Kyle Grover had three locations on Lake Mohave that held quality smallmouth during the U.S. Open.
October 27, 2023
By John Johnson Kyle Grover garnered a prize package valued at more than $150,000 for winning the recent WON Bass U.S. Open. The victory will provide financial rewards in other ways, too.
It'll aid him in his day job, which is selling boats at Anglers Marine, the massive Anaheim, Calif. dealership owned by his father, Rick.
"It'll help, for sure," the 37-year-old said. "I came right back to work after the tournament and I delivered a couple of boats on Saturday."
Grover and his AAA partners caught 56.75 pounds over three days in the shared-weight event at Lake Mohave on the Arizona/Nevada border. It was the second straight year that the most prestigious tournament in the Western U.S. was held at Mohave due to low water levels at its traditional venue, Lake Mead.
Advertisement
His margin of victory over runner-up and fellow Californian Patrick Touey was just a quarter of a pound. It was his 11th appearance in the event and his previous best finish was 6th.
"Its pretty cool; I've wanted to win that tournament my whole life," he said. "I fished my first one in 2004 when I was 18 and got my teeth kicked in. I took a few years off after that, but I haven't stopped fishing it since I started again.
"The year I finished 6th, I was 2nd going into the last day, but a wether change jacked up my deal. This was the second year it was at Mohave and the second time I've been to that lake."
Advertisement
Thirteen of the 15 fish that Grover and his partners brought to the scale in Bullhead City, Ariz. were smallmouth. One of the two largemouth was a fish that Grover had seen swim under his boat late on the final day, and his co-angler tossed a dropshot rig over the stern and caught it. That 2 1/2-pounder was good for a 3/4-pound cull and thus provided the winning margin.
"I was 15th in the tournament last year and I mostly caught largemouth," he said. "Only one of those places had a few fish on it when I checked it. I caught a big one the first day, and then that (2 1/2) on the last day."
He topped the field despite never weighing a fish that reached the 5-pound mark.
"I think I was sixth in the big-bass (standings) every day and they paid five places," he said. "I had five or six that were between 4.80 and 4.95."
He had three locations in the upper portion of the lake that gave up quality smallmouth – one deeper locale that harbored a school of bronzebacks and a couple of pockets where roaming fish were feeding on shad. He caught them on dropshots that featured either a 4.5-inch Roboworm (morning dawn) or a Berkley Flatnose Minnow (brownback).
His gear included 7'3" St. Croix Legend Elite spinning rods, Daiwa Cerate reels, 10-pound Sunline braid main line and a 6-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon leader, size 1 Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hooks and 1/4- or 3/8-ounce teardrop-shaped tungsten weights.
Pinpointing fish with forward-facing sonar was, of course, a critical component in his program.
"Lowrance ActiveTarget was the most important thing," he said. "I don't think the baits really mattered – most of them would just eat it the second they saw it."
Grover, who's won Angler of the Year titles with both WON Bass and the Western Toyota Series and topped the 2019 Toyota event at Clear Lake, said he hopes to fish at the tour level at some point. This is not the right time, though.
"For now, I'm happy doing what I do," he said. "I like having fun and being able to pay my mortgage and I've got three kids who are 7 years old or younger.
"I think sometime in the next five years I'll give it a go. I'll probably go back east and fish the (Bassmaster) Opens because to me, the only bigger tournament to win than the U.S. Open is the Classic.
"In the meantime, there's money to be won out here."
