Survive and advance.
Rehydrate and reload.
Pat Schlapper, who led at the Sabine River from wire-to-wire, held daily leads of 13 ounces, 4 ounces and 14 ounces, but after letting Patrick Walters and Kyoya Fujita co-mingle in the Yeti Hot Seat for a hot minute this afternoon, he could finally exhale.
He’d won by over 2 pounds, a substantial margin during a week when “line-burner” eventually eclipsed “grind” for the most frequently uttered term.
Let the Spotted Cow flow.
Here’s what I saw, heard, thought and hallucinated as today’s 10 competitors searched for the elusive teen-class bag:
Crazy eights – Schlapper and Kyoya Fujita (third, 36-8) were the only anglers to top 8 pounds each day, although the top six all averaged at least that much.
Consistency counts – While Schlapper led wire-to-wire, Cooper Gallant (sixth, 34-3) and Stetson Blaylock (seventh, 31-9) also resided in the Top 10 every day.
Double digit bags – The number of double-digit catches decreased and then stalled as the Sabine tournament progressed, starting with seven, then five, before settling on two both yesterday and today. There’s never been a day in the history of Elite Series competition on the Sabine without a bag of 10 pounds or more. Taku Ito (fourth, 36-2) was the only angler to hit that mark twice in 2025. In fact, he topped 11 pounds twice, with 11-1 on Day 1 and 11-7 today.
Best ball format – Take the biggest bag of each of the four days – 12-2, 12-9, 11-03 and 12-7, and you get a total of 48-5. That would tie the third biggest winning weight in Sabine River Elite Series tournaments, behind Chris Lane’s 50-0 (2015) and Todd Faircloth’s 49-6 (2013). No angler had the biggest daily catch more than once this week.
Heaviest and lightest – Two anglers had their heaviest bag of the week today, Patrick Walters (second, 36-8, by nearly 3 pounds) and Taku Ito. John Crews (10th, 30-6), Cooper Gallant and Kyoya Fujita all had their worst day of the week. David Mullins (eighth, 31-9) tied for his lowest weight – he had 6-13 on both Day 1 and Day 4.
Sandbaggers’ delight – Walters had the big bag today – just 2 ounces short of the tournament’s largest – as well as the daily big bass, a 4-9 Sabine g-g-g-giant. He entered it into BassTrakk as a 2-12. His reputation for underselling his fish is well-deserved, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
Personal best – Schlapper was the only member of the Top 10 who earned his career-best regular season Elite Series finish this week.
Breaking down the bite – A decade or more ago, Schlapper’s first fish, an otherwise ordinary (for anyplace but the Sabine) 2-pounder, would’ve gone unnoticed. It would’ve just been one more fish in his tournament-clinching bag. Today, though, the power of Bassmaster LIVE helped the novice or weekend angler understand exactly why it happened. “Between the uprights,” Tommy Sanders said of the cast and retrieve, which went between two narrowly-spaced sticks. Davy Hite stressed that most of Schlapper’s bites were coming off of isolated cover. Finally, Schlapper himself pointed out everyone else “missed the bite” because they were fishing too slow. Combined, they stressed where to cast, the importance of precise casting and the value of speed adjustments – not groundbreaking but a great reminder.
Frequent guest on the podium – Fujita had the same total weight as Walters, but lost the tiebreaker for second place. Nevertheless, with this third -lace finish, Kyoya Fujita notched his eighth top three finish in 38 Bassmaster events. Making it even more impressive in some regards, he’s batting .333 in Elite events (eight for 24). In six tournaments in Texas or Texas/Louisiana waters, he’s never finished worse than 19th. He has three finishes in the top four this year through six regular season events.
Self-awareness – “Taku awesome,” said Taku Ito after catching an estimated 2-8 largemouth shortly after 11 a.m. on a ChatterBait. Only Taku could go full Rickey Henderson third person and not have it sound braggadocious.
Justin Hamner (ninth, 31-9) – “Maybe everybody talking about that LiveScope can hush a little bit.”
KPink Revisited – Schlapper destroyed Kevin Short’s record for the lowest winning weight in an Elite Series event of 43-3, “beating” it by 4-7. Still, Short can take some solace in the fact that he was the king of low weight wins. He won a 2003 Open on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway with 39-4. Eight years later he won a Central Open on Table Rock with a mere 33-8, made all the more impressive by the fact that his margin of victory was 7-2. He stepped out of character in 2010 when he won an Elite event on Pickwick with 75-1 for four days.
Justin Hamner – “I think I gained 17 pounds, just short of my overall weight.” He declared Orange’s gastronomy to be exceptional, but the locale’s fishing to be subpar. For the record, he had 31-9 over 4 days.
Agony of defeat, joy of victory – Around 10:45, David Mullins hooked what appeared to be a 2-pound plus bass and as he went to boat flip it, it came off. He let out a guttural yell and threw down his rod. Then he recaptured his calm: “I can’t complain,” he said. “That’s the first one I’ve lost this week.” Keeping his cool paid off – on his next cast he landed a keeper on his Yamamoto Sensei worm.
Patrick Walters, on the possibility of a fish-off – “I like my chances, but it is Kyoya. That is terrifying.”
Points ups and downs – It’s hard to gain or lose many positions once you’ve entered Sunday in the Top 10. Nevertheless, all veterans know that at the end of the season each point can be exceptionally valuable. Today’s top riser, by a large margin, was Patrick Walters, who went from 10th to second. The next biggest gainer was Taku Ito, who rose from seventh to fourth. Today’s biggest fall was experienced by John Crews, who dropped from fifth to 10th. Cooper Gallant fell from third to sixth.
The Japanese Marv Albert – Whenever Fujita hooked or landed a decent fish, one word went on repeat: “Yes!” He’s come a long way in his ability to speak and understand English, but that’s pure emotion.
Cooper Gallant – “In my opinion, these tournaments are 80% mental.”
Pat Schlapper on Brazalo Buzzbaits – “They’re not a sponsor of mine, but after this maybe they will be.”
Today’s collectible – Texas Taku Special Edition sticker, complete with cowboy hat. Lisa Talmadge got three, while Mercer only received one. Mr. Ito seems to know where his bread is buttered.
Dave Mercer describing this week’s dominant lures – “Have we somehow teleported back to 1998, Davy Hite?” As I noted on Thursday, there was even a Snagless Sally sighting, a lure whose heyday far predates 1998.
Speaking of the 90s – Today Davy Hite turned 60, which made those of us who can vividly remember his 1999 Bassmaster Classic win feel old. Hite had just turned 34 a few months earlier. That’s the same age as Justin Hamner, two years older than Kyle Welcher and four years older than Patrick Walters. Six members of today’s Top 10 – Schlapper, Taku Ito, David Mullins, Stetson Blaylock and John Crews, are older than 34, with Crews the oldest of the bunch. He will turn 47 next month.
Pat Schlapper – “I love the Sabine River.”
