Elite

Best of 2025: Sansom’s best photos from Elites, Classic

B.A.S.S. photographer Chase Sansom covered the Elites and Classic in 2025. Here are a collection of his favorite photos and the stories behind them!

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Photography by
Chase Sansom
West Virginia
Welcome back to my “Best photos from on the water” from the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series season and the 2025 Bassmaster Classic. It was an incredible year on the series as I got the opportunity to cover multiple winning moments from on the water, witness some of the best bass anglers in the world go head to head and seen plenty of big fish come across the gunnel along the way. Before I take you through this collection of photos, huge shoutout to all the folks at Bassmaster and my fellow photographers who give me this opportunity to travel along with them and capture moments along the way. Appreciate you guys more than you know. Let’s dive in!
It’s always nice to knock the dust off the lens at the beginning of the season after it feels like we are gone so long through the winter. Here we are at the St. Johns River with Scott Canterbury on Day 1. Not much longer after pulling up to Scott, he boats a nice keeper on a swim jig in some lily pads.
While it’s not the biggest fish of the season, it was a great keeper for the St. John’s River at the time and it’s the first fish of the season so I felt like it should be included.
Next up is a pretty cool sequence I captured with Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Tucker Smith on Day 1 at the St. Johns River. Tucker was in the center of the river channel targeting fish on bait balls, we sat with him for awhile until he saw a flock of seagull diving into the water after bait down river a ways. He cranked up his motor ran straight to them.
Tossing his jighead minnow out in the bait, the seagulls figured they could eat his minnow as well as the bait they were eating.
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So wish I had a 400mm lens right here. Still pretty sharp for a 200mm lens pretty well cropped in but a 400mm would’ve been incredible. Albeit, turns out seagulls like jighead minnows.
Fast forward to Day 3 at the St. John’s river it brought us alongside Seth Feider who was working the smaller canals for bedding bass along with some bass that were guarding fry in it. Feider known for having a smoke on the water, lit one up while working on a bedding bass and I had to capture the Llama himself blowing some smoke.
A huge crowd showed up on Championship Sunday at the St. Johns River weigh-in where Bill Lowen grabbed victory by just 4 ounces in one of the most thrilling and tight weigh-ins of 2025. I stepped back stage during the crowning moments to capture a moment of the trophy overhead and the incredible crowd in the back. What a way to kick-off the season.
Next up was Lake Okeechobee a few hours south of the St. John’s River just 3 days later. Day 1, I found a pod of angler working inside an area with some cleaner water. As I worked my way into the area Drew Benton had trolled through this narrow canal of grass in front of me and I thought it looked incredible with the boat surrounded by grass and the vastness of Lake Okeechobee in the background. So I snapped this shot which I ended up really liking.
Not much longer I found Trey McKinney who had put on a clinic earlier that morning working some shallow fish. Flipping and pitching a jig, he finally hooked up on nice fish with the jig.
He was fired up. How could you not be after catching a quality fish on a jig?
Day 2 at Lake Okeechobee, Brandon Palaniuk stunned all of us at weigh-in when dropped 34 pounds, 10 ounces on the scales to take the lead and pretty much control of the tournament at that point. Before he dropped them on the scales we had a photoshoot with about every media member at the tournament huddled around his boat as he bagged up his fish. I am pretty sure just about everyone who owned a camera was there to capture the moment. Pretty epic.
Day 3 at Lake Okeechobee brought us alongside Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Beau Browning. Early that morning I got to capture some incredible sunrise shots with Beau and the openness of Lake Okeechobee.
Beau went to work with a Z-Man Bang Stick on Day 3 on some fish that were laying on a hard spot. I was casually shooting some casting shots when I noticed that each time Beau threw the Bang Stick the Elaztech would stretch out and create this cool looking shot. Made it appear he was throwing some crazy long worm.
Day 4 at Lake Okeechobee I decided to get up early and ride to the ramp with fellow photographer Dalton Tumblin and shoot some behind the scenes moments of his Top Lures gallery he shoots each tournament. With a dark background and a single light glowing up a bait, it made for some cool photos this one just happened to be my favorite.
Next up was the 2025 Bassmaster Celebrity Pro-Am that happens before the Bassmaster Classic. Each year a Bassmaster Elite Series angler is paired with a celebrity to fish a laid back, no stress, fun tournament before the big show starts on Friday. Well Brandon Palaniuk landed a 10 pounder at the Celebrity Pro-Am and we had to capture this beautiful fish as he bagged it up before weigh-in.
Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Emil Wagner and Lavell Crawford won the event and let me tell you all, Lavell was pumped to have won it with Emil. Hooting and hollering as he won on stage made for a pretty epic photo while they held their winning belts.
I have always wanted to shoot the Bassmaster Classic game faces gallery. For about as long as I can remember I have always looked forward to seeing James Overstreet’s work when this gallery was published and this year I got my opportunity to shoot it. Here are some of my favorites from the gallery.
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Day 1, I decided to cover Easton Fothergill fairly early in the day as he had caught a decent bag of fish in the morning and that turned out to be one of the best decisions I made all week. Typically if you cover the guy who ends up leading or is in top 5 the day before you stay with him the next day to cover him on the water. I got my opportunity to cover Easton and he didn’t disappoint.
On Day 2 I was right back with Fothergill and got to watch him go to work and take the lead going into the final day. This shot here ended up being the Bassmaster Classic magazine cover after his win, so it will always be a special one to me.
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Later on Day 2, I slid over to John Cox who wasn’t far from Easton to cover him as he was doing well in the tournament. Obviously John fishing shallow as always makes for some cool and unique photos and this was one of those moments. I got out of the boat and walked the bank as John picked away looking for fish about to pull up to spawn.
Fast forward to Day 3 of the Classic I find myself with Easton in the final minutes of the Classic. I would call this sequence “Coffin Nails” as Easton lands his 5th keeper which was an 8 pounder to seal the deal on his first Bassmaster Classic win.
This sequence was shot with about 30 minutes of fishing time left. Easton had made a run across the lake from his original fishing area and I had almost decided to head back in to start my editing process. Mainly because I know if we went across the lake with him in the insane winds we had that weekend it was going to take a while to get across the lake with the waves and comeback to the ramp in enough time to have my gallery edited.
Idling out of the cove, Easton had 4 fish and needed a 5th one to wrap it up. I told my boat driver JJ Quon to go across the lake with Easton in the 3 and 4 foot waves and let’s see if he can catch his last one. I can remember vividly looking at JJ and saying “dude, this is the Bassmaster Classic we got to go.” So across the lake we went.
We set up behind Easton as he picked apart a piece of standing timber after this fish that had pulled up there. Not much longer after working the fish, he hooked it and the rest is history.
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All the feels.
I have covered Easton multiple times throughout his college and Opens career and if you know Easton he shows very little emotion. A very cool, calm and collected individual I would say he is. This was the one moment I saw that character change and it was something special to capture, he knew with that fish he had won and all the emotions bursted out. One of those moments all of us there in that moment will never forget.
Fast forward to a few hours later we find ourselves at the final day weigh-in right before the Super Six will bring their catch to the scales one last time in the 2025 Classic. Shooting the final day weigh-in is always a treat and to be right there around the stage is an electric feeling.
Dave Mercer gets the crowd fired up and ready to go for the final festivities. With the light in his face and a backlight on Easton this made for a sweet shot.
Fothergill got the job done and the confetti fell as he hoisted his Ray Scott Bassmaster Classic Trophy, I decided to shoot from the back of the stage this time. Different angle and vantage point, made for some epic confetti pictures.
Onto the Bassmaster Elite at the Pasquotank River where Kyle Welcher laid down the law over four days to claim victory. Getting to cover this historic win was special and made for some incredible photos. Every time Welcher swung the bat it seemed to be at least a six pounder and who doesn’t love seeing six plus pounders jumping around at the side of the boat?
This fish was one of the first I shot with Welcher and after seeing what he was doing and then catching this one, I knew we were about be in for a special shoot.
It so it began, big one after big one Welcher put the tournament away and ended up winning by 45 pounds and 7 ounces making it the largest margin of victory in Bassmaster Elite Series history.
I would argue to say that I got the opportunity to cover two of the most significant wins of the season. The Bassmaster Classic and Welcher winning in a historic way. Getting that opportunity doesn’t come often so you have to relish them. I shot this photo before the Day 3 weigh-in as Welcher loaded his bag up with giant Pasquotank River bass.
These bass were bass unlike any I have ever seen. I guess because of the brackish water and the habitat they lived in they had this tough, dark and beaten look to them. Kinda like they had seen war before or maybe even dinosaur looking fish. Anyhow I just thought they looked cool so I shot a bunch of extra photos of them so the fans could see the giant fish up close and personal.
Also at the Day 3 weigh-in Mike Iaconelli gave away one of his 30th year anniversary tournament vests to some fans. The challenge to win the vest was simple. Whoever could scream “Never Give Up!” the loudest won the vest and these two kids went back and forth as loud as they could have to win the vest. Wide angle lens right in front of me made for an epic shot.
Day 4 of the Pasquotank River, Welcher idle to his starting spot. I would call Day 4 a victory lap as Welcher was up by 33 pounds and most likely didn’t even need a bass to win the tournament. I shot this photo as he idled over to his starting area to begin the final day of work.
Welcher deployed a pretty simple tactic. Find the bass spawning on the stumps with forward facing sonar and throw a Rapala Crush City Bronco Bug to them until they can’t stand it anymore. It worked flawlessly and honestly made it so easy to shoot. Right before he set the hook I could tell he would get the fish to bite, you’d see his rod fall and he’d watch his line for a few seconds and then set the hook.
Lake Hartwell was next up on the schedule and Day 1 was fireworks when Randy Howell took the lead right off the rip with an 8 pounder he caught on his first cast of the day.
A true Lake Hartwell behemoth. Had to get in the boat to see it.
That 8 pounder would pretty much carry Randy all the way to final day. I covered him on Day 3 and it was a treat to cover the 2014 Classic Champion as he returned to the Elite Series. This shot I laid my camera almost in the water as Randy motored away to his next hole as he was hunting down an active herring spawn.
Not long after Howell hooked up with a decent keeper on a topwater bait. One of my favorite photos of the year. The fish flopping the correct way, Randy looks concentrated on what he is doing and who doesn’t love some topwater action?
The final day at Lake Hartwell brought us with Luke Palmer. Double fisting Whataburger breakfast sandwiches before takeoff is always a bold move, figured I’d capture it.
Palmer went to work on the final day, while he fell short to third place watching him scope out and chase after these spotted bass was pretty darn fun. Palmer is always a treat to shoot, he is one of the few anglers that will fish and have conversation with you the entire time he is fishing. Makes for an awesome day and he is a guy that you definitely pull for when you’re covering him.
Pauls Marks would capture victory at Lake Hartwell in front of a packed out crowd, this shot I thought was pretty neat with the crowd in the background and then having the sky back there as well as he hoisted one of his winning fish.
A fist in the air, Marks sealed the deal at Lake Hartwell and won his first Bassmaster Elite Series trophy. Number one I am sure of many to come.
He would edge out roommate Tucker Smith by just 14 ounces, at the time I didn’t think much of this photo. I liked it, but I didn’t think it would have as much meaning as it would a few weeks later. Fast forward two weeks later and Tucker Smith would win at Lake Fork by 14 ounces as well over Paul Marks and these two would hug each other congratulations again. Thought that was pretty neat.
Fast forward we are on Lake Fork on Day 3. I got the opportunity to cover one of the OG’s, Greg Hackney. He stuck a flipping stick in his hand that morning and went on an assault to boat over 20 pounds and nearly missed the Top 10. Talk about some fun to cover.
He would also work his KVD 4.0 Squarebill around some standing timber and he told me to anchor down about 40 yards on the other side of the stumps so I didn’t spook the fish. He worked around the stumps in a circle casting to me at times and this made for some insane casting shots.
I remember shooting these and I knew once I got to go edit them these were going to be killer. It’s incredibly hard to shoot this and get it right, I would go to say in a tournament situation it’s pure luck to get the shot just right to capture the bait in focus. I got pretty lucky I would say.
This was one of the only times I shot the Top 10 intros all year. I don’t like to do it every time just because I feel like it’s a moment for the anglers to be recognized by Dave without a camera in their face. Albeit I was standing backstage with camera in hand at Lake Fork with good lighting so I couldn’t resist.
On the final day at Lake Fork I got to witness first hand a big bass beatdown unlike I have ever seen before. Rookie, Tucker Smith put on a clinic in front of us reeling in 5 to 8 pound fish like it was nothing for about 2 or 3 hours en route to his first Elite Series victory.
Tucker let us get about as close as we wanted to him and brought every single fish to our side. Perfect low lighting to our back, fish jumping all over the place, it made for one of the coolest shoots of the year in my opinion.
Just an insane beatdown. Epic day. 34 pounds in a few short hours is nothing but awesome.
Tucker edged out Paul Marks by 14 ounces just two weeks later after Lake Hartwell where Paul beat him also by 14 ounces.
Even more special that Tucker claimed victory at Lake Fork on Mother’s Day with his mother in attendance which is the same day his mentor Aaron Martens won his 4th Elite Series title at Lake Havasu in 2015 with his mother also in attendance. Special moment to capture for sure.
Sabine River was up next just three hours south of Lake Fork the week after. We started off the week shooting some running and gunning and got this pretty wild shot of Alex Wetherell full speed at takeoff almost with the entire prop and lower unit out of the water. Getting the transducer out of the water in frame I thought was a good way to get the week started.
Day 2 I stayed close to takeoff and shot photos with Cliff Pirch who was close by who was lighting up BassTrakk early. The tactic was simple for Pirch, flip a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog to every piece of cover and hope there is a bass on it. Sun shining just right made for a photo opportunity to highlight the bulk pack of Fighting Frogs laying on the deck.
And Pirch quickly went to work. He caught a good handful of bass one after another at the mouth of the creek he was in. Fortunately got this photo so clean I was able to duplicate it and crop in on the fish pretty tight and got an unique shot of the fish with the hook and bait in it’s mouth in good focus.
This was probably the first time I have ever just cropped in on this fish itself and I think it started something. I think every tournament from this point forward I have been able to cleanly get a shot of just the fish trying to fight away. Something different and unique I thought.
All the boat flips of the smaller fish made for some different images. Up until this point I hadn’t got to see very many boat flips.
Thought this shot was something different as well and I am actually kind of surprised I got it in focus with the water trail. I noticed about every time Cliff went to throw his Rico Popper his bait would be right over the console. So holding focus on the console and putting the shutter on high plus I started snapping until I got this shot of the bait in somewhat focus with the little water trail behind. Because the background was so green, I decided to highlight the popper in color and then turn the background black and white creating this image I thought that popped.
On the final day at the Sabine River I covered, Kyoya Fujita who worked around this small dam, flipping at fish on vertical structure. Before getting close and shooting, I took this photo from way back to get the entire dam and Kyoya in one image.
Pat Schlapper would go on to win the event. Social Media manager Laura Agee wanted to start capturing the winning moment up closer on the stage after it had been successful at Lake Fork, so every event on this season I made an effort to get up close and shoot the winning moment as it was happening.
These sort of shots make for memorable moments and I am glad we started doing it.
Up next was a trip to Cookson, Oklahoma on Lake Tenkiller where it felt like it rained 30 days and 30 nights. I have never covered a tournament yet that it rained all 4 days that we were there but this one was the one. This shot of Bryan New on Day 1 skipping a jig under marina floats is probably my favorite of the week. To get the bait in focus as it is skipping is extremely challenging and pure luck, so I am glad I got it.
Albeit, the rain sucked being in but it definitely makes for some killer images. Especially when it rains super hard you can really tell it in the images. This one of Jeff Gustafson I thought was pretty cool.
In between the rain, the sun would sometimes sneak between the clouds creating some stellar photo opportunities. While not an abundance of great lighting, when you had it, you had to take advantage. Tenkiller was fun in the sense of it was a shallow water beatdown so getting to watch Bob Downey pick and flip the flooded timber was exciting in itself.
On Day 3 we were running down the lake to find cover due to lightning strikes and barely saw Jeff Gustafson in the middle of a downpour rain fishing down the bank. I told my boat driver to slow down and I captured this moment in the middle of the hardest I have probably ever been rained on while covering an Elite Series tournament and got this shot.
Had to add this one into the gallery, I actually shot this from standing on the bank. Downey pitched his jig right to bush and set the hook no sooner than I had walked down the bank.
One of the cleanest boat flips I got all year just for the simple fact he was no more than 20 feet in front of me.
Gerald Swindle was in the Top Ten after Day 2 and was making a surge to the top on Day 3 and was close by to where I was. We swung into this marina he was picking apart with a buzzbait, popper and jig. We got out of the boat and walked down the marina docks and shot from the dock which I don’t get to do much so that was fun and made for some different images.
Wes Logan would go on to win at Lake Tenkiller by just one ounce over Andrew Loberg in a nerve racking weigh-in. The up close moment of his win was full of emotion.
Wes staring down his second Elite Series trophy.
Next up was a fun one at Lake St. Clair as I got to cover Trey McKinney all four days of the event. Jumping smallmouth after jumping smallmouth made for a thriller and my favorite smallmouth images of the year.
Not to mention Trey didn’t mind how close we got to him. Matter of fact, he waved us in a few times to get closer for some better shots.
This shot was from Day One that got some pretty good reaction online. With the shutter speed pretty high on my camera Elaztech baits seem to stretch when they are moving quickly and create this look that they are longer than what they actually are. This was an Elaztech bait McKinney was throwing and people thought he was throwing a 10″ minnow of some sort.
Low light in the morning made for some very nice silhouette shot opportunities. I shot this one way out on the metro flats where McKinney started Day 3. Vastness in the background and a golden sunrise is always a cool way to start the morning.
McKinney would work on them on Day 3, go toe to toe with wild and jumping smallmouth is nothing short of a blast to watch up close and personal.
If you know Trey, you know his faith is a huge part of his life. I caught this moment, a few minutes before takeoff on the final day at St. Clair where his Mother, Father and FXR Pro Fish Brand Director Chris Meyeraan took a minute to pray.
McKinney would go on a tear on the final day. His first fish of the morning was 6 pounder that pretty much sealed the deal as long as he caught another limit like he had been the previous 3 days.
A final day full of fist bumps. I always capture a fist bump between the angler and cameraman after any significant fish catch but this one is by far my favorite of the year. Trey and cameraman Brandon Fien are really good friends, anytime they are in the boat together it’s like two buddies out there just having fun. This fist bump was right after Trey had landed his fifth bass that put him over 20 pounds, in which he knew he probably had won the tournament.
Releasing almost four pounders is always fun on the final day. Trey had been just throwing them out the side of the boat, so on this one I told him to let it go slow and slide out of your hand. At this point in the day I had shot close to 15 or 20 fish catches with him, so I was just trying to make something new and unique. Pretty fun to sit out there on Lake St. Clair and watch a victory lap happen early in the morning.
McKinney claimed his second Elite Series title at just 20 years old. Pretty wild to have witness what he has done in such a short amount of time on the Elite Series. Definitely excited to see what he does in the future.
The last stop of the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series season brought us to LaCrosse, Wisconsin on the Mississippi River where I covered Trey McKinney Days 1 through 3 as he battled for a shot at the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title. This photo was the first fish he boated on Day 1 and got his tournament started off early in the morning with a limit in the first 45 minutes of fishing.
Not far from where McKinney started, he trolled over to a grass patch and tossed his frog up on the bank. While this looks like a huge bass blow it was actually just a pike…

Either way pretty cool shot…

McKinney went on to catch a handful of smallmouth down river from takeoff. Also fun to watch an angler catch some smallmouth up shallow in the grass of all things.
On Day 2 McKinney worked some of the wing dam walls with a topwater. This was one of those shots I got super fortunate to capture. He is throwing a topwater down the side of the wing dam, I am setup over on the otherside of the small wing dam shooting down on to the topwater. A few minutes go by and sure enough a smallmouth blows up on it and I got the whole sequence.
McKinney on Day 3 went out in 50th place needing a huge day to catch eventual AOY Champion Chris Johnston. He stopped on spot to try to land a big smallmouth right off the rip with a jig and was successful in that.
McKinney boated that 3 pound largemouth and this was initial reaction.
Later on Day 3 he went frogging after that one big largemouth bite. When frogging for big ones it seems like you have to go on the path least traveled on and that is exactly where McKinney is headed here.
Got to even capture a little bit of the froggin’ action up close as McKinney was making casts in a circle sometimes even at me. Thought these were pretty neat.
Chris Johnston would ultimately hold off McKinney for his second straight AOY title. Loved this shot with the B.A.S.S. Flags flying in the background.
On Day 4 at the Mississippi River we rolled out with Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year winner, Tucker Smith. Tucker wanted us to position behind him so we didn’t spook the smallmouth he was catching. Sitting behind him I noticed the A-Mart memorial sticker, took a shot of it and a few minutes later I took a shot of Tucker putting away one of the Shimano Metanium reels Aaron gave to him with Purple accents.
Tucker ended up fishing in some heavy vegetation during the final day in search of big bite to try to win the event. Great opportunity for some landscape shots.
The crowd was fired up for the final day weigh-in at the Mississippi River as you can see here. They showed up in a big way and so we decided to hop up on top of the tournament trailer and get a shot of the awesome crowd that come out.
Schlapper won it in front of his hometown and took the Elite Series trophy to the people in the crowd after it was handed to him. Sitting in the crowd before he took the trophy off the stage I was talking to Brandon Palaniuk. I had a 24-70mm lens on and ready to capture the moment and Brandon said “dude you should get a wide angle lens and shoot it that way.” Needless to say I ran to the trailer, swapped lenses and captured the next two shots. In my Top 10 for the year for sure.
Thanks for sliding through my “Best Of” Gallery for 2025. Hope you enjoyed and excited to do it again in 2026! Until then it is time to go fishing and enjoy the off-season a little bit!

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