Fantasy Fishing: Pick your poison

Written by

Coy Greathouse

With the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic in our rear-view mirrors, we are heading back East to an all but unknown fishery, the Pasquotank River. Historically, this has not been a popular venue for top-level professional events, so this should be an exciting place to visit! The lack of history should even the playing field, but not having access to years of “community hole exploitation” should spread everyone out.

This will without a doubt be a river tournament with everything that comes with it—backwaters, current, flats and the like. The banks are loaded with cypress trees which will be a primary target for many, similar to Santee Cooper. There is also a fair bit of submergent vegetation. Expect guys who love to fish shallow and who understand rivers to thrive.

The time of year should allow for some sight fishing, but bass should be in all three phases – prespawn, spawn and postspawn. Anglers should be able to pick their poison and determine which group of fish they want to target to produce the biggest four-day total.

BUCKET A: COX

John Cox is one of the most consistent anglers on tour when it comes to this type of venue. As stated above, shallow water, cypress trees, backwaters and spawning bass will all be easy targets for him. He has plenty of history on fisheries like this, even winning an FLW event on Chickamauga doing something very similar. Watch out for the wacky worm. It can be a deadly bait.

Don’t Sleep On: Brandon Palaniuk

Sitting out of the Classic for the just the second time ever didn’t feel good and Brandon Palaniuk is ready to get back after them. Coming off a win at Okeechobee should have him super confident as well. The river will provide opportunities to crank, throw swimbaits and topwaters, flip and frog, which he loves to do.

BUCKET B: SCHMITT

Looking down my list, effectively all of my primary picks are “river guys”, but Bryan Schmitt might be the most rivery of them all. The bulk of his Top 10 finishes with B.A.S.S. have been on riverine systems including a second on the Tennessee River, seventh on the James River and a first on the Mississippi River.

Don’t Sleep On: Drew Cook

Looking for a sleeper pick? Consider Drew Cook at just over 5% player percentage. He is a sight-fishing aficionado and is coming off a strong showing at the Classic.

BUCKET C: POWROZNIK

Another shallow water, river hammer is the one and only, Jacob Powroznik. He has not had the start to his season that he would have liked, but it’s no secret that he has been looking forward to this one. In fact, it’s rumored that he thinks this will be the highlight event of the season—and that’s saying something with Fork on the schedule.

Don’t Sleep On: Tyler Rivet

Full transparency, this may be the first time I have ever picked Tyler Rivet as a favorite, but this one could set up well for him. He loves to throw swim jigs and frogs and will likely choose power-fishing over using FFS or sight fishing.

BUCKET D: LESTER

Versatility has always been a key strength for Brandon Lester. He has done well across the country in just about every condition on every type of fishery. But historically, rivers have been good to him. I think that boils down to a general understanding of the fishery and not just specific technical skills. That versatility may allow him the flexibility to figure them out each day of the tournament.

Don’t Sleep On: Drew Benton

There are about six or seven guys who really stand out in this Bucket, but Drew Benton slightly edges them out in my mind. One of his primary strengths is catching spawning bass. He should be able to see them, but even if he can’t look at the, he has a strong understanding of their behavior plus the patience to get the bites to do well.

BUCKET E: HACKNEY

Greg Hackney is having one of the toughest starts of his career. Both of the first two regular season events and the Classic all lined up for him to do well, but somehow, he finds himself in Bucket E. Despite the stars not aligning for him in Florida or Texas, he still is a favorite on this type of fishery.

Don’t Sleep On: Matt Arey