Did you hear? There was a lot of boat traffic on Lake St. Clair today.
I’d guess conservatively that 49 of the 50 anglers who weighed in on Day 3 of the 2025 Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair mentioned the big party on the lake. Apparently, whatever debauchery and chaos ensued just riled up the fish, because our field crushed ‘em again today.
As I wrote on Thursday, when Kim Stricker won here back in 1994, he averaged about 15 ½ pounds a day. Today, none of the 50 weighed in less than 16 pounds and only seven weighed in less than 18. With these kinds of catches, I’d be ok with them fishing in a washing machine or at the Flemish Cap. We’ll keep Lieutenant Dan on standby.
If that happens, we may need to tie rocks to Trey McKinney’s feet to keep him from blowing away, but he likely won’t be deterred. The kid produced the biggest bag of the day and extended his 4 ounce lead to over 4 pounds. In the dog years of St. Clair weights, that’s a lot, but it’s not like it can’t be overcome.
Here’s what I saw, heard and thought today, and what I’m thinking as we turn our attention to Championship Sunday:
Finish What You Start – We’re quickly running out of “firsts” and “youngests” for Trey McKinney, but if he holds on to win tomorrow, this will be his first wire-to-wire Elite victory. When he won at Fork last year, he was in 4th place after Day 1, over 5 pounds back, before claiming the lead on Day Two and never relinquishing it. He won at Fork by 5-6. Right now he’s ahead by just a little bit less than that – 4-10.
Savoring the Top Tens – This is the first Elite Series top ten for both Cole Sands (9th, 63-14) and Evan Kung (6th, 64-3). It is Paul Mueller’s (7th, 64-1) first one since Santee Cooper in 2023. Logan Parks has room to spare and still beat his prior personal best Elite finish – 8th at Wheeler last year. This is the first Elite top ten this year for Logan Parks (2nd, 67-10), Matt Robertson (5th, 64-5) and Alex Redwine (8th, 63-15).
King of Canada – In addition to this being Kung’s first Elite top ten, he also notched another not-insignificant achievement by being the top ranking Canadian in the event. All five of the Canadian Elites made the cut to Saturday, and they averaged a 30th place finish.
Cut Weight – Brandon Palaniuk, in 10th, has amassed 63-13 over 3 days, an average of just over 21-4. The five anglers immediately ahead of him averaged no more than 21-7.
Drew Cook (29th, 60-5) — “Twenty pounds a day gets you just a pat on the back.” He was one offive anglers who had 20 pounds or more each day and did not make the top 10. The others were KJ Queen (13th, 63-0), Jordan Lee (16th, 62-11), Jamie Hartman (19th, 62-2) and Patrick Walters (21st, 61-15). Indeed, 19 anglers who averaged 20 pounds a day didn’t make it.
21 is the New 20 – While 20-pound bags have seemingly been as common as midsummer mayflies, stringing together 21-pound bags has been a little bit tougher. Of course McKinney, who has yet to weigh in less than 23-10, has done it easily. The only other anglers in the field who have done it are Kyoya Fujita (3rd, 67-0) and Evan Kung. Both Logan Parks and Tucker Smith (4th, 66-14) have weighed in a bag under 20 – although they balanced it out by each weighing one of the two biggest limits of the tournament so far to plow into Sunday’s final day of competition.
All Ups, All Downs – Brandon Palaniuk (10th, 63-13) is the only angler in the top ten whose weight has gone up every day. Paul Mueller (7th, 64-1) is the only one whose weight has gone down every day.
Weighted and Wacky — For all of the pre-tournament talk of dice and dropshots, there were a lot of mentions of Neko Rigs and Ned Rigs onstage today.
Fun to Say – Muscamoot Bay
Past Awardees – Our top ten features no Bassmaster Classic champions. Easton Fothergill, who saw his weights go down each day, finished 14th, and was the top ranked among the cohort of champs. Brandon Palaniuk is the only past AOY in the top 10.
Missed it By That Much – We’ve heard since before the tournament that ounces would make a huge difference this week – indeed, four anglers missed the cut by less than a pound. Chris Johnston missed it by 2 ounces, which has to be frustrating because he would’ve loved a chance to improve in the AOY race. He was in 24th place in the tournament heading into today and rose up 13 places to 11th. He entered the day 13 points behind McKinney, who had no room to go up. You do the math.
KJ Queen (13th, 63-0) Tackle Innovation – Invisible jigheads.
Paul Mueller — “If I don’t make the cut today I’m going to blame it on the musky.” He made it and sits in 7th, a mere 4 ounces ahead of 10th place angler Brandon Palaniuk and 6 ounces ahead of the first man out.
Zona Recommends a Wingman – “Find that dude a girlfriend,” he told the rest of the field about Trey McKinney. Absent a distraction, he’s got 50-something years of runway to dominate the sport. Note: Tyler Williams got a girlfriend and still made the 50 cut. His weights went up every day this week.
Gerald Swindle (25th, 60-15) asks the Question We All Want to Know About the Raft Off –“Where’re they pooping all night?” Notably, he worked a Dude Wipes reference into it. Bass anglers gonna promote, no matter what.
Brandon Palaniuk Apparently Learned from Swindle — “I guess I got a new lucky set of tires on my truck,” he said onstage, touting new sponsor and tournament benefactor Yokohama.
Dakota Ebare (26th, 60-11) — “I think I’m going to need a therapist after all of the rejection I got.” Pros talked constantly onstage about fish seeing their lures, swimming up to them, and then turning away without chewing. Generally the batting averages were poor, like your overweight, middle-aged buddies hitting on a supermodel at a bar. Jason Christie (43rd, 58-7) told traveling partner Jeff Gustafson (50th, 55-14) he had a lure that would “catch every one that looked at it,” but had to eat crow today when that did not turn out to be the case. It wasn’t all bad, though, Ebare notched his third straight Elite check after missing the cut in the first five. Christie bounced back after disastrous events at the Sabine and his home waters of Lake Tenkiller to earn his fourth check of the year.
Palaniuk’s Charge – Palaniuk needed this top ten, his first since he won at Okeechobee in the season’s second event of the year. In between, he’s fished five Elite events, missed the cut in four of them, including a dismal 100th place finish at the Sabine River. That had him in 49th in AOY entering today. He’s good at blocking out distractions, but I’m sure he couldn’t help but recall last year, when he had a tenuous grip on a Classic spot heading into the two last northern events and finished 89th and 95th, to end up 48th in the AOY race. He thus missed the Classic for the first time in any year in which he’d been eligible. Obviously, he’s remembered whatever he forgot last year about catching northern brown bass. At day’s end, he’d moved up to 45th in the AOY race, at or just below the projected cut line.
JT Thompkins (24th, 61-2) – “I don’t think there’s a 10 mile stretch anywhere in the country that has more smallmouth than Anchor Bay does.”
Not Seen at Today’s Weigh-In or the Raft Off – Amon-Ra St. Brown, Bill Laimbeer, Cecil Fielder or Stone Cold Robertson.
