PARK FALLS, WIS.– The largest bass circuit in the west, the WON Bass tournament series wrapped it’s 2024 season with the WON Bass U.S. Open presented by Ranger Boats and Mercury at Nevada’s Mojave Lake last week. St. Croix ambassador, Kyle Grover of Rancho Santa Margarita, California averaged more than 20 pounds over three days of competition to earn 3rd place in the U.S. Open and top spot in the WON Bass 2024 Angler of the Year points race.

Established in 1982, the WON Bass tournament series consists of five events each year, where PRO-Division anglers are paired with different AAA-Division anglers on each of three days of competition. Unlike most other bass series, Pros and AAA anglers fish for a combined five-fish bag each day and the heaviest three-day total of up to 15 fish. Instead of relegating co-anglers to an existence of isolation in the back of the boat, WON Bass’ exciting format not only encourages active cooperation between Pros and AAA co-anglers, it’s actually required for success.

“All the tournaments are set up that way,” Grover says. “It makes WON Bass events very popular, and one of the reasons we see 150 to 200 boats at every tournament. It’s a completely different dynamic from other high-level tournament series. I’ll give my co-anglers lures, let them use my electronics… even change their line if I need to. I don’t care who catches them, as long as we put five big ones in the well.”

Grover and Day-One AAA co-angler, Martin DeHaven, caught 22.15 pounds to carry a slim lead over Bassmaster Elite angler, Bryant Smith, into Day Two.

This year’s WON Bass tournament series started in January on California’s Lake Shasta, and continued with events on Clear Lake, Lake Havasu, and Lake Mead, before wrapping up with the U.S. Open on Mojave. Leading up to last week’s championship, Grover had earned top-20 finishes in each of the four prior 2024 WON Bass events, making him a favorite to earn 2024 Angler of the Year honors. “We caught 62 pounds at Mojave and it still wasn’t good enough to win the event,” Grover says. “That says a lot about how well these lakes are fishing. I couldn’t be any happier about the 3rd place finish… it was a great feeling winning the U.S. Open last year (2023), but the lake and the event gave me what I needed to cap off a great season this year by winning Angler of the Year.”

Grover says he worked two primary patterns at last week’s U.S. Open. “I was catching them with a buzzbait on a Legend Tournament LBTC75MHF WARHORSE rod, and live-scoping them with a dropshot on a Legend Tournament LBTS73MLXF DROPSHOT FINESSE XL rod.” Although it didn’t play at the U.S. Open, Kyle says a jerkbait was his primary pattern at the WON Bass Open events leading up to the championship. “I’ve fished a lot of different rods over the years, and even though it’s more of a mid-range price point for St. Croix, the Victory VTC68MXF THE JERK is by far my favorite jerkbait rod. It’s just so comfortable and well balanced to fish all day. I love the EVA reel seat nut and the short handle, and the SCIII+ carbon blank pairs perfectly with the lines and jerkbaits I fish. In addition to the LBTS73MLXF, I also regularly use the VTS73MLXF model in the Victory series for my dropshotting."

Grover expresses appreciation to WON Bass organizers and sponsors for helping to shine deserved light on western bass fishing. “There’s a lot of diversity in our western fisheries with spots, smallmouth, and largemouth,” says Grover, adding that certain Northern California lakes are becoming destinations for double-digit largemouth and upper-single digit spotted bass. “No doubt many of these lakes are unique in the big-fish opportunities they hold for anglers looking for trophy bass… I’d say Clear Lake may be the best bass lake in the country right now… but even down into the desert these lakes are all fishing really well. We had a lot of rain last year. Weights and water levels are up.”

See complete results and WON Bass tournament series details at wonbass.com.


About St. Croix Rod
Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly crafting the “Best Rods on Earth” for over 75 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The company remains family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Imperial®, Triumph® and Mojo, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world.