Elite

Big bass of Toledo Bend 2024

Big bass were forecast for the first two Elites of 2024 and they didn't disappoint.

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
Big bass were forecast for the first two Elites of 2024, and while there were bigs at Toledo Bend, they weren’t quite as big as those at Lake Fork, which we’ll get to shortly. While no 10-pounders were brought in, one angler — Japanese second-year Elite Kyoya Fujita — did top 100 pounds in the Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend. Let’s look at some of the big fish that made a difference in the season opener.
Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., had a couple juicy largemouth in his Day 1 bag of 24-0 that put him fifth, but his bags decreased almost 5 pounds each of the next two days, and he ended up finishing 15th. On the first day of the season, 96 of the 103 Elites brought in limits, falling just 15 fish short of a full complement of 515 fish, with the average fish weighing 3 pounds, 7 ounces.
Koby Kreiger brought in one of three lunkers topping 9 pounds, a 9-5 that helped him weigh 23-7. With only 10-9 on Day 2, the Florida veteran fell to 41st before climbing to finish 33rd.
Oklahoma pro Luke Palmer pulled in a 9-6 to start in fourth, and two more 20-pound days had him fishing Championship Sunday. However, Palmer’s smallest bag of the week dropped him two spots to sixth. It was not the win he hoped for but a great start to the year.
Bryan New of Leesville, S.C., had the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, a 9-8 that put him 11th with 22-1. New had one of 24 limits topping 20 pounds on the day, but he couldn’t duplicate it and took 16th.
Wisconsin’s Pat Schlapper had a pair of bigs in his impressive Day 1 limit weighing 27-4, which put him third.
Robert Gee, among the nine 2023 Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifiers joining the big circuit, had a great first day of work on the Elites, busting 29-0. The Knoxville, Tenn., angler’s biggest was a 6-12, and he had one almost identical.
The leader after Day 1 was Fujita, who picked up where his rookie campaign left off. Fujita posted the first big bass on BassTrakk early Thursday morning and kept piling on with solid fish.
Fujita, who won at Lake Champlain in 2023 and was a point shy of winning the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year title, had an 8-8 that helped him build to 31-3, the CrushCity Monster Bag of the event that earned him a $2,000 bonus.
Elite rookie Timothy Dube, who qualified through the B.A.S.S. Nation, rebounded from a poor start of only three fish that put him 93rd. On Day 2, Dube weighed 21-11 to jump 43 spots. With the help of a 6-0, Dube was the last man into the Top 50 cut, winning a tiebreaker with two others. He finished 36th.
John Soukup also had a big rally in Friday’s round, when 88 limits hit the scales and the average weight dropped to 3-5. A 7-4 helped Soukup weigh 23-12 and jump from 74th to 19th. He finished 38th.
Although trying to stay quiet in his return to B.A.S.S., two-time Classic champ Jordan Lee made plenty of noise, adding 23-14 to his first day’s 22-12 that had him in the Top 10. He survived a slower third day to make Championship Sunday and ended up ninth.
Alex Wetherell had a disappointing first season on the Elites but figured out Toledo Bend well. After 21-14, he landed an 8-5 on Day 2 to stay in the mix. His two bags approaching 20 pounds gave him his first Top 10, an eighth-place finish.
A big mover on Day 2 was Brandon Card, who had an 8-5 in a limit of 21-5 that jumped him from 83rd to 37th. Card, of Salisbury, N.C., finished 34th but left for Lake Fork feeling good after pulling the event from the fire.
Justin Hamner of Northport, Ala., climbed 13th spots and earned a camera on Day 3 with two bass around 6 pounds each in his 21-8 limit. Hamner, who topped 20 pounds on Day 1, fell just shy of fishing Sunday at 14th.
The first Elite winner from Canada, Chris Johnston, catapulted from 32nd into the Top 10 behind Day 2’s third-best limit of 26-8, which included the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of 9-3. Johnston stayed in the Top 10, taking seventh.
Patrick Walters made a similar move on Day 2. Starting 27th, the South Carolina pro posted the second 30-pound bag at the Bend. Of course, the self-admitted lowballer only had around 20 pounds on BassTrakk.
The five-time Bassmaster champ, who became the first to earn Century Club belts on largemouth and smallmouth, holds his two biggest, close to 16 pounds, in totaling 30-5, which put him fourth.
Yet Schlapper held the lead. The Eleva, Wis., pro had an 8-8 and 7-12 in his Day 2 bag of 28-5 that gave him the lead with 55- 9, just 3 ounces ahead of Fujita.
Cory Johnston missed the Top 10 by a skoosh. The Canadian said he bucked the deep-water, forward-facing sonar trend and went to the bank for these two. They helped him weigh 21-7, which gave him a 13th-place finish. On Semifinal Saturday, 48 of the 50 had limits with the average fish at 3-5.
Wesley Gore was another rookie who announced his presence with authority. The pro from Clanton, Ala., started with 22-8 but had his best on Day 3 with 23-6, including a 6-12, that helped him finish 11th, just a half a pound from joining two other rookies in the Top 10.
Cooper Gallant from Canada had a 7-12 in Day 3’s second-best bag of 24-9 that propelled him from 27th into the Top 10. He wound up eighth in a great start to his second Elite season.
Derek Hudnall, mired with an 85th-place start, had jumped just inside the Top 50 cut then jumped again. The Zachary, La., pro was helped by another big, a 7-13 that gave him 20-3 and a 29th-place finish.
Jay Przekurat, who at the St. Lawrence in 2022 became the youngest Elite winner and first to earn a Century Club belt on smallmouth, had 7-15 for much of his Day 3 weight of 18-7 that helped him finish 25th.
Rookie Ben Milliken, originally from the 402 area code of eastern Nebraska but now living in New Caney, Texas, had a 7-6 en route to the day’s best bag of 26-13. Milliken, who won last year’s Open on his new home waters of Toledo Bend, was hoping for a special finale but took fifth — still a fantastic finish in his first Elite.
Schlapper went into Championship Sunday with 78-0, six pounds up on Fujita and 8-9 ahead of Gee. Despite having one of the day’s best fish, a 6-8 in a 20-14 bag, Gee finished fourth and left for Fork with the lead in the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year standings. With only 15-8 on Sunday, Schlapper fell to third with 93-8.
Patrick Walters’ BassTrakk weight even eluded the cameraman on Sunday. While Walters started 11 pounds back of the lead, he landed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the day, an 8-4. Along with an 8-0, Walters busted 29-0. After ending 2023 with a Century Club belt win at the St. Lawrence River, Walters finished second with 95-15.
Fujita, who earned the Century Club belt alongside Walters at the St. Lawrence in 2023, needed 28-0 on Championship Sunday for a largemouth belt. He started with a 6-0 before a slow period. A 6-0 at 12:19 p.m. gave Fujita 99-4 on BassTrakk, and his 6-8 at 1:20 unofficially put him over 100 pounds.
While he had 29-12 on BassTrakk, Fujita’s fish weighed 28-13 on the Bassmaster scales, and he totaled 100-13, becoming the second to earn belts with both major species. In 18 B.A.S.S. tournaments, Fujita has earned $390,426, giving him the highest earnings per event at $21,690.

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