Brownlee Reservoir hosts first pro bass fishing event, Jason Hickey featured

Brownlee Reservoir is hosting its first professional bass fishing tournament, and Jason Hickey is the local angler getting the spotlight as 70 to 75 competitors chase a $50,000 prize. The BAM Tournament Trail’s Brownlee Super 60 opened June 26 and runs through June 28, with headquarters in Huntington and daily public weigh-ins scheduled downtown.

For Hickey, the event carries a personal edge. He has waited nearly three decades for a chance to outsmart bass on Brownlee, a reservoir that has long been part of Baker County’s outdoor life but not a stop on the pro bass circuit. Local business owner Travis Young said it is the first professional bass fishing event he is aware of on Brownlee Reservoir, a milestone that gives Huntington and the reservoir a new kind of attention.

The tournament is the second of five events in the Super 60 series, and the launch site is Farewell Bend State Park. Live coverage is planned on BAM Tournament Trail channels, including bamtrail.com and Facebook, with later television coverage on Outdoor Action TV. Several local residents are also serving as observers aboard boats, adding another layer of hometown involvement to a field drawn from across the West.

Brownlee itself gives the event a strong fishery backdrop. Idaho Fish and Game describes it as a 13,000-acre water body stretching more than fifty miles, with access points at Farewell Bend and Spring Ramp in Oregon and Steck Park and Woodhead Park in Idaho. The reservoir supports largemouth and smallmouth bass, white crappie, catfish, yellow perch, and bluegill, pumpkinseed and other sunfish, species that give anglers multiple ways to catch fish across shallow, suspended and topwater patterns. Tournament pro Joey Walton said Brownlee could produce 15 to 18 keepers a day, with some anglers possibly landing 40 to 45.

Brownlee’s competitive fishing history goes back well beyond this weekend. A reservoir history source says it was once regarded as one of the best warm-water fisheries in the western United States, and Oregon’s state-record smallmouth bass was caught at Hewitt Park in 1978. A 1988-89 creel census found Brownlee produced more fisherman hours than any inland body of water in Oregon or Idaho except the ocean.

Brownlee Dam created the reservoir as part of Idaho Power Company’s Hells Canyon Project on the Snake River along the Oregon-Idaho border, and this weekend’s tournament adds a new line to that record. If the turnout holds, Brownlee’s reputation could shift from a regional recreation stop to a recurring destination on the western bass trail.