Elite

A look at Mississippi River 2025

Much to be decided as Elites close season out of La Crosse, Wis.

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
It all comes down to this, the Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at Mississippi River out of La Crosse, Wis. There’s a lot left to determine in the ninth and final event of the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.
It is the sixth Elite event on the fishery that runs along the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota and down into Iowa. The 101 anglers can fish Pools 7, 8 and 9 this week, searching for five bass measuring 14 inches or more. This stretch of the Upper Mississippi ranked 13th in the region of Bassmaster Magazine’s Best Bass Lakes for 2025.
The 101 anglers will launch at Veterans Freedom Park with takeoffs a short idle away at La Crosse Loggers baseball stadium in Copeland Park. Blastoffs are 7 a.m. CT each day with weigh-ins in the ballpark at 3 p.m. The stadium also hosts the Expo, opening Saturday and Sunday at noon. All B.A.S.S. events are free to attend.
The winner receives a career-affirming title with a $100,000 payout and blue trophy (Bryan Schmitt holds the 2022 Mississippi River Elite hardware), 104 Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points and a berth to the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic. The AOY and Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year will be crowned in La Crosse, and points will be finalized for berths to the Classic and Elite requalification.
The AOY race tightened considerably when Trey McKinney won the Lake St. Clair Elite earlier in August to make up his 10-point deficit in the standings. After an 89th-place finish in the St. Johns River opener, McKinney, 20, has posted five Top 10 finishes to tie for the points lead at 690 with last year’s AOY, Canada’s Chris Johnston, who’s not missed a cut all season. AOY comes down to a one-event showdown, but in the unlikely case of both slipping, Kyoya Fujita (650 points) or Jay Przekurat (648) could steal the title.
Johnston, the first international AOY winner, is chasing history. The 36-year-old could join elite company if he were to win consecutive AOY titles. While there are 12 anglers with more than one AOY, only Kevin VanDam, Guido Hibdon and Roland Martin have won titles in successive years.
The ROY race became closer as well. Going into St. Clair, Paul Marks led Tucker Smith by 63 points. The road roommates, who went 1-2 and 2-1 at Lake Hartwell and Lake Fork, are separated by nine points after Marks finished 63rd at St. Clair and Smith took eighth, a 54-point swing.
Smith, who was as high as fifth in AOY before his worst two events of the year – 85th at Sabine and 71st at Tenkiller – goes into La Crosse with 549 points while Marks has 558. In last year’s Open here, Marks finished 10th and Smith was 19th. With an expected tight leaderboard, the ROY could be decided by ounces.
Along with the Elite title, the winner receives a ticket to the 2026 Bassmaster Classic out of Knoxville, Tenn. Schmitt’s victory here in 2022 came with a Classic berth, and he also moved up to 40th in AOY to double qualify, adding another Elite to the Classic field.
Brandon Palaniuk, who previously won the 2017 AOY, led Brandon Lester by 37 points going into La Crosse in 2022, but he had to sweat Day 2. Palaniuk struggled and even lost the AOY lead as Lester excelled and eventually finished fourth. Two late catches, including a 1-pound, 4-ounce fish in the final half hour of Day 2, put Palaniuk inside the Top 48 cut. Palaniuk added 15-1 on Day 3 to finish 25th and total 723 points, 16 ahead of Lester, in becoming the 12th angler to win multiple AOY titles.
While the Elites will mostly be targeting largemouth in Mississippi River backwaters, smallmouth could still play and some will figure out a bite in the main river channel. Locking is considered a risk as barge traffic gets precedent from lockmasters, and anglers have been locked out in previous events.
Wisconsin pro Pat Schlapper said he believes the fish are beginning to transition into fall haunts. “I think you’ll see the main channel play. I think you’ll see backwaters play. A little bit of everything will be going on,” he said. “I think it should be a good tournament.”
“Both smallmouth and largemouth want to feed, but they’ll typically set up on different places depending on where they’re moving to,” Schlapper said. “In certain areas, you will catch a mix of fish off a spot; or one day, it’ll be smallmouth on a spot, and the next day, it’ll be largemouth … You could definitely catch both on the same type of stuff, but you’re not gonna go find a school of smallmouth way in a backwater on a patch of duckweed.”
Like the 2022 Elite here, finding clearer water will again be of importance. “Current, vegetation and clean water – those are the biggest things that dictate where fish are going to be,” Schlapper said, adding that rock walls and wing dams should be a popular target.
“Sand breaks” near deeper water also offer prime feeding spots. “Sand is always a factor down there, but it’s one of the more difficult things to figure out,” Schlapper said. “You could win on sand if you found the right deal, but unless you know where the good stuff is, it’s really hard to find.”
“Somebody might be fishing down a stretch of vegetation and the fish come up busting and they find a spot like that,” he said. “I’ve fished (the Upper Mississippi) for over 20 years and that’s one of the hardest things to find, because there’s so much of it and so much of it looks good, but the fish are not always there.”
Forecasts call for storms leading up to tournament week, and Schlapper thinks higher water will expand opportunity in vegetation. Most anglers will catch limits, but fish 3-plus pounds will be the difference-makers. “I’ve been following the weights for local tournaments pretty closely this year,” Schlapper said, “and I think if you can stay in that 16 1/2 to 16 3/4 pounds a day (range), I think you would have a chance at winning. As far as making the cut, I really think that 13 a day will do it.”
Live coverage will be available on Bassmaster.com Thursday and Friday beginning at 8 a.m. ET and running until 3 p.m. Roku will have coverage on Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and noon to 3 p.m. FS1 airs Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. before moving to Bassmaster.com from noon to 3 p.m. Championship Sunday coverage can be found on FS1 from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. with afternoon action on Bassmaster.com.

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