the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.