Inside Elite Boats: Easton Fothergill

Say hello to 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour champion Easton Fothergill and his 2025 Skeeter FXR21 powered by a 250-horsepower Yamaha VMAX SHO.

It’s been all smiles from the Bassmaster Elite Series rookie since winning the Classic. As if the Classic title wasn’t good enough, Fothergill has since rattled off back-to-back Top 10s in Elite competition at the Pasquotank River and Lake Hartwell. Let’s take an inside look at his tournament rig.

Starting out at the bow of the boat, Fothergill depends on a Minn Kota Ultrex Quest for his trolling motor.

Attached to the shaft of his Ultrex Quest is a Humminbird MEGA 360 transducer as well as a forward-facing sonar transducer.

The Minnesota native has two graphs at the bow of the boat stacked vertically on top of one another.

Fothergill primarily uses his Humminbird APEX 13 for mapping as well as MEGA 360 and the top unit for his forward-facing sonar.

Here’s how Fothergill lays out his front-deck storage.

Selfishly, I forced Easton to keep the Ray Scott Trophy in the boat.

Inside the rod locker, Fothergill keeps a wide variety of Lew’s combos.

“I typically keep a ton of rods in the boat during tournament days,” Fothergill said. “You can reasonably fit 30 to 40 rods in the rod locker, which is what I usually have in there.”

The center storage locker is home to the majority of his tackle, including his terminal tackle.

He adds a couple of AMPD Marine accessories that allow him easy access to some of his terminal tackle.

One side is full of his Ryugi Hook Stockers.

For his weights, Fothergill uses a Ryugi R-Tank box. This is his Neko box that houses all of his weights, bands and o-rings.

The box is nice and compact, which takes up much less storage inside the locker.

The Ryugi Hook Stocker is the main way he stores all of his hooks.

Fothergill shows off the hook that helped him with the 2025 Classic — the Ryugi Talisman Neko hook.

And of course, the worm that did the damage on his Neko rig — the Strike King Finesse Worm.

Red Bug is a go-to color for Fothergill.

Back to the compartment we go.

Fothergill pulls out his jig box that is home to his casting jigs.

The box is made up of Strike King Tungsten Casting jigs as well as Strike King Bitsy Flip flipping jigs.

The Strike King Tungsten Casting jig was another bait that played big in the 2025 Classic.

Fothergill then moves on to his topwaters. The Strike King Sexy Dawg Hard Knock is his go-to walking style bait.

This bait played for Fothergill at Lake Hartwell, and he hopes that it will be a factor at Lake Fork!

The next box Fothergill shows off is his box full of jigheads and other baits that are primarily foward-facing sonar related.

The driver’s side rod locker is home to a variety of different items.

A mixture of tackle, boat necessities and rain gear.

Fothergill also has a few new releases (soon to be released) tucked away in this compartment.

The new Strike King Tumbleweed.

“This is a bait I’m really looking forward to throwing in a few tournaments later in the year,” he said. “It’s a bait that I did have a little help in designing so I’m really excited about it.”

An extra trolling motor prop is also stored away in this compartment.

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His Simms ProDry rain suit also has a home in this compartment.

A smaller day box is home to baits that he knows he will need easy access to.

“My goal on tournament day is to never have to go to the main compartment,” said Fothergill.

Throughout the boat you’ll notice that there is still Classic confetti …

Lucky number 12 … I guess?

Another accessory Fothergill added to his Skeeter is the AMPD Marine Step Drawer.

This unique drawer is where he stores all of his culling equipment, a scale, super glue and more.

The floor compartment is home to a few other miscellaneous items. One is his “lucky duck.”

“When I was rigging up the night before the Classic, my dad handed me this duck and told me it was going to be lucky,” he said. “I think I’ll be keeping the duck in the boat from now on.”

Underneath that compartment is where he stores a spare prop.

Fothergill takes a seat in the “office.”

VROOM, VROOM!

At the console, Fothergill is running duel Humminbird APEX 13 units.

“My left unit is used for mapping and and high-speed 2D sonar. My right unit is a three panel with 2D sonar, down imaging and side imaging.”

He keeps an extra pair of Waterland Sunglasses at the console as well.

A look at the large, touchscreen control panel.

Inside the cooler, Fothergill keeps a good number of waters and Reign Energy Drinks (not pictured).

And yet again, more Classic confetti.

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A look inside the Skeeter livewells.

The compartment behind the driver’s side seat is home to more tackle, including some soft plastics.

Fothergill loads up on Strike King Menace Grubs because he loves the versatility they provide.

No comment …

“I signed with Powerhouse Lithium this year, and I’ve been super happy about them,” he said. Fothergill is running a cranking battery, twin 16V 80 ah batteries and two 36V 60 ah batteries for the trolling motor. They make a bigger 16-Volt, but he likes the added security to link them together if one battery were to go down.