The 2022 St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Opens series has a new twist on the schedule, with two of the three events set for Virginia and Maryland tidal fisheries.
Timing is everything when fishing tidal waters, and being in the right place, at the right time, is a must as the waters recede and rise. The tide will test anglers competing at the Northern kickoff event, April 14-16, on the James River and its tidal tributaries near Richmond, Va. A true test of angling mettle will be Sept. 8-10, when the Northern season concludes on the Upper Chesapeake Bay in Cecil County, Md. In between those events is the Northern Open at Oneida Lake, July 7-9, near Syracuse, N.Y.
Brandon Palaniuk won the 2021 James River Open, held in mid-May, with a weight of 53 pounds, 12 ounces. Palaniuk favored the incoming tide, as it held bait and bass higher in the water. He targeted specific current seams created by the flow, after recognizing the bass were leveraging current to capture their meals. In the next previous event, tide fishing expert Michael Iaconelli won with 44 pounds in the April 2019 tournament. Iaconelli won by staying near the tournament takeoff site to take advantage of the morning low tide and another window in the afternoon change. Fishing the lowest water in the backs of creeks concentrated the unmolested fish caught by Iaconelli.
New York tournament angler Bill Perkins won the 2021 Oneida Open in late July, with a weight of 52 pounds, 3 ounces. Perkins held the lead from start to finish, spending his tournament in the midlake region. He targeted rocky bottom structure in about 14 to 20 feet. While most July tournaments on Oneida are won offshore, the 2017 event was not. Stanley Sypeck Jr. won it with a largemouth-dominated catch weighing 55-8, fishing isolated rockpiles and weedlines no deeper than 9 feet.
B.A.S.S. last visited the Upper Chesapeake Bay in 2015, when Aaron Martens won the mid-August event with 70-02. Martens ran a network of coves that were lined with dock pilings. The bass positioned behind those with the ebb and flow of the tide. Junk fishing prevailed as the dominant pattern, as it will when the Northern Opens season wraps up.
St. Croix Rods is the new title sponsor, and an unprecedented 83 anglers are registered for all three of the Central, Southern and Northern divisions. 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 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.
