Elite

Best aerials of 2023 Elite season

Bassmaster drone pilot Craig Lamb chooses his favorite aerials of the Elite Season and shares backstories.

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Photography by
Craig Lamb
Captions by
Craig Lamb
This is more than a beautiful sunrise over the Tennessee River. Showing you the habitat in play from the air is the goal of my aerial galleries. You get a unique perspective contrasting with on-the-water galleries shot by our pro photographers. In this gallery, I chose my favorites of the 2023 Bassmaster Elite Series, including backstories of why I took them. 
The first morning of the new season is always exciting, as it was on Feb. 16, 2023, at C. Scott Driver Park, in Okeechobee, Fla. I flew the drone in position to get the sun coming up over Lake Okeechobee from the east, casting its beauty on all the boats lined up and ready to take off. 
This image from Moonshine Bay is planetary, like watery versions of the planet Mars.
The boat trails and how the vegetation transitions into the main lake are magical. 
It’s easy to get disoriented without a GPS, or without the intricate knowledge of navigating this watery landscape of trails. 
The next week we went back in time to Lake Seminole, where the 1968 Seminole Lunker — the third official Bassmaster tournament — was hosted at Wingate’s Lunker Lodge. Jack Wingate, the proprietor, was instrumental in sharing his contacts with Ray Scott to fill those early tournaments. 
According to trustworthy sources, a young Roland Martin won the 1970 Seminole Lunker on this very spot. It was his first of 19 B.A.S.S. wins. 
As we idled through Jack’s Cut (named after Wingate) I spotted this alligator sunning in the morning warmth. 
I approached on a slow descent from behind to avoid spooking him. This image was taken 5 feet above the water level. 
More of our host communities are building venues specifically for attracting large-scale tournaments. Here’s a great example at Earl May Boat Basin Park in Bainbridge, Ga. 
It was an ideal location for a takeoff gallery. 
There’s even a pedestrian bridge over the passage into the river from the ramp area. 
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What I like about this image is the perspective you get of the venue with the boats headed south on the Flint River into the lake. 
This is one of my favorites of the season. I took this photo at 7:40 a.m. on the official start of the 2023 Bassmaster Classic. The sunrise over the Tennessee River was a bonus; my main reason for being here was to meet Jeff Gustafson at the location where he won an Elite event. 
Sure enough, about 40 minutes after leaving Volunteer Landing in downtown Knoxville, where I graduated from the University of Tennessee, the boats began arriving. 
Gussy wasn’t in this initial group but wasn’t far behind. 
That’s the U.S. Hwy. 321 bridge near Tellico Lake. During the Elite event won by Gussy, a large gallery of spectators gathered on the walkway spanning the shoreline. The fans were just beginning to arrive when I took this photo. 
Gussy eventually arrived and began catching keepers. This gallery, by the way, is best viewed on a desktop computer. Doing so allows you to see Gussy landing this keeper, one of many that would earn him the Classic trophy. 
Another great shot of Gussy, a great friend and respected angler. 
I really like the filter effect of the early morning sunlight through the trees, and how the lens captured the clouds reflected against the water’s surface. Calm water helped, and the early spring trees blooming around the lake added a nice backdrop. That’s Brandon Lester on Semifinal Saturday of the Classic. 
Taking this image of John Cox made me chuckle, doing what he loves to do, which is fish in shallow water. The trail of water behind his boat is classic John Cox. 
Cox stopped to fish this gnarly mix of manmade cover that in the textbooks could be a classic transition area or pinch point leading to spawning areas. 
Cox brought with him this floating gallery of B.A.S.S. high school tournament anglers from East Tennessee-area schools. 
The winds were calm so I could get this higher altitude view of the Great Smoky Mountain foothills in the far background, then Pellissippi Parkway and the river, where Bryan Schmitt fished for prespawn staging largemouth near a creek mouth. 
Around the bend was more splendid springtime beauty of the East Tennessee hills in early March. 
Scott Canterbury worked this shoreline with blooming Eastern Redbud trees, a sure sign of spring in my home state. 
I looked forward to our return to Lake Murray, a deep, clear-water highland lake in South Carolina. Flying conditions were epic: clear water, sunny skies and calm winds give you a great view of habitat. 
This angler stopped to fish a classic textbook point extending off an island, where baitfish spawned during the tournament held in mid-April.
The anglers are forbidden from viewing our website during the competition, but I was thinking how much this guy would like to see the textbook area he was fishing. 
From the water level you can’t see any of the details of this submerged island. Tyler Rivet saw them, I am sure, with his forward-facing sonar. 
Here’s another exceptional view of some textbook prespawn staging areas used by the bass and the baitfish to spawn around. 
Funny thing was after the tournament — when they could view the photos — Kyle Welcher told me that was him fishing this area. 
Welcher also said around the marker pole in the upper left of the photo were several bass beds from which he targeted fish. 
This is a telling shot about why the flying conditions were so perfect for a habitat gallery. 
The calm winds and bright sunshine showed habitat otherwise invisible in choppy water and cloudy skies. 
We stayed in South Carolina another week in late April for our Elite tournament at the Santee Cooper Lakes. No surprise, it was too windy to fly out on Lake Marion, so I stayed in this backwater area on the south shore.  
You get a different perspective of the habitat that makes this historic lake unique. 
The morning mist and fog added a unique look to this creek where I found Drew Cook, who won on our previous visit to Santee Cooper Lakes. 
Cook and other nearby anglers were sight fishing for bedding largemouth. 
Here you can see where the largemouth made oval-shaped beds in the sandy bottom. 
If there is a signature feature of the Coosa River, it’s this Alabama Power Co. facility on Lay Lake, where we visited in May. 
This was the scene at Beeswax Park. In the upper right background is Beeswax Creek, where I went immediately after getting a takeoff gallery. 
The low clouds were ideal for an aerial gallery, and the reason I went there was to fly over Brandon Palaniuk. 
The takeoff was still going as I followed Palaniuk into the creek, where he searched for staging and spawning largemouth along the channel.
Look close in the top left of this photo and you see the hawk that photobombed my shot. Nearby, the drone also got swarmed by a huge flock of bridge swallows, prompting me to do some drone-style Top Gun Maverick flying.
View of the lush and plentiful vegetation growing in Beeswax Creek. 
And of the shallow, muddy water kicked up by this boat. 
I took full advantage of the low clouds that reflected off the surface in Beeswax Creek. 
In August we returned to Lake Champlain and yet again, I was fortunate to fly on an extremely rare day with calm winds and a glass-like surface for this massive lake straddling the borders of New York and Vermont. 
I chose to fly over an area called the Inland Sea, and for good reason. It’s the widest part of the lake with a target-rich environment of habitat. 
This is the view toward the north. 
The view west toward the Adirondack region of New York. These high-altitude shots would be impossible on an average day. 
One of the many cuts through the myriad islands around the Inland Sea. An algae bloom caused the greenish tint to the surface.
Taken on a practice day, this photo was shot near the winning area. 
An algae bloom forms slicks along this narrow island. 
I took as many high-altitude images as I could, not knowing when I’d get the chance here again. 
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The next week we moved to the opposite side of New York. It was hoodie weather when I shot a gallery of the Day 1 takeoff in downtown Clayton, for the Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River. 
The buildings with green roofs are part of the Antique Boat Museum, a must-see collection of vintage wooden boats, ranging from canoes and runabouts to cruisers and larger watercraft, all preserved to perfect condition. The museum grounds were the site of our weigh-in.
Boating is a popular activity here. 
A high-altitude view of Clayton looking back to the east. 
I was tempted to fly nearer this osprey platform of a nesting pair with chicks. The birds left the nest as our boats and all the organized chaos disrupted their morning routine. 
The stage was located on a lawn adjacent to the museum. 
Here’s a rare view of the Media Center. It’s a mobile office where our pro photographers and myself edit our on-the-water galleries for publishing to Bassmaster.com. 
The boats head out, many taking a left toward Lake Ontario. 
And the final Elite tournament of the season is underway. 

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