Cody Meyer was known as an FLW Tour pro for years and a Major League Fishing pro for the past five seasons. After qualifying through the Bassmaster Opens, he's now officially a Bassmaster Elite Series pro.
The Idaho pro via California is a well-known angler known for his consistency and finesse skills. He needed all of that to qualify for the Elite Series, and now he's back home on the West Coast and will spend a good bit of his downtime bass fishing in Idaho and California to stay sharp. Here's a little more about his year and where he plans to fish this off-season before the tournaments start again in 2025.
Wintertime Spotted Bass
Meyer is a noted spotted bass guru. He even briefly held the world record, and spots are still his favorite species to target. Catching them was critical in the last Bassmaster Open on Alabama's Lake Martin, where he punched his ticket to the Elites.
"Lake Martin was a stressful one because I knew I needed a good finish to catch them, and I caught most of my fish with a bait that always does well for me back home," he said. "I was throwing a Yamamoto Fat Ika and caught most of my fish on it. It's something that's always been good for me back home in cold water for spotted bass, and even though it wasn't cold there on Martin, they bit it like they've never seen one."
He was primarily fishing shallow at Lake Martin, but he shared that it's a killer bait for deeper spotted bass on Oroville and Shasta.
"It's a great bait for rocks because it doesn't snag, and you can creep it over those rock piles," he said. "It's a dense and heavy bait, and the smaller size of the Yamatanuki is the same thing. It's something they don't see down deep, and I fish it almost like a big jig, but it doesn't hang up."
Both baits are dense enough that no additional weight is needed, and Meyer will fish both on heavier lines than you might think. "I like to drag those snaggy rock piles for spotted bass, but it also works really well for big largemouth on Clear Lake or Berryessa," he said. "I'd recommend anywhere between 14- to 20 lb fluorocarbon; I use 16 lb a lot. I throw it out there, let it hit the bottom, and sort of drag it along, and if it hits a rock, you can kind of pop it over."
Scoping Time
Like many anglers, Meyer plans to work on his forward-facing sonar skills in the next few months. He's good at it but knows he will need to step it up a notch to continue to compete in these modern times.
"I'm not as good as some of these young kids that do it all the time, so I feel like I need to work on it this winter," he said. "I'll be fishing some tournaments this winter on Shasta and Oroville, and it's the perfect place to practice because of how the fish are set up and because spotted bass are a little easier to catch with it."
Meyer's go-to bait for this style of fishing is the Yamamoto Scope Shad. "That's the one I use the most, and I love all of the new stealth colors they added because they are very natural looking," he said. "I've also started playing around with the new Shad Shape Swimmer and like the action. One more that's forgotten about is the Shad Shape Worm; it's a great drop-shot bait, of course, but it has the perfect size and profile like a shad. That's still a pretty good one for me on a jighead."
Baits to Make the Elites
Now that the Bassmaster Opens season is in the rearview, Meyer can breathe a sigh of relief. It was risky for him to leave one top-level tour and try to qualify for another one, but he made it happen. He kept it simple all year, and a handful of techniques caught fish for him everywhere he went.
"The five-inch Yamamoto Senko was key for me all year," he said. "I caught them with it on a Texas-Rig, weightless, wacky-rig, and Neko-rig. Of all the colors, 330, green pumpkin with purple and copper is my go-to, about the only color I order now."
The second standout was a Z-Man Ever Green Jack Hammer ChatterBait with a Yamamoto Zako on the back. "That worked for me everywhere, and a straight green pumpkin on both baits was the deal," he said. "One cool memory from the year was on Minnesota on Leach Lake when I caught almost 25 pounds of smallmouth with the Jack Hammer the second day. Everyone was pressuring the fish out deeper, and I went up to the shallow boulders and caught that big bag."
Cody Meyer is Elite Series bound with a second-place finish in the Bassmaster Opens. Now that he's done it, he can start to plan and think of next year's schedule, but not before some off-season fun fishing.
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