Elite

Inside Elite Boats: John Garrett

Get a full tour of the tournament rig Elite John Garrett used during the 2025 season.

Posted on
Photography by
Chase Sansom
West Virginia
Welcome to this edition of Inside Elite Boats where we will take a look inside 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series angler John Garrett’s Skeeter FXR 21 tournament rig he used throughout the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series season!
When we pulled up to John he was digging through a patch of grass inside his trolling motor prop after a full day of practice at the Upper Mississippi River.
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At the bow, Garrett has a Minn Kota Ultrex Quest equipped.
Attached to the Ultrex Quest is a Humminbird 360 transducer as well as his forward-facing sonar transducer.
Garrett keeps two units up front.
Both units are mounted on Boat Logix Dual Bow Panel Mount.
The Tennessee native uses his Humminbird Apex 13 for MEGA 360 imaging and mapping and the top unit for forward-facing sonar.
Right below the graph mounts lay a pair of Minn Kota Raptor Stomp Switches.
One key piece of the boat Garrett loves is this Millennium Marine pedestal.
Even John’s daughter, Blaire, loves the Millennium seat!
A bird’s-eye view of how Garrett keeps his tackle, rods and reels stored up front.
What you see is what you get a lot of times with John. In this case, a variety of baits, a wallet and a sunglasses case lay atop the deck as we shot our gallery. I got one of these spooks stuck in my shirt.
Inside the rod locker, Garrett keeps anywhere from 25 to 30 Lew’s combos at the ready with a few spare rods mixed in there.
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The middle compartment is home to just about all of John’s terminal tackle, jigs and hard baits.
The first thing I noticed was the Evolution Fishing Big Bait Bags, and greedily that is what I wanted to see first.
Inside he stores a plethora of popular big swimbaits, and in the other one he stores a lot of his buzzbaits.
The other side of the Evolution Fishing Big Bait Bag.
The next box we pull out is a box full of treble hooks. While not a flashy box, it’s always impressive to see just how many treble hooks the Elite pros store with them. When a $100,000 is on the line, most of them are always changing out treble hooks.
Inside the box you could just about find any Owner treble hook you wanted. Along with some feathered trebles, some suspend dots, split rings and some lead wire.
“I love throwing a topwater so I always have some spare Owner ST-36s in red and some feathered trebles in the box at all times,” Garrett said.
Next up was the finesse jig box.
Inside was a variety of Strike King Finesse Jigs and other go-to finesse jigs.
His favorites are a Strike King Denny Brauer Baby Structure Jig, Strike King Compact Tungsten Jig and a regular Strike King Finesse Jig.
Garrett is known to sling a plug around, so it was only right to see some of his squarebill collection he keeps on the road with him.
Inside are a great mix of Strike King KVD 1.5s as well as some other notorious squarebills.
He held up two of his favorites he uses frequently on the Elite Series.
Also part of the Evolution Fishing line of products is this handy line bag.
This is where Garrett stores a lot of his smaller spools of line.
His go-to choice is always Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon.
Next we move over to where he keeps all of his favorite soft plastics.
In one of his many clear containers is enough Strike King Z Toos to last a year.
His favorite size is the 4-inch Z Too.
Here are gallon storage bags with a lot of baits he keeps in short order to save space.
Everyone is on the dice bait craze and so is John.
Strike King just released these baits last summer, the Strike King Sexy Bug and Strike King Tumbleweed.
A closer look of the bait that imitates a small bug, or as John says, “An ant.”
Ants in his pants?
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Closer look at the Strike King Tumbleweed which has become a killer smallmouth fishing bait.
Also in another gallon storage bag is a mix of Owner Swimbait hooks, including my personal favorite a Owner Flashy Swimmer.
In his day box next to his soft plastic compartment is a variety of baits he was testing out ahead of the 2025 Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at the Upper Mississippi River.
Also inside the day box he keeps his scale, for “BIGZ ONLY”.
A moment for the tool selection.
At hand are a pair of scissors and multiple sets of needle-nose pliers and split-ring pliers. Essential must haves in any bass fishermen’s boat.
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He uses the bottom compartment on the step as a trash can.
One thing that stood out to me was this beaten and taped-up pair of Costa Sunglasses.
“These are 7-year-old prescription sunglasses,” Garrett said. “My eyesight is so bad that no one makes a good enough prescription and curved lens anymore that are strong enough for me. They don’t make these frames anymore, so I can’t move these lenses to another pair of frames. So over the course of time I’ve just re-taped and glued them back together. These are the glasses I wear everyday fishing.”
In his smaller dry box in front of the passenger seat he keeps an assortment of sunscreen and livewell care treatment.
Also included is some lens cleaner.
A look at the front windshield.
He decided to strap in the driver’s seat for a photo shoot.
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Hang on, John!
At the dash has two Humminbird Apex 13s — one he uses for mapping while the other he uses for 2D, Side Imaging and Down Imaging.
The T-H Marine Finger Trim Switch sits right behind the steering wheel.
In the cooler lays a bunch of empty snacks from practice at the Upper Mississippi River.
Also on the dash is Minn Kota Raptor Switch to easily put the Raptors down while at the driver’s seat.
To the back!
Before we get to the back, here is a look at all of the baits Garrett has tied up for the final stop of the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.
In his rear box is an extra life jacket and tool kit.
Also located inside the rear compartment is a case of Humminbird LakeMaster Chips. Enough to cover the whole country it seems.
The tool kit.
A look inside the livewells. It’s no surprise there is duckweed and grass in them.
In the other box is a variety of things including an extra battery charger, spare extension cord, first aid kit and more.
“You always got to keep a bucket hat in the boat,” Garrett said.
And of course when nature calls, you better have Dude Wipes.
In the rear hatch, Garrett is all powered by Amped Outdoor Lithium batteries.
Above the batteries is a spare tray where he keeps everything to work on the batteries in case of an issue.
Amped Outdoors Lithium 3 Bank Charger doing its job while we were working on the gallery.
Finally at the back! Here’s the Yamaha 250-horsepower V-Max SHO along with the Minn Kota Raptors.
Motor hood covered in water spots, but that Yamaha still looks incredible.
Thanks for the tour, John!

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