Best of 2024: Kyle Jessie's best photos

A year after Dalton Tumblin knocked it out of the park with his “best of” photo gallery, I was encouraged to work up my best shots from the 2024 season. While I may not be quite as talented with a camera in my hand as most of our incredibly talented crew, I sure do love to travel the country watching the best bass fisherman in the world attack unique bodies of water. One of my favorite things about doing this is the stories that come from each and every event. Hopefully I can do a good job of telling a few of those stories from this past season.

Toledo Bend Elite
Sometimes you just get really lucky. This is something our on the water content team talks about a lot. Some tournaments it seems like every single decision you make is perfect and you end up covering the right angler at the right time, other times you run all over the place and never run into the action. The very first day of the season was one of those times where I got extremely lucky. As my boat driver and I idled out of the ramp that we put in at, the first angler we ran into was Kyoya Fujita who eventually won the event.

I didn’t cover Fujita the entire day, but did manage to see him boat a number of key fish that set up his massive 31-3 stringer on Day 1.

As an angler, one of my favorite things about having the opportunity to watch the Elites during tournament action is observing the anglers as they fish there strengths. Fujita is one of the best in the world when it comes to utilizing his electronics and fishing finesse techniques, and watching him fish to his strengths this day is something I’ll never forget – just like I’ll never forget watching Greg Hackney flip, Jason Christie catch them on a spinnerbait or the Johnston bros take on the St. Lawrence River. Having a front row seat is something I don’t take for granted.

The Toledo Bend event was all about managing a crowd at times. Housen Bay was a happening place as a number of top anglers stayed in this massive creek arm during the entire tournament.

Amongst those anglers was Luke Palmer. For a variety of different reasons, the Oklahoma pro is one of my absolute favorite anglers to cover on the water. Firstly, it seems like every time I cover him on the water something crazy happens (in a good way). This has been the case for several years now. Secondly, he is always having a good time on the water. I can’t help but crack a smile just thinking back to all the fun days I’ve had on the water covering the cool, calm cat from Coalgate, Okla.

When the bass are on board with creating cool shots, that’s also a fun time. If you ask Elite anglers, they would probably prefer that they never have another fish jump, but we absolutely love it as photographers.

Like I said, this guy is almost always having a good time on the water.

Another angler that was in sight of was Pat Schlapper. Again, talk about being lucky. When you get the opportunity to cover three anglers within sight of each other that all finished inside the Top 10, you know things are going your way.

The Wisconsin pro had his sights set on his first Elite Series win at Toledo Bend, but fell just short of Kyoya Fujita.

When other anglers are around, you have to be sneaky!

One of the biggest highlights of the event was watching Schlapper land this absolute giant. As a photographer, you sit there and watch a specific angler battle all day long in hopes of boating a game changer. When it finally happens, and you catch that moment through the lens, it’s an amazing feeling.

I love being able to look back at a photo that I captured and remember what the exact moment felt like. This is one of those photos. Schlapper’s emotions were on full display.

In an event like this one, you have plenty of opportunities to capture fish jumps, and epic shots. It’s certainly not always like that.

Lake Fork Elite

I always find it interesting when things reoccur on the water. That was exactly the case when the Lake Fork Elite began. In 2021, I had the opportunity to cover Stetson Blaylock on Day 1 of the event and wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly how the event started in 2024.

Blaylock blasted 37-6 on Day 1 which was good enough for second place heading into Day 2. Much like the event in 2021, the Arkansas pro put on a clinic fishing for spawning bass.

Some catches are simply more memorable than others. This giant has entire backstory. The very first angler we started on this particular morning was Jason Christie, who was set up on this exact spawning bass. Hours later, Blaylock slides into the area and catches the beast. As Blaylock was set up on the fish, Drew Benton also made his way into the area in hopes of fishing for the same fish. As expected, he was bummed to see that Blaylock had found the same fish.

After working the fish for a long time, he finally gets her to bite. It was complete chaos after…

Face to face combat with an absolute game-changer.

This Lake Fork giant was enough to propel Blaylock into the lead at this time of the day.

The next angler I covered in this event was Justin Atkins, who was also putting on a clinic. Unlike Blaylock, Atkins was not traditionally sight fishing.

It’s never fun to watch an angler lose a good one, but it does create the opportunity for some epic shots.

You can see the worm flying through the air as Atkins isn’t able to capitalize on the opportunity.

The sting of losing a good one didn’t last long, as Atkins hooks up with an absolute giant just moments later.

This entire sequence of photos is amongst my favorite catches of the season.

There’s no hiding the emotions of catching a tank during an Elite event with so much on the line.

Atkins didn’t waste much time before he hooked up with another giant. Keep in mind, this was all within a time period of 30 minutes or so.

As a photographer, you always expect there to be plenty of opportunities to capture gold at Lake Fork.

Bassmaster Classic

It’s no secret – the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic is the greatest event in all of professional bass fishing. Each moment on the water is magnified, which makes the moments you capture as a photographer that much more special.

Cody Huff made an amazing run at winning the title on Grand Lake. The Missouri pro fished shallow wood to perfection early in the tournament.

The emotions just have a way of coming out during the Classic.

Huff went on a flurry on Day 1 that shot him up the leaderboard and put him in contention for the title.

Boom!

It’s always entertaining to watch the giant crowds of fans race across the lake to watch their favorite angler.

There seems to be a big story each day of the Classic where an angler shoots up the leaderboard. On Day 2 of the Classic, that story was Brandon Card. The North Carolinian made some noise early and kept it going throughout the day.

Card was dialed in with a shallow water cranking pattern.

Without a question the early story on the final day of the Classic was the push that Adam Rasmussen made up the leaderboard.

The Minnesota pro put on a clinic fishing shallow cover off the bank with a spinnerbait and a jig.

The Opens qualifier fell just short of hoisting the trophy, but put up an incredible fight.

Harris Chain Elite

Trey McKinney’s run in the early part of the Elite season was incredibly impressive. My first opportunity to cover the youngest Elite Champion in B.A.S.S. history was at the Harris Chain.

McKinney put on a show fishing an offshore shell bar early in the event.

I’d consider myself far from an expert when it comes to glidebait fishing, so it’s always a blast to get to watch Elites have success with them.

The excitement was on full display when McKinney landed a big one on the glide.

Another one!

While Steve Bowman gives us photographers a hard time about adding “worthless” wildlife shots, it’s always neat to see alligators in their natural habitat… from a distance of course.

St. Johns River Elite

I spent the majority of the St. Johns Elite event in historical Rodman Reservoir.

The early part of the event proved that Rodman was on fire.

Huff was one of the anglers having success early in Rodman. This fish catch was unique becuase Huff noticed this fish hovering on top of a piece of standing timber, and after making a number of casts at the bass, he finally got it to bite.

Greg DiPalma also had a very memorable catch on Day 1 at the St. Johns River.

DiPalma had broke a fish off while throwing a drop shot around standing timber earlier in the morning, and later on hooked the same exact fish.

He made sure to show me his old drop shot was still in the mouth. This fish wasn’t on a bed either. Just an incredibly unusual circumstance to catch the same fish you broke off earlier in the day.

Cory Johnston put on one of the most dominant performances of the season at the St. Johns. Luckily, I got the opportunity to cover him for a couple of days.

The Johnston brothers are two of the best sight fisherman in the game, so it’s fun to watch them at work.

The appropriate face of a man who just boated a game changer.

The final day of the event I headed back to Rodman to cover the lone surviver in Jacob Foutz.

Foutz ended up having a great day. It was a joy getting to watch him throughout the day. Spending the entire day with one angler allows you to see the ups and downs.

Foutz had all the water to himself which was the perfect recipe for success.

Lake Murray Elite

I could tell stories for days about the incredible performance that Patrick Walters put on at Lake Murray, but the photos tell the story. It was complete chaos from Day 1 to the final day. Walters put together a flawless game plan each and everyday and I was fortunate enough to have a front row seat. Really the only thing that was disappointing about the entire event was that I haven’t gotten a Bassmaster Cover shot from it yet…

I could have used photos exclusively from this event to build the entire gallery, but I narrowed it down to a few of the best ones.

Wheeler Lake Elite

I mentioned earlier in the gallery that sometimes you experience a little Déjà vu. The beginning of the Wheeler Elite event was that way for me. Just a year ago, I covered John Garrett at Wheeler Lake during the Bassmaster Open. Garrett caught them well then and he did the exact same thing this year.

Garrett is an excellent Tennessee River fisherman, and that was put on full display.

Later on in the event, I got to cover Classic Champion Justin Hamner who was making a long run all the way to the Guntersville Dam.

How can you not love this goofball?

Smith Lake Elite

I stepped in to host Bass Live MIx during the Smith Lake Elite, but I still got to see plenty of action early on in the event.

Watching Jay Przekurat land this monster spotted bass was probably the highlight of the event for me on the water.

St. Lawrence Elite

Jacob Foutz was in hot pursuit trying to win his first Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title on a body of water that he has not only had success on, but also suits his fishing style as a great smallmouth angler.