Division 2 competitors of the 2025 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Introduced by SEVIINstarts Thursday at Sam Rayburn
PARK FALLS, WIS. (February 12, 2025) – Over 200 anglers are set to compete within the 2025 St. Croix Bassmaster Open Division 2 opener at Sam Rayburn Reservoir offered by SEVIIN this week. The 115,000-acre east-Texas impoundment is a storied piece of water for bass anglers and identified for producing big largemouths. The query of exactly the place concentrations of these huge fish will probably be is the puzzle that Opens anglers will attempt to reply when competitors begins on Thursday. A kind of anglers is 58-year-old Sizzling Springs, Arkansas angler, Stephen Browning. An ironman and legend of the game, Browning has fished competitively for over 30 years on a number of excursions, together with the FLW, MLF Bass Professional Tour, the Bassmaster Opens, and the Bassmaster Elites. “The Puma,” as he’s identified, has dedicated to fishing all eight occasions in each Divisions of the 2025 Bassmaster Opens season. After three days of observe on Sam Rayburn, Browning says he expects the Division 2 opener to be an absolute slugfest, with fats, pre-spawn giants pushing in direction of the shallows.
“It’s good. It’s actually good,” he says. “Fish are doing their factor from 2-feet to 40-feet with extra coming, so it’s a pick-your-poison deal. I’ve bought 4 areas that ought to stay good if the climate stays constant. It’s going to be a full-on-forward-facing-sonar-pinging-a-minnow-and-jerk-baiting deal. Rather a lot goes to depend upon who finds fish that others didn’t. It’s a giant lake, however I count on it’s going to fish small.” Browning says he’s “caught a ton” in three days, and factors to the successful weight at a Texas Workforce Path collegiate occasion that wrapped up on Rayburn a few days in the past as a sign of what Opens anglers and followers may count on this week. “Collegiate anglers Riley Harris and Luke Potter weighed a 40-pound bag right here to win a Texas Workforce Path occasion only a couple days in the past,” Browning says. “That ought to give everybody an thought of what’s taking place right here at Rayburn proper now.” The truth that Browning is fishing the Opens in 2025 isn’t, in itself, stunning. At present’s Opens Collection is stacked with proficient anglers who’ve very particular profession targets. Browning’s son, Beau, was a type of anglers final 12 months. After ending eighth within the 2024 Opens EQ factors race, he earned a spot on this season’s Bassmaster Elites Collection. Father, Stephen, isn’t taking any alternatives to proceed to assist his son without any consideration. “I’ve had good success fishing the MLB Professional bass Tour the previous six years,” the Puma says. “However the Bassmaster Opens is the place the place I can accomplish all of my targets, and that features being able to be there to observe and assist Beau throughout his rookie season within the Elites. I could miss a day or so of observe right here and there, however there’s no overlap in Opens and Elite schedules, so I can fish all eight Opens and nonetheless get to the Elite occasions so we will be there for Beau.”
An angler who has fished the Opens Collection prior to now, Browning can provide distinctive perspective on how the sequence has developed. “I all the time did properly within the Opens, however I used to be an influence fisherman again then. Issues have undoubtedly modified,” Browning says. “I watch these younger anglers and the weights that they catch and the way properly they do. I didn’t notice till Clarks Hill (2025 Opens Collection opener) how good they are surely. They’re spectacular. And watching Beau final season… to not falter in 9 occasions final 12 months at this stage of competitors is unbelievable to me. The most important factor for me is there’s not a number of robust, grind-it-out tournaments anymore with forward-facing sonar. Previous successful weights of 13-to-16 kilos a day are bumped as much as 17 or 25 a day due to the expertise. It’s important to be good at it to compete. Interval. I don’t fuss about FFS. I’ve embraced it and I’m getting higher at it.” Fortunate for the Puma, he has an ideal instructor. “I informed Beau after the Clarks Hill Open, ‘I made nice choices about areas, however I must get higher concerning the choices that end in getting bit.’ I used to be on the best fish, I simply must get higher on the recreation,” he says. After ending in the midst of the pack at Clarks Hill, Browning says he’s figured some issues out. “Along with Beau’s teaching, I’ve bought 4 St. Croix minnow-shaking rods with SEVIIN spinning reels on the deck… a pair PHYSYX MLXFs and a pair of Legend Elite MLXF’s. That’s about three extra spinning rods that I’ve ever had on my deck at one time,” he chuckles. “I’ve had some 20+ pound days in observe and am tremendous excited to get this event underway.”
Browning says he and his spouse, Tammy, are grateful for the chance fishing the 2025 Opens Collection will afford. “In an ideal world, I’ll end within the prime 50 in one of many divisions to high quality for the EQ, win an occasion to qualify for the 2026 Bassmaster Basic, and end within the prime ten within the EQs to qualify for subsequent 12 months’s Elites… these are the targets,” Browning says. “However simply figuring out we’ll be capable to be there to observe and assist Beau at his Elite occasions this season is value it in itself.”
The St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Sam Rayburn Reservoir offered by SEVIIN will start Feb. 13 with a 7 a.m. CT takeoff from Umphrey Household Pavilion in Brookeland, Texas, adopted by weigh-in again on the pavilion starting at 3 p.m. The total discipline will fish once more on Feb. 14, with the highest anglers advancing to fish for the event title on Feb. 15. Observe the event on-line at Bassmaster.com. Get to know Stephen Browning and hyperlink to his social media pages at stephenbrowningoutdoors.com. About St. Croix RodHeadquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly crafting the “Finest Rods on Earth” for over 75 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with expert craftsmanship, St. Croix is the one main producer to nonetheless construct rods totally from design by means of manufacturing. The corporate stays family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing services in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With common trademarked sequence akin to Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Imperial®, Triumph® and Mojo, St. Croix is revered by all forms of anglers from world wide. The St. Croix Household of Manufacturers consists of St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, and Rod Geeks. About SEVIIN ReelsWherever and nonetheless you fish, the reel in your hand ought to assist create higher experiences. Born from St. Croix Rod’s seven a long time of design and manufacturing experience, industry-leading customer support, and unbroken personal possession by the Schluter household relationship again to 1977, SEVIIN reels are meticulously engineered and purpose-built to assist anglers conquer each species on every bit of water on the planet. SEVIIN focuses on reels and reels solely, designing and advertising and marketing merchandise that enhance the angling expertise, whatever the rods anglers select. Seven seas, seven continents, seven days per week, SEVIIN reels are fueled by a collective love of fishing surpassed solely by a ardour to ship probably the most dependable reels on the water. The St. Croix Household of Manufacturers consists of St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, and Rod Geeks.
