When 2024 Bassmaster Classic champ Justin Hamner weighed in 8 pounds 6 ounces a third of the way through today’s weigh-in at the Sabine River. I had a hunch that would be the high water mark for the day, so you can imagine my surprise when Kyle Welcher and David Mullins weighed in back-to-back 11 pound catches.
Those two hadn’t even been in the conversation. Now they’re in 4th and 6th, respectively.
On a lake like Fork or Toledo Bend, the 3 pound 4 ounce gap between Welcher and leader Pat Schlapper, and the 4-6 gap between Mullins and Schlapper would be minor, virtual rounding errors. Here, though, they seem as big as the state of Texas.
At the bottom of the Top 10, it’s even closer. The difference between John Crews in 5th and Patrick Walters in 10th is exactly a pound. Again, small potatoes on a normal scale, but it just goes to show how much every fish counts this week. It’s one of the toughest tournaments in Elite Series history. A single 4-pound fish, or even a 3-pounder, may very well swing the tide of the event.
“It’s going to be a shootout, but that’s the way I like it,” Schlapper said. “I’m a pretty good shot.”
He’s battling it out with Kyoya Fujita on this river system’s watershed for the second time in a little over a year. Early last season, just upstream at Toledo Bend, Schlapper held the lead on Days Two and Three before falling to Fujita’s massive Day Four catch. Fujita has two big blue trophies and Schlapper has none. The Wisconsinite is probably not thinking about revenge as much as he just wants to lift the hardware. As he found out the hard way, leading on Day Three doesn’t count for much of anything.
Here’s what I saw, heard and thought on a day of competition that put the anglers in a vise grip:
Low Weight Record – Kevin Short’s longstanding (since 2009) record for the lowest winning weight in an Elite Series tournament seems to be in imminent danger. The record is 43-3, and leader Pat Schlapper has 29-2. In other words, he’d need over 14 pounds to amass more total weight than Short did. It’s possible – bags that big have been caught here in Elite competition – but through three days this week the largest catch has been the 12-9 that John Crews brought to the scales yesterday.
You Don’t Need Five – Two anglers made it into the Top 10 without catching a limit each day – Taku Ito (7th, 14 bass for 24-11) and Justin Hamner (8th, 14 bass for 24-7). Each
You Really Needed Five – Two anglers who missed the cut by less than a pound failed to catch a limit each day – Hunter Shryock (T10th, lost tiebreaker, with 14 for 24-1) and Bryan New (15th, 13 fish for 23-13).
Double Digits – Cooper Gallant (3rd, 27-10) remains the only angler in the field who has topped 10 pounds twice in this event.
Semi-Relevant Song Lyric – Tom Petty’s American Girl: “God, it’s so painful when something that is so close/Is still so far out of reach.” Patrick Walters, 10th, is 5-1 out of the lead. Depending on your perspective, that’s either very close or very far.
Kyle Welcher – “I think I located a couple of schools today, which kind of shocked me.” He quietly rose from 32nd to 29th to 4th, and while he’s still 3-4 out of the lead, he caught almost that much more than Pat Schlapper and Kyoya Fujita today.
International Bouillabaisse – The Top 10 features two Japanese anglers and one Canadian. Australian Carl Jocumsen, who’d been in the Top 10 the first two days, only managed three small fish today and fell to 38th. No Louisianans made the top 50. The three Texans who made it – Lee Livesay, Dakota Ebare and Ben Milliken – finished 42nd, 46th and 48th, respectively.
Patrick Walters – “I hope that 4 ounces doesn’t cost me the Top 10.” He had a dead fish on Day One and was penalized accordingly. It almost did — he snuck into the Top 10 in 10th, winning a tiebreaker over Hunter Shryock. With 4 more ounces he’d be in 9th instead of 10th. It could be even more of a difference maker tomorrow. The most significant dead fish penalty in BASS history was almost certainly when Dalton Bobo came in 2nd to Dion Hibdon in the 1997 Classic – with his penalty costing him the win and fishing immortality.
Falling Fothergill – Easton Fothergill’s finishes have gotten consistently worse since the Classic, which he won. He was 4th at the Pasquotank, 7th at Hartwell, 8th at Fork and now 14th at the Sabine. I’m guessing he’s not too upset about it, though, as all of those are more than just pretty solid. He missed the cut to Sunday by only 3 ounces.
Logan Parks (27th, 21-6) – “I got to actually cull today.”
Tri-Coastal – As Ronnie Moore pointed out today, if John Crews can come back from 5th to claim the victory, he’ll have won Elite Series events on three different tidal “oceans” – the Atlantic (St. Johns River), Pacific (California Delta) and now the Gulf (Sabine).
Family Plan – When Crews won at the Cal Delta, former Elite pro Stephen Browning led the first and second days before struggling on Day Three and then closing out the tournament in 6th. This week Crews battled Browning’s son Beau, who finished 30th. Crews only weighed in 18 pounds in that Delta tournament, but jumped from 4th to 1st on the strength of a Day Four catch that weighed 20-08. When he won at the St. Johns in 2022, he led wire-to-wire. A 28 pound catch on Day One gave him a small lead that he extended to nearly 10 pounds on Day Two.
Adjusting to the Opponent – Chris Johnston (13th, 23-15) noted that he normally would have used braid to flip the heavy cover where the Sabine’s bass were holding, but he switched to fluorocarbon, fearing that otherwise he might’ve launched them into the stratosphere on the hook set. “It doesn’t rip a hole in their mouth,” he said. “Pegs ‘em a little better.”
First Timers – Schlapper, Cooper Gallant, Mullins and Hamner are the only members of the Top 10 who have not previously won a regular season Elite Series tournament. Of course, Hamner has a Classic win. Gallant and Mullins both won Opens.
Pat Schlapper, #1 – “That’ll keep,” he said of his first bass, an estimated 1-pounder, caught around 7:30. “She’s got some sort of STD.” It doesn’t matter how they look, just what they weigh. Still, wise heads know not to kiss the Sabine’s bass.
Pat Schlapper, #5 – “Just put in ‘good one.’” That’s what he instructed his cameraman to enter into BassTrakk shortly after 1pm. He punched it in as 2-8, but it looked bigger.
Young Guns – There are no rookies and no sophomores in the Top 10. Fothergill (14th, 23-14) was the top-finishing rookie and Tyler Williams(12th, 24-0) was the top-finishing soph.
Ups and Downs — David Mullins is the only angler in the Top 10 whose weight has gone up every day. He rose from 53rd to 44th to 6th. It’s his first Top 10 since he made three in a row spanning the 2021 and 2022 seasons: at the St. Lawrence, St. Johns and the Harris Chain.
Joey Cifuentes (32nd, 21-0) – “Them mudbugs gave me mud butt.” The local etouffee was a little bit too spicy for him.
Gated Community – Carl Jocumsen spent much of the day (legally) skipping lures under a chain link fence, and the tide level affected his ability to get lures beneath it and then extract any bass that bit. “We need the Benny Hill music,” Dave Mercer said of Jocumsen’s contortions. When the Australian pro hung a fish in the fencing, Davy Hite recalled a famous catch from the St. Johns River a few years back: “Lee Livesay don’t have anything on this.”
Carl Jocumsen – “I’m eating crab for dinner tonight.” As he fished the gated waterway, crabs tortured him and chopped up his CrushCity plastics.
Alex Redwine (36th, 20-4) – “Any day on the Sabine you catch over 6 pounds I’m super-happy.” He had 7-1, 6-14 and 6-5 this week, so he’s probably smiling as he heads back to Ohio.
AOY Race – Jay Przekurat, who entered the tournament leading the Angler of the Year race, fell to 25th yesterday and maintained that position today. Of the anglers who were also in the Top 10, only Fujita, Chris Johnston (13th, 23-15) and Bill Lowen (20th, 22-11) gained points on him.
One day to go. Yes, it’ll still likely be a grind.
