Elite

Big bass of Lake Okeechobee 2025

Gaston lands biggest bass in Big O Elite while Palaniuk busts best bag there in victory

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
Oh my, Big O holds some big ol’ bass. The Elites proved that in last week’s Champion Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee. David Gaston caught the largest fish in an Elite there while Brandon Palaniuk landed the heaviest stringer en route to routing the field. Take a look at the Big O big’uns.
Jacob Foutz, who had made 12 consecutive two-day cuts before bombing with 95th at St. Johns River, had a 6-pound, 7-ounce kicker in his Day 1 bag of 13-11, putting him 37th. With 19-1 and 17-7, he made Championship Sunday. Finishing ninth is a great start to perhaps another run, but the Charleston, Tenn., pro was also pleased to jump up to 52nd in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.
Arkansas’ Stetson Blaylock was similarly looking to recover from a 100th-place finish at St. Johns, and he kicked things off nicely with a 6-10, bolstering a fifth-place limit of 20-12. With half that weight on Day 2, Blaylock dropped to 18th before settling for 24th, which has him 71st in AOY.
Connecticut’s Paul Mueller also needed a turnaround after finishing 95th at St. Johns, where he won in 2020. A 7-7 helped him start tied for seventh with 19-15, but his weights dropped each day, knocking him back to 21st. However, he did get healthier in AOY, moving to 64th.
Matty Wong continued the trend of those recovering from the St. Johns. He was 103rd there, but two Big O bites, including a 7-8, helped him weigh 19-7 for ninth place. He rode that to the cut as three fish on Day 2 and 9-0 on Semifinal Saturday saw the Hawaiian take 39th, which put him 85th in AOY.
An 8-0 bolstered Scott Canterbury’s Day 1 17-12 and helped him cut a check. With less weight from his limit of 7-4 on Day 2, the pro from Odenville, Ala., dropped back to 38th, but he wasn’t done. On Day 1, 93 of the 102 anglers caught limits, with the average fish weighing just over 2-8.
Big Fish Brandon Cobb was back at it with an 8-10 that shared the Phoenix Boats Big Bass on Day 1. The kicker was more than half his 16-11 bag that put him 17th. Without a lunker in limits going 10-10 and 11-3, Cobb ended up 35th.
Cody Meyer, a first-year Elite after earning more than $1.5 million on other circuits, had the sixth bag over 20 pounds on Day 1, although he didn’t have a true kicker. After his 20-3, the Idaho pro weighed slipped to 28th with 8-12 and 12-2, but he was pleased to make his first Elite cut after being first man out (51st) at the St. Johns.
Another Idaho angler, Brandon Palaniuk, had the third-best weight of 23-7. Palaniuk only bested one of the four anglers sharing an area, second-year pro Timothy Dube of New Hampshire, who had 18-3 for 10th. The quartet at the community hole brought 100 pounds to the weigh-in, about 8% of the Day 1 total.
Will Davis Jr. was in there. The two-time B.A.S.S. Nation national champ and Elite winner was the beneficiary of a 7-3 and another hefty bass. It gave the Sylacauga, Ala., pro a second-place start with 26-2.
The day, and the spot off the Kissimmee River, belonged to New Jersey’s Greg DiPalma. With his best day in a tournament, he took the lead with 29-12. His bag included an 8-10 that tied Cobb for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day.
On Day 2 Cliff Pace, back with the Elites this year on a Legend’s exemption from his 2013 Classic title, displayed the fickle nature of Florida fishing. Starting 61st with 10-9, the pro form Ovett, Miss., climbed to 15th with 21-4, one of 10 bags on the day topping 20 pounds. Adding 16-13, Pace missed making the Top 10 by 10 ounces in taking 13th.
Another Classic champ, Jason Christie, made a big Day 2 move. With 20-12, the Dry Creek, Okla., angler moved up 29 spots to eighth. On Day 2, 95 anglers caught limits, and the average weight remained at 2-8.
Among the 40 or so without BassTrakk, Bryant Smith surprised the raucous weigh-in crowd with 21-7 that saw him rise 65 places to 22nd. The Roseville, Calif., angler finished with 15-8 to take 19th and stands 13th in AOY.
Bob Downey was in risk of missing a check with 11-15 on Day 1 to stand 51st, but a huge afternoon on Day 2 propelled him into the Top 10. A little after 1:30, the pro from Detroit Lakes, Mich., posted an 8-8 on BassTrakk and followed with a 6-4 an hour later. His 21-13 stringer moved him to eighth.
Winner the previous week at St. Johns, Bill Lowen hoped to recover from his 9-1 limit that put him 79th after Day 1. A 6-8 helped the Indiana pro weigh 20-14 to jump to 19th. With 11-3 on Saturday, Lowen finished 27th and now stands fourth in the AOY race with 182 points.
Floridian John Cox was just inside the cut with 12-6 on Day 1, but his fortunes changed Friday. With a big bite surely a pound or two larger than the 6-0 he entered on BassTrakk, Cox got well with 25-4, third best on the day. At the St. Johns, his 6-0 on BassTrakk weighed 8-13 to take Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the event and help him finish eighth. With just 11-6 on Semifinal Saturday, Cox finished 4 ounces from taking 10th, and his 11th-place finish has him second in AOY with 191 points.
After a solid first day, rookie Beau Browning just missed a check at St. Johns. He reversed his fortunes at Okeechobee, where he opened at 44th with 13-0. The son of longtime Elite Stephen Browning was moving on BassTrakk with a 6-0 then a late 5-11 for 23-0. At the scales, the Hot Springs, Ark., 23-year-old had the day’s second-best at 25-12, catapulting him to fourth. Only 8-13 on Day 3 knocked him down to 16th, putting him 21st in AOY.
David Gaston averaged almost 3 pounds per fish in his Day 1 limit of 14-11 to stand 24th. The third-year pro from Sylacauga, Ala., wowed the crowd with the largest fish ever caught in an Okeechobee Elite. His 11-8 was Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the event and is the leading candidate for the $10,000 bonus for biggest bass of the year. It made the record books as the 10th  heaviest fish caught in the 20 years of the Elite Series.
The spot that produced 100 pounds and the top three in the standings was stingier at the start of Day 2. Only several fish were caught as Palaniuk, Dube, Davis and DiPalma peacefully shared it, as well as tackle. It was such slow going that all but Palaniuk abandoned it.
At high noon, the two-time AOY’s patience paid off. He struck gold with a 9-4 that gave him the lead on BassTrakk and had him physically shaking. An hour later, The Prodigy landed another 9-4. Moments later, he caught one between 7 and 8 pounds, a 75-minute flurry of around 26 pounds.
After Gaston’s 11-8, Palaniuk said at weigh-in it seemed moot to weigh his, but he said his scales had them at 9.27 and the 9.30, both translating to 9-4. With 34-10, Palaniuk recorded the largest stringer in an Okeechobee Elite, topping Ish Monroe’s 34-5 during his 2012 win with 108-5. With 58-1, Palaniuk held a lead of almost 10 pounds on DiPalma (48-5).
On Day 3, with checks secure, anglers hoped to gain points. With 20-0, Taku Ito was one of six to hit the magical mark, and it moved the Japanese angler up 24 spots to 20th. He’s 17th in points after a 37th at St. Johns.
Canterbury also moved up 24 places with 23-4, powered by a pair of 5-plus bass. With his 14th-place finish, the 2020 AOY stands 39th in AOY, just inside the projected cut to make the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville, Tenn. Canterbury was third in the 2023 Tennessee River Classic.  
Most of DiPalma’s Semifinal Saturday weight came from this bass, a 7-pound class that gave him 14-9. After the catch, Palaniuk commented that he assumed DiPalma would be coming back to their area on Sunday. With 62-14, DiPalma stood second, 18-3 behind Palaniuk.
Jason Christie had a slow day until landing a 7-11, which gave him 15-12 on four fish. It was enough to hold onto ninth and make Championship Sunday, when his bite got even tougher. With only three for 4-5, Christie took 10th, but he is in good position to qualify for his 11th Classic after sadly missing this month’s championship in his home state.
John Garrett, who came close to winning at St. Johns, was back on the big fish, a 7-5 coming in a bag of 23-3 that had him in consecutive Top 10s at fourth. On Day 3, 47 of the 50 caught limits, and the average weight rose to 2-13.
Third-year Japanese pro Kyoya Fujita opened in 11th with 18-0 then dipped to 20th with 11-15 before his big jump to fifth. Inputting two 6-0 fish on BassTrakk, the two-time Elite winner weighed Day 3’s best of 25-13. He finished strong with 21-8 to take third and move up 52 places in AOY to 40th.
With a Bassmaster LIVE camera on Day 1, Trey McKinney, who turned 20 on Tuesday, caught several 5-pound class bass to start fourth with 21-0. He made Championship Sunday by 3 ounces, then landed a 6-7 in his 16-6 limit to finish eighth. Last year’s AOY leader after winning the second event, McKinney gained 47 places to 42nd after two events.
Bob Downey started Day 4 in seventh and bumped up to fifth with a final-round 21-11, one of four topping 20 pounds on Sunday. Recovering from a 73rd at St. Johns, Downey stands 30th in the AOY standings. Seven of the Top 10 limited, with the average weight rising to 3-4.
Will Davis never went to “The Juice” on Sunday, but he landed a 7-4 in the day’s second-best limit of 22-15 to finish fourth. With his 24th at St. Johns, Davis is fifth in AOY, tied with Bill Lowen and Wes Logan with 182 points.
Garrett also had a 7-4 to share Phoenix Boats Big Bass on Championship Sunday with Davis. The 2024 Harris Chain winner weighed 23-5, the biggest of the day, to finish second. Garrett, who said “every decision I’ve made the past two weeks has been the right one,” leads the AOY race with 204 points, 13 points ahead of John Cox.
With 81-1, Palaniuk went into Championship Sunday with an 18-3 lead. Like Cory Johnston last year at St. Johns and Patrick Walters at Fork on 2020, Palaniuk didn’t need to fish Day 4. No one topped his three-day total. Several missed fish and a slow overall morning dampered Palaniuk’s hopes for a Century Club belt, but a late 5-14 offered some hope.
Palaniuk closed with 14-3, less than half his big bag, to total 95-4 and win his sixth Elite title, his first since 2020. His 15-13 margin over Garrett is the fourth largest in the Elites, and might fuel his fire. “We’re not done yet,” Palaniuk said. “I’m 15 years into it; I figure I have at least that many more. I feel like we’re just getting started.”

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