Best of Opens top lures 2022

To start the season, Brandon Lester won his first Bassmaster Tournament with a come-from-behind win in the St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open at Kissimmee Chain of Lakes presented by Mossy Oak Fishing.

Lester credited his win in the Southern Open thanks in part to this gear. His winning weight was 51 pounds, 2 ounces.

Lester favored a 6-inch Gambler Fat Ace stickworm with a 4/0 Mustad Grip-Pen Big Bite hook and 3/16-ounce Mustad tungsten weight.

Lester also relied on a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jackhammer ChatterBait (Golden Shiner color) with a 3.3-inch Keitech (Tennessee Shad) trailer on the back.

The 2022 Opens season proved that versatility is a must when fishing in the ever-changing conditions that make the sport challenging, fun and rewarding. Versatility means keeping the right baits available on hand when you need to pivot and make changes on the go. Find everything you need to stay ahead of the game at basspro.com.

Warming water temperatures coupled with a late-week full moon created the perfect scenario for a springtime push to the shallows during the St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Open presented by Mossy Oak Fishing at the James River. Dissecting what stage of the spawn the bass were in and when they would bite in relation to the tide were major keys to success for the Top 10 anglers.

Kenta Kimura maximized his time by staying close to takeoff at Osborne Landing and won the event with 65 pounds. Having never been to the James River before, he did not know how the tide would affect the bite at the beginning of the week. After landing more than 19 pounds on Day 1, Kimura proceeded to land 23-10 on Day 2 and 24-11 on Championship Saturday.

Kimura utilized three different baits to win his first Bassmaster event.

A DRT Tiny Klash swimbait with a lateral tail and adjustable ABS plastic produced 50% of Kimura’s bites on Day 2 and produced a 6-pounder in the final minutes on the final day.

A 3/8-ounce buzzbait paired with a red Berkley Power Flutter also produced big bites throughout the week.

Deps Evoke 2.0 squarebill in a red craw or a shad pattern was also a big producer this week.

Call it a case of postspawn funk, or high fishing pressure, the largemouth population was in a state of flux at the St. Croix Rods Bassmaster Central Open on Ross Barnett Reservoir presented by Mossy Oak Fishing.

Lee Livesay found a subtle difference in an otherwise overcrowded community hole. The winner intercepted transitioning postspawn largemouth migrating through a ditch bordered by vegetation growing on a wide flat. His winning weight of 48 pounds, 11 ounces, came on a lure lineup capable of covering water, while slowing down to catch bass holding to denser vegetation.

A box of frogs and Texas- and Carolina-rigged soft plastics scored the win for Livesay. The Bassmaster Elite Series pro covered water with the frog and Carolina rig, while fishing dense vegetation with the Texas rig.

A Snag Proof Bobby’s Frog did the trick for fishing across surface vegetation on a flat.

Livesay made the Carolina rig with a 6-inch NetBait Lizard, rigged on 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline Extra Wide Gap Hook, with a 1/2-ounce weight.

Livesay made the Texas rig with a NetBait 11-inch C-Mac Worm, rigged on the same model and size hook, with a 1/4-ounce weight. For both soft plastic rigs he added American Bait Works Bait Fuel for strike appeal.

Brown fish ruled the day at the St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Open at Oneida Lake presented by Mossy Oak Fishing. But with smallmouth scattered largely between a postspawn and early summer pattern, plus different wind and cloud cover every day, the top anglers were constantly making adjustments to their game plan.

Casey Smith of Victor, N.Y., used his local knowledge to find quality smallmouth and win on his home waters. An afternoon flurry in an area very sentimental to him on the final day was the catalyst for the win. Bags of 18-7, 18-12 and 18-10 gave Smith a three-day total of 55-13 and a berth in the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic.

Smith used two main techniques to seal the victory on Oneida Lake.

Smith threw a Z-Man TRD in green pumpkin goby on a 1/8- or 1/6-ounce Jewel jig head depending on the depth and how hard the wind was blowing.

He also threw a 1/2-ounce homemade football jig with a Strike King Baby Rage Craw trailer in green pumpkin.

A full moon pushing tides higher than normal. Scattered fish in pre-fall transition. The sheer magnitude of dialing in the bite on a massive playing field. It all added up to challenging conditions at the St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Open at Upper Chesapeake Bay presented by Mossy Oak Fishing.

“I didn’t think there was any way for this to happen; I don’t even know what to say,” JT Thompkins said of his come-from-behind victory with a winning weight of 39 pounds, 12 ounces. “This whole year, I’ve talked about dreaming of going to the Classic. It’s a dream come true.”

The dream did indeed come true for the 20-year-old from South Carolina.

A bladed jig and wacky rig were the two primary baits used by Thompkins.

The first choice was a 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer, with a Strike King 3X ElaZTech Too.

Alternatively, Thompkins used a weightless, wacky-rigged. Yamamoto Senko, rigged on a No. 2 hook.

The main river channel or the backwaters. Those were the two options at the St. Croix Bassmaster Central Open at Red River presented by Mossy Oak Fishing.

The backwaters were the clear-cut favorite, as those areas provided abundant vegetation and shad, and power baits and tactics were used by the top anglers.

Keith Poche ended up taking first place with a total weight of 37-12.

Poche relied on a heavy-cover rig to catch bass from the thick vegetation.

That choice was a 3-inch Berkley PowerBait Pit Boss, rigged on a 4/0 Berkley Fusion19 Heavy Cover Hook, with a 3/8-ounce weight.

Impressive numbers of bass were caught during the final 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Southern Open at Lake Hartwell presented by Mossy Oak Fishing, but finding better-than-average-sized bass proved to be a challenge for much of the field.

Big largemouth dominated the top spot on the leaderboard through the first two days, as Shane Lineberger and Derek Lehtonen shared the top spot on Day 1 before Lehtonen took sole possession of first-place on Day 2. But lurking close behind them were anglers finding fat spotted bass offshore.

In the end, it was Tristan McCormick who took home the victory with all spotted bass. He rotated through four shoals and located small groups of quality spots with his forward-facing sonar to secure a come-from-behind win on Lake Hartwell, earning a berth to the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic at Knoxville March 24-26.

The 2021 College Classic Bracket champion clinched his second Bassmaster Classic berth using two Strike King baits.

He used a Strike King Sexy Dawg Hard Knock in a chrome pattern to draw up a better quality spotted bass.

The Strike King Caffeine Shad rigged on a 3/0 Owner Cover Shot hook also triggered strikes from spotted bass suspended in the water column.

Low water, high winds and warm water temperatures had Sam Rayburn in a funk for the final 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Central Open presented by Mossy Oak Fishing. Anglers had to work hard for the bass they did catch, and for most anglers, not just one pattern, type of cover or depth range prevailed over another.

Even with the tough bite, big bags did cross the stage, but none bigger than Robbie Latuso’s 31-4 Day 2 bag that included a 9-13 and a 9-11. Two bags over 20 pounds and two bags over 19 pounds crossed the stage on the first day of competition, but as those anglers discovered, as well as Latuso, repeating that success for a second day was nearly impossible.

Needing a victory to claim a spot in the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic, Keith Combs made incremental improvements each day to win on his home pond. It is the third Bassmaster win in his career, and it qualifies Combs for his ninth Bassmaster Classic appearance.

Combs took home the victory on his home lake utilizing his strengths – offshore power fishing.

His most productive offshore bait on Championship Saturday was a 1-ounce Green Pumpkin Strike King Structure Jig with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer.

Throughout the week, he triggered strikes with his confidence bait, a Strike King 6XD crankbait.

For a slightly different look, he threw a Strike King 5XD.