Many baseball statheads claim that there’s no such thing as a clutch hitter. They believe that batting averages revert toward the mean over time, and that fans’ memories tend to give disproportionate weight to dramatic hits.
I don’t know if Bill James or any of his Sabermetric crew follow fishing, but as far as I’m concerned, clutch is a real thing on the water. It may be some sort of weird perception bias, but I saw evidence of it on Day 2 of the 2025 Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at Mississippi River.
After the AOY race tightened up yesterday, all four remaining contenders for the title pulled out a few tricks and moved up in the standings.
Jay Przekurat, the former leader who’d reclaimed his post as top dog yesterday, rose from 10th to 4th.
Kyoya Fujita was in 23rd last night, but he too rose six places.
Chris Johnston, who’d slipped to the two-spot, rose from 55th to 22nd and now has a 24 point lead. He threatens to become a back-to-back winner of the sport’s most difficult honor.
And Trey McKinney, who looked a bit lost onstage and admitted that he’d let his nerves get the better of him during practice, did the bare minimum he needed to stay alive. He added 14 pounds, 1 ounce to his Day 1 catch of 12-15 and snuck into the cut by virtue of a tiebreaker. Five anglers missed the cut while finishing within a pound of him.
Meanwhile, if you’d added another pound to last year’s Rookie of the Year’s catch, he would’ve risen 18 spots. That’s how close it is. There may be some separation at the top now, but it may ultimately prove to be illusory as the scoreboard gets upended again. None of these four is going to go down without a fight.
Meanwhile, though, as the AOY race rages on, we have a compelling tournament that’s still anyone’s game. Here’s what I saw and heard on Day 2:
Cut Weight Predictability – Yesterday four anglers tied with 13 pounds 7 ounces to sit just on the right side of the cut line. Today’s cut weight was 27 pounds, with both McKinney and Greg DiPalma weighing that amount and only one of them (McKinney) sneaking through to Saturday. As you math nerds may have noticed, two times 13-7 is 26-14, just two ounces shy of 27 pounds. Once again, La Crosse is consistent.
Teeners – Yesterday there were 57 teen-class bags ranging from 13-01 up to 18-15. Today Lee Livesay upset the apple cart with 21-11 and all of Day 2’s Top 10 had at least 13-11 today. Indeed, Livesay is the only angler in the top 12 who did not have teen bags both days. In fact, since he topped 20 today, he didn’t truly have a teen bag either day.
Tough Day — Who Said “There’s no crying in fishing?” Today, there was more of it than I’ve ever seen in a single tournament, as anglers saw their seasons, their Elite tenures and possibly their pro bassing careers come to an end. Honestly, at one point, there were so many departures and bubble boys in a row that I wondered who was staying.
Lee Livesay’s Tears of Joy – “I’m a crier. I’ll cry real quick,” he said after dropping 21-11 on the scales to jump up from 85th to 7th. But it’s the war, not the battle, that he was concerned about. He’d fallen to 48th in the AOY race after yesterday’s disappointment but now finds himself back inside the Classic cut.
Cheeseheads Help Me Out – Right now Wisconsin pros Caleb Kuphall (1st, 36-02) and Pat Schlapper (3rd, 33-12) are both in great position to earn a second Elite Series blue trophy, sitting in 1st and 3rd, respectively, 2 pounds, 6 ounces apart (with Marylander Bryan Schmitt in between them). What happens if they end up duking it out for the win? With many other locales, I could make an in-state rivalry comparison: “Texas vs. Texas A&M” or “Virginia vs. Virginia Tech” or “USC vs. UCLA” or “Yankees vs. Mets,” and so on. What’s the proper distinction in Wisconsin? Is there some in-state school that is considered the Badgers’ rival? Does it come down to what kind of swim jig you prefer or Spotted Cow vs. Milwaukee’s Best? Please reach out to let me know before tomorrow’s weigh-in, as I may need that info to write a fully-informed column. And if there’s a 3rd rival, let me know that, too, because Jay Przekurat, in 4th, is just 17 ounces behind Schlapper. It could be one-two-three for the home team.
Brandon Palaniuk (44th, 27-4) – “Every time we come to La Crosse, it’s always drama for me.” He added 14 pounds to his Day 1 catch of 13-4 and rose from 53rd to 44th in the tournament, almost certainly putting him into the 2026 Classic. Cut ice cream and a Classic berth sounds really good, but he’s in 43rd in AOY, so he’ll have to sweat out the second part.
Tyler Rivet (12th, 31-4) – “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind staying here another couple of weeks.” He might get his wish, as his truck keys are sitting at the bottom of the Mississippi River and he’s been bumming tow vehicles to get around. The strong case against remaining is that he’s due to be married in Louisiana in two weeks.
Big Leaps – Chris Zaldain said that he “wasn’t ready to give my sponsor speech,” and indeed his day’s catch of 18-9 more than doubled what he caught yesterday. As a result, he jumped from 97th to 47th. John Cox added 18-3 to his Day 1 catch of 11-08 and jumped from 77th to 21st.
Jeff Gustafson (86th, 21-7) – “There’s no pouting over here.” Unless he decides to jump in the EQs, his string of consecutive Bassmaster Classic appearances will end at six. While no one will admit it, given his record in Knoxville, several anglers probably breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Brandon Lester (27th, 28-13) – “Knoxville is my goal. Classic in my home state? Sign me up.”
Big Bags – Kuphall and Schmitt are the only anglers who’ve weighed in over 17 pounds each day. Six others have weighed in at least 15 pounds each day. Paul Mueller, in 14th, is the lowest ranked of that group.
Day 1 Top 10 – Six of Day 1’s Top 10 anglers remained in the Top 10 today. All ten will fish again tomorrow — Greg Hackney fell the most, from 8th to 25th.
Carl Jocumsen (91st, 20-8) provides hope for the weary – “I got relegated and guess what? It was the best thing that ever happened.”
Matty Wong (98th, 18-2) – “Ultimately if you have heart and you have the dream to do it, anything’s possible.”
Just Because – KJ Queen’s van.
Taku Ito (61st, 25-5) on his son – “He’s a very, very good Livescoper now. Better than Taku.” He’s only 10 years old, so it’ll take at least a few years until he grabs some unsuspecting pro’s spot on the tour.
Ups and Downs – The Top 5 anglers in the tournament all had less weight today than they did yesterday. Nevertheless, Caleb Kuphall held serve in first, and Pat Schlapper, Bryan Schmitt and Jay Przekurat all rose in the standings with those smaller bags. KJ Queen is the only member of today’s Top 5 who fell between Day 1 and Day 2.
Cliff Pace (46th, 27-2) – “It’s been really good to be back at BASS this year.”
Limiting Out – Chris Zaldain was the only angler in the top 50 who did not catch a limit both days. After that, you need to go down to Shane LeHew in 77th place to find another pro who failed to bring in five each day.
Zaldain’s Tough Year – Zaldain earned checks in four of the first eight Elite events this year, but he’s struggled to earn top finishes. His best result was 39th at Tenkiller, and in three other money performances, he’s ended up 47th, 49th and 50th. Heading into Day 3, he’s in 47th again.
Drew Cook (55th, 26-4) – “Next year starts tomorrow.”
Not Seen at Today’s Weigh-In – Ron Dayne, Robin Yount or Jim Thorpe, the multi-sport superstar who some claim was the most dominant lacrosse player in American history.
Cue up the polka music, back atcha tomorrow.
