Rapala pro Rusty Brown posted three consecutive 10-plus-pound limits to win the 31st Anniversary WON Bass Nitro Boats/Mercury U.S. Open held Sept. 9-11 on Nevada’s Lake Mead, known as one of the most difficult and humbling fisheries in the West. His final day limit of 10.81 pounds pushed his three-day total to 31.25 pounds.

Brown credits much of his success to a Rapala Skitter Walk topwater bait and a Storm Arashi Silent Square 3 crankbait. Brown worked both baits slowly and thoroughly in his best spots in Gregg Basin, where the water was stained and about 81-84 degrees. He targeted isolated sticks and brush, gravel-strewn clay banks and flats covered with submergent and emergent vegetation.

“Isolated sticks were the key with the Skitter Walk,” he says. “I threw it around those sticks that had little secondary cuts or small little sand points that went out to the main lake – any piece of structure that I figured there’d be a fish sitting by.”

The bone-color Skitter Walk matched the hatch perfectly, he says.

“It’s not really long, but it’s not really small and it has a fat body,” Brown explains. “I was trying to mimic the size of the bluegill that were swimming out of the grass and around the sticks and I was also mimicking the shad.”

Some of his Skitter Walk strikes came within four or five feet of the bank, right around the isolated sticks. Others came off deeper structure, including submerged brush or bushes.

Brown’s Hot Blue Shad-pattern Arashi was “key” around pebble-strewn clay banks near isolated wood, he says. “I could bang the lip right into the stick and get that reaction strike from those fish.”

He threw the Arashi over submergent vegetation too, ripping it free from any strands of grass the hooks grabbed.

“There were some strikes that I was getting over the tops of grass pockets that were in maybe one or two feet of water and the grass beds were sitting in eight or nine feet of water,” Brown explains. “I would take my rod tip and kind of guide it through a little track, like guys do when they frog fish. And if I got it caught in the grass, I’d just rip the grass off it and get the bait back out there again.”

Brown says he had dreamed of being a U.S. Open Champion and was humbled by the accomplishment. In 11 previous U.S. Opens, his best finish was 16th.

“I can’t believe I’m standing here with my name on the same list of the guys I’ve watched win this tournament for so many years,” he said following the tournament. “I’ve got great sponsors who have stood behind me in working at this for many years and it’s really great to be one of the guys who have won this tournament.”

A Tustin, CA, resident, Brown works as a fishing guide on several Southern California bass fisheries. Book a guide trip with him by visiting his website.