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Top lures at Lake Erie Open

Check out all the lures used by the Top 10 at the 2026 Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Erie presented by Battery Tender!

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Photography by
Andy Crawford
Captions by
Pete Robbins
Over 170 anglers descended upon Lake Erie in Buffalo, N.Y., in mid-August to fish the final Turtlebox Bassmaster Open presented by Battery Tender event of 2026. New York’s Alex Korol won with more than 75 pounds of Great Lakes smallmouth, on pace for a Century Club belt if there had been a fourth day of competition.
This tournament was the final chance for anglers to move their way into the Nitro Boats Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops for the opportunity to claim one of 10 invites to the 2027 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series. This season, 50 anglers took on both divisions, and 35 of them will advance to the Elite Qualifier round.
The slugfest included a wide variety of Elite Series pros, former Elites, dedicated EQ anglers and local hammers filling the field. Bassmaster had not held a major tournament on this portion of Lake Erie since 2008, when Kota Kiriyama made a long run and caught 93 pounds, 6 ounces of smallmouth.
It may be difficult to believe, but this time the fishing was even better. Everyone in the Top 10 had at least one bag over 23 pounds, and Day 1 of the tournament featured 114 limits over 20. Indeed, the event produced the most 20-pound bags in a single event in Bassmaster history.
 
After two days, it took an average weight of 23-5 per day to make the Top 10.
New Yorker Alex Korol, fishing his first Open, outdueled the stacked field to claim the victory. His limits weighed 27-1, 25-1 and 23-7. He fished a drop-shot rig aggressively around tightly-packed bait balls to catch the winning fish.
Here’s what the Top 10 used to amass their stout catches! To gear up for smallmouth madness, head to your local Bass Pro Shops or BassPro.com.
Tanner Hadden (10th, 65-7)
This young pro from Georgia paired a drop shot and an urchin-style lure for his second Top 10 finish in Opens competition.
The drop shot featured a 4.25-inch Berkley Flat Worm in smelt, rigged on a 1/0 Owner Cover Shot hook with a 3/8-ounce Queen Tackle tungsten weight.
His choice of urchin was the original, a Hideup Coike in the 13mm size fished on a No. 3 VMC Redline finesse treble and weighted with a 1/16-ounce Queen Tackle nail weight.
Chase Carey (9th, 65-13)
The young Georgia pro had four drop-shot rigs on his deck at all times. His best color was Goby.
He fished the lures on a No. 1 Owner Cover Shot drop-shot hook with a 1/2-ounce Nako tungsten weight.
Cody Abbott (8th, 68-9)  
In his second Opens Top 10 of the season, the South Carolina angler paired a football jig and an urchin to earn his high finish.
The urchin was a Bass Mooch 17mm Gumball in Watermelon. He rigged it on a No. 4 BKK treble that he’d stolen from one his jerkbaits and weighted the lure with a 3/32-ounce Bass Mooch nail weights.
The jig was a 1/2-ounce Bass Mooch jig in green pumpkin with a Bass Mooch Cranky Craw in green pumpkin blue as a trailer. He removed the weedguard to garner more bites from the smallmouth he described as “finicky.”
Cody Ross (7th, 68-11)
 Tennessee’s Cody Ross went all-in on the drop shot, fishing a Strike King Half Shell in Green Pumpkin and Green Pumpkin Purple.
He rigged them on an unnamed No. 2 hook, and to make the lure sink quickly he added a 1/2-ounce Strike King tungsten drop-shot weight. “The key was covering water,” he said. “Dropping that trolling motor. On Day 2 I only hit three spots all day, and one of them was just for 30 minutes.”
Patrick Walters (6th, 69-4)
 Veteran Elite Series pro Patrick Walters showed why he’s a multiple-time Bassmaster champion, jumping into this Open and earning a top finish. Like many others, he offered up the one/two punch of a drop shot and a jighead presentation to get the job done.
The drop shot featured a 2.75-inch Zoom Boot Tail Minnow. The setup was made up of a 1/2-ounce lead weight and a Gamakatsu B10 finesse wire hook.
His jighead was a 1/4-ounce Maximus Pinnacle head poured on a 2/0 Gamakatsu 622 Nano Coated hook.
 
His lure choice, however, differed from that of most other competitors. He utilized a Zoom Micro Speed Craw in Black. Why black? “Smallmouth are sight feeders, and they can see it better,” he said.
Visit Basspro.com to check out all of the baits used by the Opens pros at Lake Erie.
Neil Farlow (5th, 70-0)
Canadian angler Neil Farlow relied primarily on a drop-shot rig. He said the key was to see them on his screen, “cast as far as you can and drop it on their head.”
Like several others in the Top 10, the smaller Berkley Flat Worm did much of his damage. His best colors were Smelt and Brown Back. He used a heavier weight than most, a 1/2-ounce tungsten model from X Zone and a 1/0 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens finesse drop-shot hook.
Dillon Falardeau (4th, 71-6)
 Past Opens winner Dillon Falardeau earned another Top 10 exclusively by drop shotting a variety of 3.6-inch Berkley Maxscent Hit Worms in colors including Brown Back, Smelt and Gobyashi. He fished the worms on a No. 2 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens Finesse Hook with a 3/8-ounce tungsten weight from Nako.
Falardeau went through seven bags of the Flat Worms in the first two days. He soaked them for up to a year in a mixture of Gulp Powder and Norie’s Bite Powder. “It hides the human scent and gives you a little extra edge,” he explained.
 
Aaron Jagdfeld (3rd, 71-8)
Elite Series rookie Aaron Jagdfeld, a veteran of last year’s Opens and EQ marathon, also used two lures to get the job done across the Great Lakes from his Michigan home. He used heavier weights than many other competitors in order to get the pressured smallmouth to react.
The first was a jighead minnow consisting of a homemade 3/8-ounce lead jighead paired with a Strike King 4-inch Z-Too in the Smoky Shad pattern.
The second was an urchin-style lure, a green pumpkin Strike King Mag Tumbleweed attached to an unnamed 1/0 Neko hook and a 1/8-ounce Strike King Neko weight.
Nick Trim (2nd, 71-14)
Reigning B.A.S.S. Nation champion Nick Trim brought some midwestern smallmouth expertise to New York and paired a jighead minnow and a small football jig to adjust to the changing moods of Erie’s smallmouth.
One day, he caught most of his fish on multiple colors of Deps Sakamata Shad, including Biwako Wagasagi, on a 3/8-ounce tungsten BKK Hyperlatch Round Ball Jig Head.
When they wouldn’t eat that, he favored a 3/8-ounce Cast Again Tackle Ringer football jig in green pumpkin purple, utilizing a green pumpkin Berkley Lil’ General as a trailer.
Alex Korol (1st, 75-9)
Korol won the tournament primarily by tempting smallmouth with a drop-shot rig fishing in and around bait balls, offering up a 3-inch Megabass Hazedong in various colors. He fished it on a No. 2 BKK Armor Point Drop Shot Worm Hook with an unnamed 1/2-ounce tungsten weight.
“They’d either grab it on the way down, or if they didn’t I’d snap it again,” he said. “That acts like a second fall.”
He also caught a handful of fish on a homemade 5/16-ounce jighead paired with a 5-inch Silver Shiner Deps Sakamata Shad.

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