Lake Havasu City, Ariz. – Cody Steckel, an annual visitor and occasional Michiana tournament angler each summer, captured the WON Bass Pro Division Lake Havasu Open here last weekend.
Steckel, whose grandparents own a home on Driskel Lake in Jones, Mich., came out of second place on the last day. The Las Vegas resident spends a couple of weeks fishing around Michiana and dropping in on some team tournaments with his dad during summer months.
He had 50.24 pounds in the three-day event to edged out Anthony Garcia of Los Angeles who had 49.68.
Steckel earned his first major tournament win by employing a combination of dropshotting, sight fishing and a jighead minnow on the final day exclusively. “I caught most of my fish the first two days on a few different dropshot rigs and I caught some bedded fish on the lower end of the lake,” he said. “I found a bank in Windsor Bay during practice that had a lot of fry guarders on it, and I saved it for the final day.”
He thought about the stretch of bank after day two weigh-in and decided he needed to scale down his offering, so he went to the local tackle store and bought some 3/32-ounce Range Roller jigheads and threw a Natural Shad colored Evergreen Last Ace 128mm minnow bait on it. “I really felt that those fish were going to need a slower fall to trigger the strikes and it made a lot of difference for me,” he said. “I thought I could get 16 to 17 pounds out of there, but really thought I needed a little more when I left to head back to weigh-in.”
Steckel threw his offering on a 7’7” medium action Phenix Feather spinning rod matched with a Shimano Nasci reel spooled with 10-pound-test Power Pro Super Slick braided line to a 10-pound-test Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon leader.
The win is an emotional accomplishment for Steckel. “I would have never thought that my first big win would have come here,” he said. “I travel around with my dad and we do this together and this is the lake I have the most to learn on; I’m absolutely blown away by this win and to share it with my dad and friends and family around is unbelievable.”
His total Champion’s purse included the $55,000 Ranger Z518, Mercury Pro XS150 package and $5,000 cash totaling $60,000.
The 2026 WON Bass Western Opens Series of events Consisting of five events in California, Arizona and Nevada, will culminate with the 2026 WON Bass U.S. Open at Lake Mead in October.