When I returned home to Canada after competing in the final Bassmaster Elite Series event of the season on the St. Lawrence River, I took a few days to relax. After that I got busy getting in touch with my sponsors to start planning for the 2025 Elite season. I like to get on that right away, so I’m not scrambling to tie up lose ends at the last minute.
After being on the road for eight months chasing bass, I get the itch to catch other species with my family and friends. That might include casting for walleye, going up north for pike and lake trout and even fishing in saltwater.
We will video some of these outings and post them on YouTube under Cooper Gallant Fishing. We titled these adventures “The Road Trip.” They are basically about scratching off bucket list fishing trips.
We plan to do three episodes this fall. One will be Wisconsin for smallmouth, muskie, catfish and salmon. We will also go to Alabama to fish with Elite pro David Gaston in his saltwater boat for tuna, swordfish and other species. We haven’t lined up the third trip yet.
Our past bucket list videos have taken us to North Carolina’s Outer Banks and to Africa, where I spent 17 days fishing for shark off the beaches in Namibia on the Skeleton Coast.
As popular as bass fishing is in America, it is only a small part of the fishing industry. Multispecies videos reach a larger audience. That increases my appeal to potential sponsors and bumps up whatever income the videos generate from views.
I also have other YouTube videos about my tournaments titled “The Chase with Cooper Gallant.” I hope you check them out.
As for my Elite season, I’m happy with it. I started off pretty strong and had a couple of hiccups after that. I ended up 17th place in Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings, the exact same place as last year.
I had been looking forward all year to fishing for smallmouth bass at the St. Lawrence tournament. I love fishing for smallmouth and was confident of doing well there. I landed in 84th place, which was my worst showing of the season, by far.
You can’t predict what’s going to happen in this sport. I had a number of Top 10 finishes in tournaments where I expected to struggle.
There were so many mishaps at the St. Lawrence all we could do was laugh about it. Two of my jackplate bolts snapped on Day 1. I hitched a ride to the weigh-in with Florida Elite pro Drew Benton. I was nine minutes late getting back and suffered a 9-pound penalty.
My dad runs a chase boat and films me during Elite competition days. The lower unit on his boat broke down. Some of our camera equipment fell into the lake, and my Bassmaster Marshal dropped his phone in the water. That event was an absolute disaster.
Fortunately, I had accumulated enough points in previous tournaments that I was assured of qualifying for the Classic no matter how badly things went.
I am thankful I will be fishing the 2025 Bassmaster Classic, which is always my No. 1 goal. There’s nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing than competing on the Bassmaster Elite Series and getting up on that stage.
I’m also thankful for my family and friends who continue to support me on this crazy journey.
