The 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by Mossy Oak season is now in full swing, joining the Southern and Northern Opens already underway. The first of three Central Opens is this week at Ross Barnett Reservoir, near Jackson, Miss., with a full field of 225 boater entries and equal number of co-anglers competing on the 33,000-acre impoundment.
The Red River in Louisiana, and Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas complete the schedule, with dates in late September and mid-October, respectively. What sets this schedule apart are the profiles of the lakes, two of them categorized as lowland impoundments and the other a river, with the tournament calendar and seasonal timeline set to challenge the skills of the anglers.
The outlier of the three events is the Red River, the only riverine fishery on the schedule. Ross Barnett and Sam Rayburn, the two lowland impoundments, will be fished during postspawn and early fall.
First up is Ross Barnett. Local reports predict a postspawn event with isolated bed fishing opportunities. The lake’s overall turbid water clarity will likely require blind casting to beds. A bonus might be a shad spawn in play, based on the moderating temperatures.
The full spawning cycle was underway during the early-March 2018 Open on Ross Barnett. Top anglers favored prespawn fish, setting up on final staging areas nearest spawning flats. That was the winning pattern for Stephen Browning, who weighed 44 pounds over three days. He intercepted prespawners transitioning through dense eelgrass growing on a spawning flat. Browning reasoned the prespawners were more actively feeding on baitfish and weighed heavier than spawning bass. Other top finishers leveraged fish in prespawn and spawning mode, for a sustainable pattern throughout the competition.
The final 2018 event, held in mid-June on the Red River, was best described as a grinder tournament. Patrick Walters won it with 30-15, with a wise strategy considering the difficult fishing conditions. The river was low, current was all but absent and the daytime temperatures hovered in the upper 90s. Instead of making a time-consuming long run to lower river pools, Walters remained near the takeoff and weigh-in site, choosing to grind out his limits using junk fishing tactics. The win punched his ticket to the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series, with a stellar career in the making.
The mid-September 2020 Open on Sam Rayburn was fished under late-summer conditions, at least for east Texas. Even so, Masayuki Matsushita won with an impressive weight of 60-14, based on the strength of a dropping water level. The result was the bass, spread out across the shallower areas, were drawn to isolated cover used as ambush points, making them easier to pattern.
The St. Croix Rod Rewards Program pays an extra $1,000 to any registered boater angler who wins an Open fishing with St. Croix Rods, or $500 to the highest finishing boater angler finishing in the Top 10.
The Opens will reward 12 coveted 2023 Elite Series invitations and nine berths into the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.
B.A.S.S. first added Bassmaster Opens LIVE final day on-the-water streaming coverage during the 2020 season. That expanded to live broadcasts from Championship Saturday of each of the division final tournaments on FS1 and the FOX Sports digital platforms in 2021, which peaked when 852,000 viewers watched live as Nick LeBrun claimed the title during the Bassmaster Open on Grand Lake. FOX Sports will continue broadcasting divisional final Championship Saturday coverage in 2022.
