Elite

Best of 2025: Elite top lures

See all the winning lures from the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.

Posted on
Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Captions by
Craig Lamb
The 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series followed all phases of the spawning cycle through the first five tournaments. Summertime patterns prevailed in the final four events in May, June and August. That provided a diverse mix of patterns and lures used by the winners. Here’s a best-of recap from the season. Photo: Craig Lamb
The 20th season of the Elite Series began with a positively coincidental spin. Original Elite Bill Lowen, a shallow water specialist, vowed to return to his angling strengths. 
“Last season I tried to force myself into using forward-facing sonar and it backfired,” said the Indiana veteran pro. “There’s a time and place for it, but my strength is fishing shallow.” Lowen put those words into motion at the first event on the St. Johns River.
Lowen stuck to his roots by going to work in gnarly cover adjacent to deeper water. He landed in third place on Day 1 with 21 pounds, 5 ounces, then took over the lead with a second-round limit of 24-4 and 18-1 on Semifinal Saturday. Lowen persevered on a tough Championship Sunday with a 10-4 limit to score a winning weight of 73-10. 
Even better, Lowen keep the momentum going in skinny water throughout the season, eventually finishing 13th in qualifying for the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. 
Lowen focused on a tidal creek with surrounding depths up to 20 feet. He fished two personally designed jigs for swimming and flipping to boost his confidence even more. 
Those baits included this 3/8-ounce LurePartsOnline Bill Lowen Signature Series Jig with Lowen Series Blue Craw Skirt. He used a Zoom Super Chunk for a trailer. 
Alternatively, Lowen used a 5/16-ounce LurePartsOnline Bill Lowen Signature Series Swim Jig with the Lowen Series Blue Craw Skirt. A Zoom Super Speed Craw was his choice for a trailer. 
The series then headed to south Florida for the Champion Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee. The prevailing patterns gave the field two choices when leaving C. Scott Driver Park in Okeechobee. Either turn left for the main lake or go right up the Kissimmee River. Photo: Craig Lamb
Brandon Palaniuk took the right turn and headed straight to the C-41A Canal, which flows southeast from Lake Istokpoga. The key location was a ridge with adjacent trench passing between the high spot and riprap bank. 
Palaniuk started strong with a Day 1 limit of 23-7 and then took the lead with 34-10 on Day 2. The next day’s catch of 23 pounds put Palaniuk in the lead by 18-3, enabling him to cruise to victory on Championship Sunday with 14-3 for an overall weight of 95-4. 
“I think the biggest thing was this spot had deep water and spawning areas nearby and it allowed those fish to funnel through and replenish every day,” Palaniuk said. “The structure set up right for them to position and funnel into there.” Two crankbaits and one jerkbait did the trick. 
Leading off was this Megabass protoype crankbait designed to run between 10 and 12 feet and signed by founder and designer Yuki Ito. 
Palaniuk also used a Megabsss Big-M 4.0.
For upper water column reaction strikes, he used this Megabass Kanata Jerkbait in Kameyama Ghost Pearl.
In mid-April the series stopped near the eastern shore of North Carolina for the St. Croix Bassmaster Elite at Pasquotank River. The playing field was massive, extending from near the Atlantic Ocean across Albemarle Sound and its network of rivers. History was made on two fronts as the playing field became the 11th venue in Elite Series history to produce a Bassmaster Century Club belt. Photo: Craig Lamb
Kyle Welcher joined an elite club with his stunning winning weight of 118 pounds, 2 ounces, that included a Day 3 double-digit largemouth weighing 10-8. And that’s not all. 
Welcher ran away with the tournament, posting daily weights of 30-11, 30-3, 34-0 and 23-14. His winning margin of 45-7 over Brandon Lester (with 73-5) now ranks as the largest in Elite history.
Welcher stayed on a roll with more accolades and why not? Many of his peers made lengthy round-trip runs in rough water through the Albemarle Sound to reach adjoining river systems. 
Instead, Welcher played it close by choosing a one-mile stretch of the Pasquotank River within a couple of miles of the weigh-in venue in Elizabeth City. 
Welcher dialed into specific stumps and cypress trees used by spawning largemouth. 
His key lure was a CrushCity Bronco Bug rigged on 4/0 Gamakatsu G-Power Heavy Cover Worm Flip and Punch Hook, with a 1/4-ounce tungsten weight. Adding a simple bobber stop was key so the bait and weight stayed together. Doing so maximized the effectiveness of the complete package.  
The April run continued in South Carolina at the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Hartwell. The fishing conditions were ideal for capitalizing early on the blueback herring spawn, then choosing between spawning largemouth or offshore fishing for spotted bass. Photo: Craig Lamb
Georgia pro Paul Marks traveled two hours from his home near Lake Lanier and unloaded his spotted bass expertise on the similar waters of Lake Hartwell. 
After spending Day 1 on a bed-fishing pattern, Marks moved offshore and committed to grinding through numbers of spotted bass. He started each day on the blueback herring spawn. 
A primary bait was this Zoom Fluke Stick, rigged on 5/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend Worm Hook. Marks chose the larger size for added weight to the bait.
He also used a 3/16-ounce SPRO Skip Gap Shaky Head with a Zoom Fluke Stick Jr. 
Marks also used a Zoom Super Fluke, rigged weightless on a 5/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend Hook. 
A spectacular sunrise over Caney Point Recreation Area was a sign of magnificent things to come at the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork. The legendary lunker fishery would show out, and so would the anglers. Photo: Craig Lamb
The Top 10 earned Bassmaster Century Club belts with four-day weights surpassing 100 pounds. 
The tournament ended with an awe-inspiring win by Tucker Smith, the former Bassmaster High School All-American, three-time Bassmaster High School National Champion and the 2023 College National Champion. 
Smith, a protégé of the legendary Aaron Martens, tallied daily limits weighing 25 pounds, 4 ounces, 34-5, 33-1 and 34-14 for a winning score of 127-8. Smith drilled down on a strategy to specifically target the biggest bass by settling into a rotation of offshore areas, pond dams and clay points. 
Smith hit a variety of offshore spots from clay points and saddles with hard spots, to remnant pond dams from the lake’s preconstruction days. Fishing from 6 to 40 feet, Smith said the key to his success was hitting each spot at the right time.
Smith alternated between a jerkbait and minnow-style bait. A key bait not pictured was a Yamamoto Yama Craw rigged on a 3/4-ounce Picasso Lures Tungsten Football Jig. 
Smith also used this 1/4-ounce Picasso Lures Tungsten Ball Head Jig, with a minnow-style bait. 
Another top choice was this Bill Lewis Lures Scope Stik.
A coastal bayou produced most of the top catches at the MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite at Sabine River. Taylor Bayou, about 40 minutes from the takeoff at Orange, Texas, offered sought-after clearer water than the surrounding areas. Photo: Craig Lamb
Survival of the fittest. Ounces mattered. A 2-plus pound average was money. Only two anglers topped 8 pounds each day of the tournament. One of them was Pat Schlapper, the Wisconsin pro who grinded out the wire-to-wire win with 38 pounds, 12 ounces. Schlapper posted daily weights of 8-7, 8-9, 9-10 and 12-2 in a tournament where old school tactics ruled. 
A modernized version of a classic old school lure that ranks high on the fun list got credit for Schlapper’s $101,000 win. There was even a Hildebrandt Snagless Sally sighting, although the legacy lure missed the Top Lures gallery. See the choices and think of going old school.
Schlapper targeted grass, wood and undercut points. A modernized old school buzzbait produced the winning catch on Championship Sunday. The bait’s loud clacking noise was ideal for the cloudy, breezy conditions conducive for buzzbaits. 
For the preliminary rounds a primary bait was this 3/8-ounce Do-it Molds Compact Finesse jig, with a Big Bite Baits Chunk for a trailer. 
For covering water, he used this Big Bite Fighting Frog Jr. 
Schlapper went all old school on Championship Sunday. This Brazalo Bushwhacker Pro Elite buzzbait, designed to cover the weight with a soft plastic bait, also creates a smaller profile (instead of a visible weighted head). Bait retention is another benefit of the design, along with its drop head for better hooking ratios.  
High water conditions produced favorable bass fishing at the 2025 Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller. It was downright fun for the top anglers, who capitalized on early morning shad spawns centered around marinas on the eastern Oklahoma impoundment. Photo: Craig Lamb
When that bite dwindled, the action shifted to flooded shoreline cover for flipping tactics. Photo: Craig Lamb
Capitalizing on both tactics, Wes Logan mounted a magnificent comeback victory with a four-day total of 63 pounds. The Alabama pro took home his second career big blue trophy with a winning margin of 1 ounce.  
Logan and the top anglers mastered the fluctuating water conditions after dramatically rising water during practice gave way to falling and then rising water again by Championship Sunday. See the top lures used for these varying conditions. 
Logan focused on flooded bushes and shallow water cover featuring a variety of laydowns and other cover ideal for flipping. He began each day capitalizing on a shad spawn centered around a marina. 
For the shad spawn he used this 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer with a Zoom Shimmer Shad for a trailer. 
The flipping setup consisted of this Ark Fishing Randal Tharp Signature Flipping Jig, with a Zoom Super Chunk for a trailer. 
Magic was made at the Yokohama Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair. The renowned smallmouth fishery showed out, and history was made by a 20-year-old angler from Carbondale, Ill. Photo: Craig Lamb
Trey McKinney not only led the tournament from wire-to-wire, but he also caught 96 pounds, 1 ounce for the win. It was the heaviest winning weight in Bassmaster history at Lake St. Clair and fifth heaviest catch for a B.A.S.S. smallmouth event. 
McKinney has two Elite titles in as many years, but he went into Championship Sunday worried his fish might run out. The third cast of the day erased any doubts as he caught a clutch smallmouth weighing 6-2. 
McKinney targeted patches of mixed short sand grass and taller vegetation in 15 to 18 feet of water. He set up on a 100-yard stretch for his half-mile drifts across the prime strike zone. 
In practice, he used a 6th Sense Saltwater Shindo Shad 6.0 on 3/16-ounce jig head. As angling pressure increased, he needed to adjust his bait selection, switching to a dice bait for a more subtle strike appealing presentation. 
His bait or choice was this 6th Sense prototype dice bait with 1/32-ounce nail weight on No. 4 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Hook. 
The upper Mississippi River is a sight to behold and a bass angler’s dream with a distinguishing characteristic — its myriad backwaters. Those vast areas produced the top catches at the Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at Mississippi River. Photo: Craig Lamb
What is undeniably a favorite lure of anglers is the topwater frog, with explosive strikes through dense vegetation providing memorable catches. 
Pat Schlapper made the most of those memories with an 18-pound, 7-ounce, Championship Sunday catch for a winning weight of 66-5. The milestone marked the Wisconsin pro’s second Elite Series victory of the season, and it was the heaviest winning weight on the mighty Mississippi. Best of all, a topwater frog was in his lineup of winning lures. 
Schlapper targeted vast expanses of eel grass with a minnow bait and frog to search for schooling fish. Elsewhere, he punched dense vegetation with a creature bait on 4/0 hook with 1 1/2-ounce weight. Following are the search baits. 
He used a Big Bite Baits Jerk Minnow rigged on 5/0 hook. 
Another top producer was a Spro Bronzeye Frog 65.

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