The St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Buggs Island was quite the roller coaster. Water levels rose 3 feet quickly towards the end of practice and cold temperatures, particularly overnight, entered the area too.
Those conditions forced many anglers to start from scratch on the final days of practice and even during the tournament, competitors had to abandon their primary gameplan and search for new bass and new patterns.
In the end, it was Powell Kemp who secured the victory with a three-day total of 48-13 on a body of water he has fished for 20-plus years. It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. He noted several times throughout the week how random his bites were and on the final day, he could not find a kicker bass.
But his Day 2 lead was large enough to absorb a hard charge from a couple anglers and claim a spot in the 2024 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Bass Pro Shops in Tulsa, given he fishes the final two Opens in the division.
Here are some final observations from the week at Buggs Island.
Day 1 Leaders Hold the Advantage
Kemp was the third wire-to-wire victor already in this Opens season. Justin Barnes led both days of a weather-shortened Lake Eufaula Alabama event and Ben Milliken held the top spot at Toledo Bend each day.
Will we see the same at Wheeler Lake in a couple weeks?
The Race for Second
With Kemp starting the day with a 7-pound lead and catching 10 pounds early on Championship Friday, it became pretty clear that everyone else was fishing for second. Casey Smith began the day in second-place, but David Williams smashed 17-6 to take silver.
“It was a pretty awesome day,” Williams said. “These last two days have been incredible. I never fished the same water twice and fished from one end to the other. The last two days it seemed like they bit everywhere I went. It boosted my confidence. It is an awesome lake. I love it here.”
Casey Scanlon had his best day of the tournament on the final day with 16-4 to jump up from seventh to the bronze medalist.
A Numbers Game
Each competitor in the Top 10 managed to catch a limit on the final day, which speaks to the sheer numbers of bass in Buggs Island. Although the fishing wasn’t as hot as some anticipated, a total of 327 limits hit the scales.
Big bites were not easy to find either. Kemp’s 19-8 Day 1 bag gave him a huge cushion over the field and 4-pounders lifted Shayne Berlo, Williams and Dice into the Top 10.
After sneaking into 10th heading into the final day, Broughman had one of his better days of the week Friday, catching 15-3 to secure a fifth place finish. He thinks the conditions got close to perfect.
“They bit better for me than the last few days,” he said. “It warmed up and the water stabilized. It is getting back to where it should be.”
Quick Starts
Within the first two hours of Championship Friday, half of the Top 10 had secured a limit and each angler had caught at least one keeper bass. Kempt started where he ended Day 2 and was just about to leave when he caught a quality bass that made him stay. He proceeded to catch several in a row which ultimately led to his victory.
But it was Scanlon who had the most productive start as he caught over 16 pounds in just over 2 hours.
“This morning was awesome,” Scanlon said. “Between the spinnerbait and the ChatterBait, they absolutely mauled it for the first couple hours. The rest of the day I just tried to upgrade and caught a bunch of fish. Unfortunately I just came up a couple big ones short.”
Tried and True Techniques Shine
Almost the entire Top 10 took advantage of the high water conditions and headed somewhere close to the bank, whether that was the flooded bushes or the stumps slightly off the bank. Those anglers kept their bait selection pretty simple.
Half of the anglers mentioned they were throwing a spinnerbait, whether that was around the flooded cover or around a shad spawn or baitfish in general. Bladed jigs, creature baits and shaky heads were also popular choices.
Joey Cifuentes had the most unique approach of anglers fishing in the Top 10. Calling it a Damiki style presentation, he rigged a 4-inch Berkley Flat Nose Minnow on a 1/16-ounce jig head and tossed it to fry guarders he could see on his forward-facing sonar.
