2025 June - Lake Pleasant
Lake Pleasant Tournament Summary
June 2025 | Lake Pleasant - Midweek Bass Anglers of Arizona
The June tournament at Lake Pleasant proved once again that even with heat and pressure, consistent strategy and clean execution can lead to success. A variety of techniques produced results, with early topwater bites, deep finesse tactics, and a few well-timed reaction bites anchoring many of the top finishes. While fish numbers were solid across the board, the key to placing was finding one or two quality upgrades.
Weather conditions remained stable throughout the event, with warm overnight air temperatures giving way to calm, clear water in the morning. That window allowed anglers to capitalize on low-light conditions before the sun forced the fish deeper or tighter to cover. Several teams found their biggest bites within the first 30 minutes of the day, while others relied on deep structure and shade lines to deliver late-morning upgrades.
As expected in summer tournaments at Pleasant, finesse presentations dominated once the sun was high. Drop shots in 20 to 35 feet of water accounted for the majority of the fish caught. However, the teams that managed to blend reaction baits during key feeding windows or lean into overlooked structures found just enough weight to separate themselves from the rest of the field.
Top 3 Finishers
1st Place – Manny Madrid & Jeremy Griffiths – 11.73 lbs
Manny and Jeremy focused on a run-and-gun topwater strategy at first light, targeting main lake reefs and humps before the sun hit the water. They quickly built their limit in the first 30 minutes, including one cull. Their topwater bait of choice was the Teckel Kicknocker Pup, which drew aggressive bites from multiple species. After the morning flurry, they transitioned to dragging deeper structure but were unable to upgrade further. Their early efficiency and precision earned them the win.
2nd Place – Ron Pikul & John Zupet – 11.05 lbs
Ron and John committed to finesse tactics in the newly opened river section, believing the area had less pressure than the main lake. They worked deep cliff walls and shadows using drop shots rigged with watermelon flake trick worms, producing steady action and multiple culls throughout the morning. Their biggest fish, a 5.51-pounder, came from a downriver bluff. The duo stuck with their plan all day, and it paid off with a close second-place finish.
3rd Place – Steve Grier & Greg Utton – 10.94 lbs
Steve and Greg relied heavily on a deep bite, catching more than 20 fish throughout the day. After an unsuccessful topwater start, they focused on structure in 20–30 feet of water. Drop shot rigs with pink 5150 worms did all the damage, including a last-cast upgrade that sealed their third-place finish. They concentrated efforts in the mid-lake and river mouth areas and demonstrated how thorough, well-paced fishing can quietly stack up a competitive bag.
Techniques & Baits Used Across the Field
Topwater:
Teckel Kicknocker Pup – Used effectively by Madrid/Griffiths over reefs in low light
Vixen – Produced a 5.56 lb fish for Bitting/Stone upriver
Rio Rico – Triggered key bites for Goettl/Bereiter early near Agua Fria
Various walking baits – Attempted by multiple teams, but success was limited outside of early morning
Drop Shot:
Watermelon Flake Trick Worms – Key for Pikul/Zupet in the river
Pink 5150 Worms – Primary bait for Grier/Utton, responsible for the bulk of their catch
M3 and Morning Dawn Robo Worms – Used by Beaty/Beall on main lake points in 15–35 ft
Straight tail purple worms – Effective in clear water for Stone/Bitting
Custom hand-poured baits – Used with success by Bitting on a neko rig
Shad and baitfish imitators – Reported by several teams as producing a few bites, but not upgrades
Carolina Rigs:
Baby Brush Hog – Used by Mackintosh/Royal to great effect during practice and tournament day, including a 5+ lb fish
Various creatures and craws – Tried by others but less effective overall in tournament hours
Jigs & Other Techniques:
Crankbaits and jerkbaits – Mentioned by multiple teams but produced more stripers than bass
Flick Shake Worms – Jeff Stone lost a big fish on one during practice, only for his partner to land it during the tournament with the hook still inside
Neko Rig – Custom worm produced multiple fish for Bitting on the main lake
Weighted swimbaits and finesse swimbaits – Used sparingly with limited reported success
Observations and Key Takeaways
Lake Pleasant once again challenged the field with a mix of quantity and select quality. While most teams found plenty of 1.5–2.5 lb fish, unlocking a single 4+ pounder was the difference between finishing in the top five or outside the check line. Early morning bites were critical, especially for topwater tactics, but the deep bite remained consistent into the late morning hours.
The river section, newly reopened, drew several boats and delivered for those who committed to finesse in deeper water. Meanwhile, the main lake humps, ledges, and deep points continued to hold fish willing to eat drop shots, particularly in the 25–35 ft range. Brush hogs on a Carolina rig provided some of the few standout bites outside of finesse gear.
Consistent themes across the top finishes included:
• Precise execution during the early window
• Deep structure fishing with reliable colors and presentations
• Returning to productive spots later in the day for upgrades
• Sticking with confidence baits despite slow periods
Several teams reported high catch numbers (20+ fish), but the difference-makers were isolated, larger bites in specific zones.
The June tournament at Lake Pleasant highlighted how critical preparation, flexibility, and attention to seasonal patterns are during the warmer months. Congratulations again to Manny and Jeremy on their win, and to all who placed in the top five.
Pleasant Bag Weight Distribution
Next Tournament: Saguaro Lake
We’ll see you next month for another round of competition.
Angler Reports
1st Place: Manny Madrid & Jeremy Griffiths - 11.73 lbs
Manny Madrid
Griff and I were able to get out and practice for a few days before the tournament. With the river just opening, we figured that's where it would be won. We hit the river and quickly figured out that it was not the place for us to be. Just like last year, the river bite was not happening after it opened. We then focused on the history we both had in the main lake. We focused our practice throwing topwater in the morning, then dragging humps and ledges once the sun came up.
On tournament morning, we made a plan to hit as many spots throwing topwater before the sun hit the water. Our first spot was one of Griff’s, and it paid off big. Within the first 15 minutes, we had our bag even culling once. Once the sun was up, we ditched the topwater baits and started dragging humps and ledges. We caught a handful of fish but never upgrading.
Griff
First, I would like to thank the club for another great tournament. Also, I would like to thank Manuel Madrid for hosting me in the boat for the day. On tournament day, we started throwing Teckel Kick Knocker pups over a reef that we found during pre-fish. Within the first 30 minutes, we caught and culled, which would have been our final weight for the winning bag. That 30 minutes was fast and furious with multiple species eating non-stop. At one point, I had a striper which jumped out of the water and hooked me in the side connected to me as I was netting a bass for Manny. The rest of the day, we searched and caught fish in other areas but could not upgrade. We came up with a plan during pre-fish and stuck to it, and luckily, the weather wasn’t able to change that plan, so it paid off, and we were successful.
2nd Place: Ron Pikul and John Zupet - 11.05 lbs
Ron Pikul
Congrats to Manny and a first-place win! June fishing at Pleasant while Hot provided some good-quality fish. Not a lot of bites, but quality mostly at deeper depths and for us, finesse fishing .
We chose to fish in the river area usually off-limits, feeling the fish would still be less pressured than main lake points. This worked for John and me as we culled several times throughout the morning . Good time fishing with partner John Zupet.
John Zupet
"Becoming a recent member (coming up on 2 years now), I continue to learn new techniques from some super-skilled boaters, and big shout-out to Ron Pikul on putting together a strategy, technique, and color that worked all day! The winning combo: Watermelon flake 'trick' worm, drop shot 1/0 nose hook off the deep cliffs. Ron was able to land our bag within the first hour of light, and the rest of the day was upgrade; they came slowly, however, were able to improve the bag before weigh-in at 11 a.m. Tried some other colors and plastics; however, the Watermelon flake made the day. We both lost a couple of toads; however, Ron was able to land his 5.51 lb downriver. Fishing the shadows and deep waters seemed to be key strategy for the day."
3rd Place: Steve Grier and Greg Utton - 10.94 lbs
Steve Grier
Congratulations to Manny & Griff on the win, that’s a good bag! I had pre-fished some and had about 10 spots that had decent fish. Greg wasn’t able to pre-fish, so he was free to wing it with no predetermined expectations. I had some topwater success in pre-fish, but where we started on game day produced no topwater or crankbait bites. We shifted to fishing structure in 20-30 feet of water and caught fish, but nothing better than 2 pounds. About mid-morning we fished one of our better spots and we picked up two fish over 3 lbs. We left there when it slowed down and hit a few more spots, culling one fish. In the last half-hour we went back to the spot where we caught the 3lb fish and caught the 4lb fish. It turned out to be our last cast.
We caught most of our fish, about 20, on pink drop shot worms. In pre-fish I had some good luck on jigs and Carolina rigs but we only got a couple bites and no big fish in the tournament. We spent all our time in mid-lake and the mouth of the river.
Greg Utton
I’ve been away from fishing for many months due to other obligations. With the June, July, and August tournaments being short and local, I figured I could shoehorn the tournaments in with the other time requirements I have. I rejoined MBA and signed up for Lake Pleasant as a Co-angler.
I got lucky and drew Steve Greer as a partner. Besides being a great angler, Steve is a real prince of a guy. I explained why I wouldn’t be able to pre-fish and would have to leave immediately after getting his boat back to the parking lot.
Tuesday night, Steve called and told me to bring any pink worms I had. So, I grabbed a batch of 5150 pink worms.
Wednesday morning was absolutely picture perfect. We headed out to Cole’s Bay for some top-water action…… No takers.
After that, we hit humps, bumps, islands, and bluff walls. I got two two-pounders on drop shot pretty soon on drop shot with wacky-rigged “pink” worms, and we were on the board. Fishing was reasonably good all day. We estimated that we caught over 20 fish total.
Steve got our big fish with his “last cast” of the day. We were out of time, and it truly was his last cast. I was on the back of the boat and saw this huge fishing coming from the deep straight towards me. It was a sight to see in that deep, clear water!
All of our fish were caught on drop shot with pink worms. Steve’s pre-fishing paid off, and it was a really great day on the water with a really great boater!
Once again, I want to thank the board and the weigh-in crew for putting on a great tournament. It was great to see all the guys I haven’t seen in the last several months and hope to do it again in July.
4th Place: Charlie Mackintosh and Mark Royal - 10.92 lbs
Congratulations to Manny and Griff on the win!
I put in three days of practice, and each day provided some key clues. On Friday, I tried a variety of techniques and locations. The results were underwhelming, catching a 2.5 lb. fish and a couple of smaller ones all on the drop shot. But in one spot, I missed two bites before sticking a fish on the third try. I wasn’t sure if I missed the same fish twice before sticking it or if there were multiple fish there, but I left it alone as a spot to check on tournament day.
On Sunday, my friend and former team partner from the Great Lakes joined me for the day, and we got off to a slow start fishing the main lake, then going into the river. Around 9 am we returned to the main lake and got a couple of quick bites in 30’ of water. We focused the remaining two hours on similar areas and caught a total of 15 fish, with the best three around 8.5 lbs., all caught on drop shots.
On Monday, co-angler Mark Royal joined me, and we checked areas in 30’ of water. After a slow start, I stuck one over 4.5 lbs. on a drop shot. We moved to another area, and Mark stuck one just under 5 lbs. on a c-rigged baby brush hog. We finished our practice day with only 6 fish, but our best three went 11.5 lbs. Though we had a great practice day, I was wondering what our chances were to duplicate the success on tournament day.
I prepped some drop shot rods and a couple of C-rig rods, one with a baby brush hog. On tournament day, we went to an area with lots of 30’ water and worked our way around. Top water only produced stripers. Mark stuck a 1.75 lb. bass with the C-rigged baby brush hog. We moved to another area that is generally reliable for a fish or two and blanked. Next was the spot I had found on Friday, and Mark threw his C-rigged baby brush hog and immediately stuck a 3+ lb. fish. As we worked our way around the area, I sent a long cast past a drop-off with the C-rigged baby brush hog and fed slack line until I saw it hit the bottom. When I took the first pull back, I felt like it was snagged, gave it a good yank, and felt it pull back. Game on, and that fish was ready to rumble. After a good fight, Mark netted the 5+ lb. fish.
With about four hours to go, we needed at least one upgrade. We skipped around to several areas without any good fish. Mark put in the hard work, never giving up on his baby brush hog, and near the end of the day, he finally got us over a half-pound upgrade.
The four keys to our success were finding the right depth, a good area, the right bait, and clean execution. We caught 8 fish total for the day. Mark was a great partner, and I hope to fish with him again. Thank you to the weigh-in crew for a great job; the on-water weigh-in went very well.
5th Place: Jeff Stone and John Bitting - 10.81 lbs
Jeff Stone
Hey everyone! I’ve got some exciting stories to share. But first I want to give a huge shoutout to Manny Madrid for his incredible 1st place finish! And a big congrats to all the other teams that placed.
Now, here’s the fish story. On Monday, I had the pleasure of fishing with Walter Brown. We went up the river to a beautiful cove, and we started fishing right away. I threw my flick shake rig in and worked it a few times, and then BAM! I got a bite. Walter was thrilled and said could see that I had a good fish on. I fought it back and forth, and it even jumped on me! Walter said that’s a good fish, but I thought it looked like a 3-pounder. He said no, it was bigger. It swam towards the front of the boat around my trolling motor. I tried to get it free, but the line got tight and broke off. We kept fishing more in the cove and then tried other areas of the lake.
Finally, the tournament day arrived. I told John that we were going to fish up the river into the same cove. We started out, and within 10 minutes, I caught two nice 2.5-pounders. That was a great start! We worked our way back towards the back of the cove to a flat area. John yelled out, “FISH ON, GOOD BIG FISH!” I grabbed the net as he fought it, and finally, I netted the fish. It was our big fish, weighing in at 5.56 pounds! As John took his lure out of the bass’s mouth, he looked inside and saw my broken-off flick shake hook in his mouth. Can you believe that? It was a crazy moment!
We stayed in that cove for a while and caught a few more fish. Then, we went to the main lake and fished deep points. We were able to catch one fish, but the rest were all about 2 pounds.
We were drop-shotting morning down worms mostly.
I had an amazing time fishing with John Bitting, and the best part is that it was his first Midweek tournament. We even got him a couple of checks. See you all next month!
John Bitting
I drew Jeffrey Stone for my first tournament with the club. We went upriver to his first spot. We got several fish, including my 5+lb largemouth on topwater using a Vixen. Moved out to the main lake and caught several more bass on a neko rig with a bait I custom-make. Jeffrey was awesome to fish with. Hope to draw him again in the future.
6th Place: Andy Goettl and Bob Bereiter - 10.30 lbs
Andy Goettl
I met up with Bob a little late, but that was my fault. Soon found out he was an Arizona Wildcat. He took the fact that my wife, daughters, and I all were diehard Sun Devils pretty well. As soon as he brought up “Basketball, " I rolled my eyes and decided to just go fishing. Just kidding, Bob, had a great time fishing with you.
We were nearly the start boat, so I thought I would avoid the river as it looked like most of the field was heading that way. My first spot was a bust, putting two small fish in the livewell. We moved before the sun rose to a spot just at the mouth of the Agua Fria. There were stripes and whites popping off all around us. Bob caught a few trying a jerkbait but no bass. I saw some rolls that looked like small whites or large gizzard shad and threw a Rio Rico at it. That resulted in our biggest fish of the day, and our only top-water fish. I hooked up a 3+ in the same area on a dropshot a few minutes later.
By then, the sun was on the water, and the bite slowed down, so we moved to the shade on the opposite shoreline. Within a few minutes, Bob hooked up our last keeper at almost exactly 3 lbs on a dropshot.
We kept catching a few fish everywhere we stopped, but nothing that would change our weight for the rest of the day.
Congratulations to the winners. I can't tell you how many times I almost tied a walking bait on...
Oh, Bob, I have your hat, kittycat.
Bob Bereiter
I met Andy Goettl in the parking lot as the zero-dark-thirty meeting was getting started. I gathered my rods and tackle and joined Andy in his boat, and we launched into the lake that has proven to be a difficult fishery over the years…for me. Andy is reassuring and indicates that he is familiar with the lake. I learn that Andy is a diehard Sun Devil, while I am a proud Wildcat. We both have military backgrounds…although mine is several years older.
At safe light, we headed up toward the river and the several coves and inlets of the northern part of the lake. Andy had done some pre-fishing earlier in the week, and I had done some meandering around the lake, sort of scouting on Tuesday. Andy indicated we would primarily be fishing points, humps, and saddles. We arrived at an area Andy had located, sat in deep water, and cast to shallow water and noticed the start of fish busting around us. Andy hurled a topwater toward shore, and I lofted a drop shot. It did not take long before Andy had a nice fish in the boat, and I had a dink. The busting of bait was still going on, and I switched to a jerk bait and found the activity was mostly striper and white bass.
We moved to another location across the river arm and a similar development. Andy catches a nice fish on topwater…I catch a dink on drop shot. Just as we are preparing to relocate, I hook up with a fish that culls the dink. As the day and the water warm…heats up…the fishing slows down. We tried several locations on the east and west sides of the lake. While we were able to find some fish willing to bite throughout the morning, we were not able to improve our catch. We had tried several techniques; jigs, C-rig, T-rig, deep and shallow crenks. While some fish were caught, we were not able to hook and land that kicker we all seek.
Thanks to Andy for an enjoyable morning on the water. I appreciate the effort it takes to conduct a club tournament and the work done by the organization and the people who make these events happen.
7th Place: Joe Beaty and Jeff Beall - 9.67
Joe Beaty
Congratulations to the winners Manny and Griff
During prefish I caught fish in certain areas and the top 3 all produced a keeper on tournament day. Our big fish was caught early which is always a good way to start
We caught all our fish on drop-shot robo worms in 15-35 ft water on main lake points. M3 and morning dawn
Jeff Beall
Congratulations to Manny and Griff for a solid performance on a tough lake. I’m a Co-Angler, so that is the point of view this is written from. I’m excited to be part of this club. The format of random draw and midweek tournaments is perfect for me. I have learned from all the boat captains I have fished with, including Mr. Joe Beaty who was my Lake Pleasant mentor. Joe invested a lot of time in practice. He and I had the opportunity to fish the Friday before, which led to the development of his plan for tournament day. Generally speaking, the plan worked. Our first spot was the main lake, 15-30 feet deep, off a point. Joe had our first fish (and our big fish) within the first ½ hour. Using a drop shot, with a purple straight tail worm, which worked for the ultra-clear water that morning. For diversity’s sake, I threw a top water Rico to see if there were any fish up shallow, there were not. After a short while, we moved on to his second spot where there were some increased numbers, and a good fish too. By then we were already culling our smaller fish. I also found it interesting that after fishing 3-4 spots earlier that morning, we returned to those same spots and were able to catch more fish. Our 3-bag limit were all caught deep on a drop shot. I tried several other techniques with no success.