February 26, 2025.<\/p>\n
PARIS, Tenn. \u2014 John Garrett<\/a>\u00a0finished fourth in the\u00a0FXR Pro Fish\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Elite at St. Johns River<\/a>, but he wasn\u2019t surprised when, an hour later, he was asked to shift his attention instead to the upcoming Division 2\u00a0St. Croix\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Open at Kentucky Lake\/Lake Barkley presented by SEVIIN<\/a>\u00a0back home on the Tennessee\/Kentucky border.<\/p>\n The Open will be held March 6-8 and Garrett, who hails from Union City, Tenn., cut his teeth on those fisheries just east of his hometown. He then honed his game during routine practices and tournaments there when competing for nearby Bethel University.<\/p>\n And if Garrett\u2019s instinct is correct, the 231 anglers entered in the Open have reason to be excited.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s probably going to be one of the best tournaments of the season,\u201d the 29-year-old pro said. \u201cThere should be absolutely perfect water conditions because we\u2019ve had just inches and inches of rain, which makes the water a little dirty but also gets the current flowing.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s a combination that makes the fish want to eat their own tails,\u201d he added, his voice rising at the prospect of promising catches. \u201cIt will be absurd, the number of 15- to 18-pound bags you\u2019re gonna see caught.\u201d<\/p>\n Garrett isn\u2019t fishing in the Open, but said if he was, he\u2019d go with what\u2019s worked for him before to boat the best bass on Lake Barkley or Kentucky Lake.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d go old-school, cranking a Rat-L-Trap in the main-river current,\u201d he said. \u201c(Underwater) drops will be huge players, I\u2019m sure. You can \u2019Scope out in the current and find fish or tuck into a creek pocket throwing to moving water. There\u2019ll probably be a healthy portion of smallmouth weighed, maybe 50%. But if you\u2019re looking to win, I think you\u2019ll need to mix in four or five largemouth to have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n There certainly is no lack of space for competitors to explore. Kentucky Lake is a 160,000-acre impoundment of the Tennessee River, making it the seventh-largest man-made lake in the U.S. Lake Barkley, which runs parallel and is connected to Kentucky Lake via a canal at the north (Kentucky) end of both lakes, provides an additional 58,000 acres.<\/p>\n That tremendous expanse of water, not to mention historically solid largemouth and smallmouth populations, has lured B.A.S.S. through the years. The last visit, for the\u00a02024 Bass Pro Shops\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Team Championship<\/a>\u00a0on Kentucky Lake in December, saw the team portion of the event won by Noah Morgan and Clint Knight, who caught 47 pounds, 5 ounces over the course of two days.<\/p>\n Garrett said it\u2019ll take a similar daily haul to win the Open tournament. And, of course, this isn\u2019t a team event, so the burden of production is placed squarely on the shoulders of individual anglers.<\/p>\n \u201cOver three days, you\u2019ll need about 23 pounds per day to win it,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cBut this will be different than that December tournament. That was strictly a deep-water \u2019Scoping deal. There will be a lot more shallow-water bites this time. And the water will have some color with how much is moving through the TVA right now.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, it\u2019ll definitely still be prespawn,\u201d Garrett added. \u201cKentucky Lake has a later spawn than any (Southern) lake because it gets all the cooler water dumped into it from other lakes above it.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0St. Croix\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Open at Kentucky Lake\/Lake Barkley presented by SEVIIN<\/a>\u00a0will begin with daily takeoffs at 6:15 a.m. CT from Paris Landing State Park. Daily weigh-ins are scheduled for 2:15 p.m. CT and will be held back at the park. The full field will compete the first two days of the event, with the Top 10 anglers fishing on Championship Saturday.<\/p>\n Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0LIVE will be streaming on\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>.com<\/a>. Stay up-to-date on all tournament coverage at\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>.com\/how-to-watch\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n The City of Paris<\/a>\u00a0is hosting the event.<\/p>\n 2025\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens\u00a0Series Title Sponsor:\u00a0<\/strong>St. Croix<\/p>\n 2025\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens\u00a0Series Presenting Sponsor:\u00a0<\/strong>SEVIIN<\/p>\n 2025\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens\u00a0Series\u00a0Platinum Sponsor:<\/strong>\u00a0Toyota About B.A.S.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n B.A.S.S., which encompasses the\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0tournament leagues, events and media platforms, is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting-edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the organization\u2019s fully integrated media platforms include the industry\u2019s leading magazines (Bassmaster<\/span><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0B.A.S.S. Times<\/em>), website (Bassmaster<\/span>.com<\/a>), TV show, radio show, social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Elite Series, St. Croix\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens Series presented by SEVIIN, Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier Series presented by Lowrance, Strike King\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Strike King\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0High School Series,\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Junior Series,\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Team Championship, Newport\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Kayak Series presented by Native Watercraft,\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0College Kayak Series, Yamaha\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Redfish Cup Championship presented by Skeeter\u00a0and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Bass Pro Shops\u00a0Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Classic presented by Under Armour.<\/p>\n Connect with #Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>TikTok<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Courtesy of BASS, LLC.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 26, 2025. PARIS, Tenn. \u2014 John Garrett\u00a0finished fourth in the\u00a0FXR Pro Fish\u00a0Bassmaster\u00a0Elite at St. Johns River, but he wasn\u2019t surprised when, an hour later, he was asked to shift his attention instead to the upcoming Division 2\u00a0St. Croix\u00a0Bassmaster\u00a0Open at Kentucky Lake\/Lake Barkley presented by SEVIIN\u00a0back home on the Tennessee\/Kentucky border. The Open will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/kentucky-lake.jpg?fit=863%2C575&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebasshog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2025\u00a0<\/strong>Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens\u00a0Series\u00a0<\/strong>Premier Sponsors:\u00a0<\/strong>Bass Pro Shops,\u00a0<\/strong>Dakota Lithium, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Progressive Insurance, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
\n2025\u00a0<\/strong>Bassmaster<\/span>\u00a0Opens\u00a0Series<\/strong>\u00a0Supporting Sponsors:\u00a0<\/strong>AFTCO, Daiwa, Garmin, Lew’s, Lowrance, Marathon,\u00a0Triton Boats, VMC<\/p>\n