Elite

Big bass of Sabine River 2025

Few and far between — big bass meant much more in sixth stop of Elite Series.

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High, dirty water affected fishing in the MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite at Sabine River, crowding the 102 anglers into several highly pressured areas which made for hit-or-miss days. Bolstered by a big first day followed by three solid rounds, Wisconsin’s Pat Schlapper went wire-to-wire to win his first title, and in the process set the all-time lowest winning weight in an Elite tournament. Take a look at the bigger bass that made a difference.
In the sixth Elite visit to Sabine, anglers said conditions were the toughest they had ever seen. On Day 1, there were 69 limits with the average fish weighing a fraction over 1 pound, 8 ounces. Australian Carl Jocumsen found several of the right bites to start ninth with 9-4. Averaging 2 pounds with four fish earned him a camera on Day 3, where he pitched through a fence but only landed three to drop to 38th.
While most of the seven anglers who made it to double digits on Day 1 had at least one big bite, Arkansas’ Joey Cifuentes corralled five close to 2 pounds to start in eighth with 9-5. Averaging 1-8 knocked him down to 13th then four smalls saw him finish 32nd. Moving up seven spots in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings to 49th, “The Cowboy” still has work to get inside the projected Classic cut of 40th.
South Carolina’s Brandon Cobb had one of the bigs on Day 1, a 3-15 that helped him total 8-11 to stand 17th. Only three 1-pounders saw the two-time Elite champ fall outside the Top 50 cut to finish 63rd. Dropping five spots to 70th in points, Cobb’s  chances to qualify for a sixth Classic become more difficult.
Texas’ Ben Milliken needed a good tournament to have a shot at making his third Classic. He started with the sixth-place limit of 10-3, but the fickle nature of Sabine hit on Day 2. There were 21 ties on Day 1, and five anglers at the 50 cut with 7-0. Milliken was fortunate weights dropped on Day 2. His two fish gave him 13-0, just 4 ounces from 51st. Milliken finished 48th and moved up three spots to 81st in AOY.
Justin Hamner, the 2024 Classic champ, caught the fifth-place limit of 10-5, almost a third of his tournament total. Hamner went on to finish ninth with 31-9. His second Top 10 of the year and fourth cut has him 17th in AOY with 405 points.
With a Day 1 camera, Wisconsin’s Jay Pzrekurat entered a 3-pounder on BassTrakk and ended the day in fourth with 10-12. It gave him a 76-point lead in the AOY race, however, that dwindled when he fell to 25th while his pursuers gained ground. Przekurat heads to stop No. 7 at Lake Tenkiller with 544 points, 42 up on second place.
Off BassTrakk all day, Japan’s Takumi Ito surprised the weigh-in crowd with 11-1, a big in his right hand. After faltering on Day 2 with four for 5-6, Ito had 8-4 on Semifinal Saturday to stand seventh. In 2021, Ito was third at the Sabine.
With a 4-1, Arkansas’ Stetson Blaylock took second place with 11-5. The 2019 Elite champion on Winyah Bay, a similar fishery, couldn’t find another big bite but ended up seventh with 31-9. Blaylock, who has twice finished 100th this season, gained 20 spots to 61st in AOY.
Wisconsin’s Pat Schlapper, plying some pipelines near Beaumont, brought in the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of Day 1. His 4-5 helped him weigh the leading total of 12-2. Schlapper was shooting for his fourth Elite Top 10 and first win since the 2020 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, when he double qualified for the Elites with a top Opens finish.
The up-and-down nature of Sabine allowed several to make moves on Day 2. Arkansas rookie Beau Browning landed a 4-2 in his 9-15 limit that moved him from 42nd to sixth. Only three fish on Day 3 dropped him to 30th, which moved him up three clicks in AOY to 54th. That puts Browning fourth in the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race behind Paul Marks (435 points), Tucker Smith (418) and Easton Fothergill (403).
Matt Arey of North Carolina was in 47th after 7-0, but he had one close to 3 pounds in his Day 2 9-7 limit, which pushed him up to 16th. Arey missed on Day 3 with two for 2-15, dropping to 43rd. Now 75th in AOY, Arey is in jeopardy of ending his string of six consecutive Classics.
A big bite of 3-15 helped New Jersey’s Greg DiPalma weigh 9-8 on Day 2 and climb from 40th to 11th. Without that kicker, DiPalma most likely misses the cut. He ended 21st, improving his AOY standing 11 places to 68th.
Canada’s Chris Johnston rallied on Day 2, just as he did in several events during his AOY campaign last year. Johnston’s 10-2 limit, one of five double-digit bags in the round, catapulted him from 53rd to 10th. He finished 13th and jumped over two others to take second in AOY, 42 points behind Przekurat with three events remaining. The Elites have not had a repeat AOY winner since Kevin VanDam (2008-2011).
The 4-5 bass in KJ Queen’s right hand made his tournament. It helped the Catawba, N.C., angler weigh 11-9 and catapult from 72nd to eighth. Another small fish day of 6-1 on Semifinal Saturday left him 17th, but he gained 13 spots in AOY to 45th with a good shot at qualifying for his third Classic.
Virginia’s John Crews, who has never missed a cut at the Sabine, was 73rd after Day 1. The Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the event, a 4-14 that came in his final minutes of fishing, gave him the Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag of the event at 12-9 and put him fourth. That 5-for-1 kicker, weighing more than several Sabine limits, helped Crews post his third Top 10 at the stingy fishery. His 10th-place finish improved his chances of a 14th Classic, bumping him 15 spots to 46th in AOY.
Canada’s Cooper Gallant had one of the 10-pound limits in the first round, and he backed it up with his second on Day 2. Gallant’s best bass was this 4-7, most of his 10-3 that had him in second place with 20-5. Only 7-9 then 6-9 gave Gallant a sixth-place finish with 34-3, but he added 99 AOY points to improve 18 spots to 28th in AOY as he shoots for his fourth Classic.
Japan’s Kyoya Fujita, coming off a disappointing fourth-place finish at Lake Fork after leading on the final day, started 18th with 8-8 then moved to third on Day 2 with 11-3. At Fork, Fujita had 100-10 after three days and was on pace set the all-time record weight before faltering on Championship Sunday.   
Limits weren’t guaranteed on Sabine, and Bryan New having four fish in the second and third rounds prevented the South Carolina pro from making the Top 10. Starting 69th, New improved 39 places with four healthy fish for 8-12, then he finished 15th after Saturday’s four for 9-4, which included the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day at 4-1. After a tiebreaker decided the 10th spot, the next five anglers were separated by a single ounce.
Only 62 anglers caught limits on Day 2, with the average dipping to just above 1-7. That average held on Day 3, when 34 had limits. David Mullins, who made his first Sabine cut narrowly on Day 2, moved from 44th to sixth with 11-0, one of only two double-digit limits on Day 3. The Tennessee pro’s eighth-place finish had him rise 16 spots to 37th in AOY as he vies for his fifth Classic and first since 2023.
Saturday’s best limit came from Kyle Welcher, who won the Pasquotank Elite in April. The 2023 AOY from Alabama weighed 11-3 on Saturday, jumping to fourth from 29th. He started Championship Sunday 3-4 from the lead, but ended up fifth after 9-5 gave him 35-3. Adding 100 points had Welcher rise 20 places to 35th in the AOY standings.
Pat Schlapper, who held onto the lead after 8-7 on Day 2,  suffered through a slow morning on Day 3. Gallant and Fujita traded the lead with almost every catch before Schlapper landed this kicker at just after 1 p.m. This 3-5 bolstered his 8-9 limit, and Schlapper’s total of 29-2 put him 14 ounces ahead of Fujita heading into Championship Sunday.
On Sunday, Taku Ito was catching fish at will, He had more than a dozen catches, helping him cull to 11-7 and move up three spots to finish fourth with 36-2. Ito improved eight spots in AOY to ninth as he pursues his sixth Classic appearance.
Sandbagging Patrick Walters was catching numbers as well. A 4-9, which he entered as 2-12, helped him to the day’s best of 12-7, about 4 pounds above his sad, sad estimations. The first to weigh, he held the Yeti Hot Seat until the final two anglers. Walters won the tiebreaker to finish second, moving up six spots to sixth in AOY, 65 points from the lead.
Fujita managed 8-4 on Sunday to tie Walters at 36-8, which would have set up a fish-off. Because Walters had a bigger bag, Fujita lost the tiebreaker and had to settle for third. After starting 92nd at St. Johns, Fujita, behind three Top 10s, has climbed to third in AOY, 50 points back of Przekurat.
Pat Schlapper had a productive morning. Stopping in oxbows where south winds pushed water onto the north shore, he went on a buzzbait flurry and never lost the lead. His best of around 3 pounds helped him weigh 9-10 and win by 2-4 with 38-12. Sabine 2025 takes over as the lowest winning Elite weight, supplanting Kevin Short’s 43-3 from the Mississippi River out of Fort Madison, Iowa, in 2009.
Surprised by the arrival of family, Schlapper had an emotional blue trophy celebration with his parents. His brother passed away in the past year, mixing sorrow with the joy of his first victory in 55 Bassmaster entries. Schlapper increased his earnings to $394,182 and has hopes of a fifth Classic by improving 18 spots to 56th in points.

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