Easton Fothergill came out smelling like a rose after a second major health scare.
Fothergill, who burst into the Bassmaster annals after recovering from a brain abscess in 2023, overcame another serious ailment. Just before the important season finale, he was hospitalized with rhabdomylosis.
“It hit me Saturday, the day before practice started,” the 24-year-old said. “I woke up that morning, was puking everywhere and my legs just were absolutely killing me to the point where I had to physically grab them with my hands and move them around at times.”
The Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River was critical in Fothergill’s quest to qualify for a fourth Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. Standing 40th in the AOY standings, the 2025 Classic champ didn’t have much leeway. So although hurting, he ventured out into Lake Ontario to practice, but he could only go about two hours.
“I was just miserable out there,” he said. “I couldn’t mentally focus at all. My muscles were just killing me, so I made a couple phone calls.”
Carl Jocumsen directed Fothergill to a ramp where his wife, Kayla, picked him up for a trip to the hospital. He spent three days and two nights being treated for rhabdomylosis, which WebMD describes as a “serious condition” that can lead to kidney failure.
“I had never heard of it beforehand,” Fothergill said. “It’s from overuse of your muscles and also dehydration. Basically, your muscles start releasing these crazy enzymes into your bloodstream and attacks your kidneys. It’s actually a pretty serious deal if you don’t catch it early enough.”
Fothergill said blood tests showed he had hyper-elevated creatine kinase (CK), a measurement of enzymes. He said the normal range is from 70 to 120 and his was 27,000. Treated with IVs, Fothergill convalesced while the bass brotherhood came to his side.
Besides support from family, B.A.S.S. staffers and his girlfriend, Justin Atkins took time out of his practice to take Fothergill’s boat out and even fixed a flat on his truck. Stephen Browning, the father of Fothergill’s college roommate Beau Browning, then took over logistics with his rig and visited him in the hospital.
“That was the craziest part of the whole deal — how many people came out of nowhere wanting to help me,” Fothergill said. “That was super, super moving for me and made me realize just how lucky I am to have so many great people around me.”
The thought of taking a medical leave crossed Fothergill’s mind. A 95th at Lake Champlain bumped him from 27th in AOY to the bubble. He was about 10 points inside the cut — not fishing would end his chances.
With his CK levels improving, Fothergill was released but had limited time on the final practice day, although he reported he found some nice fish.
“Obviously, you’re not able to cover too much water in sjx hours, but I got a couple clues,” he said. “From there, the tournament just kind of snowballed, I guess.”
On a windy Day 1, Fothergill, still somewhat achy and dizzy, stayed in the river hoping to simply survive. He was happy to bring in 23 pounds, 14 ounces to stand in 38th place.
“I did my job on Day 1. I wasn’t sitting all that great in the standings, but weight-wise, I survived and I knew I’d have an opportunity to move up,” he said. “Then Day 2, the weather got much nicer and I was able to go out to the lake.”
Hitting the fish he found in his practice, Fothergill caught 25-14 and climbed to 18th, which easily secured enough points to stay inside the Classic cut of 45th in points.
“Then all of a sudden you’re thinking about possibly making a Top 10,” he said. “I caught tons of fish and learned a lot, so I was super confident going in Day 3.”
Fothergill headed back out into the lake on Semifinal Saturday, where he released his first catch, an ailing 3-pounder.
“Then my second fish of the day was my new personal best smallmouth — a 7-5,” he said. “I was obviously ecstatic about that. It really got the day started. From there it was just big one after big one. It was just crazy how it all unfolded.”
It was the third 7-pounder caught in Elite competition on the St. Lawrence, and Fothergill didn’t get to dream long about it being the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, or the event.
“Crazy. It lasted all of two anglers,” he said as Cole Sands edged him out with a 7-6.
Yet with Day 3’s best bag of 27-15, Fothergill started Championship Sunday in sixth place. Everyone in the Top 10 was on pace for 100 pounds, but mechanical issues cut Fothergill’s fishing time, and he wound up 10th, a half-pound shy of earning his second Century Club belt.
While mildly disappointed he missed adding a smallmouth belt to his largemouth belt from the 2025 Lake Fork Elite, he earned his fourth consecutive Classic berth by finishing 31st in points.
“You get a very few stress-free days of fishing on the Elite Series,” he said. “I made the Top 10. You can’t be upset. It was super fun and cool to just enjoy an overall awesome day.”
The good times kept rolling on Monday in the inaugural Bassmaster Randy Moss Pro Football Hall of Fame Pro-Am event pairing Elite pros with NFL HOF players. Fothergill teamed with the event’s namesake.
“That was an awesome experience,” Fothergill said. “Making it out of the hospital and then being able to fish with Randy Moss, it was just super cool because I grew up in Minnesota, a huge Minnesota Vikings fan.”
Moss, whose Vikings career began four years before Fothergill was born, played in Minnesota from 1998 to 2004, each year topping 1,000 receiving yards and scoring double-digit touchdowns in all but one season.
“We all know the career that Moss had with the Vikings, so it was super cool to be able to talk with him about his history of the Vikings and his day-to-day life playing for the Vikings,” Fothergill said. “Then we talked about how his football career compares to the fishing career and the parallels and the differences. Randy’s an awesome guy, really down to earth and had a bunch of amazing stories to tell. So that was all just super fun.”
Recoveries from health scares are becoming Fothergill’s signature. In 2023, he came back from brain surgery to win the College Classic Bracket, which led to victories in two Bassmaster Opens then the 2025 Classic on Texas’ Lake Ray Roberts.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “For whatever reason, every time something crazy happens to me like that, something good happens. Hopefully, I can use that to shine the light for people. When things aren’t going well, just keep trucking because they can’t stay down forever. Things will get better.”
