Canada native Cooper Gallant simply hoped to survive the Elite Series two-tournament swing through hot, humid Alabama. A 32nd-place finish at Wheeler Lake fit the bill. And when Gallant opened the TNT Fireworks Bassmaster Elite this week at Smith Lake with a 39th-place start, there was a sense of mission accomplished. Two more days have suddenly put the 26-year-old second-year Elite Series angler in contention for a title.
“I’m pretty shocked,” said Gallant, after finishing Day 3 in 7th place, only 2 pounds, 11 ounces behind leader Robert Gee. “The weights are super tight. If I can come in with 15 pounds, I’ve got a chance to win this tournament.”
There hasn’t been another Elite Series event this season anywhere near this close going into Day 4. Only 3 pounds, 11 ounces separates the top 10. The other six tournaments this year had double-digit margins from 1st to 10th place after three days. The closest was Lake Fork, where 11 pounds was the difference from 1st to 10th on Championship Sunday. Interestingly, Gallant was involved in that one too, finishing 10th, topping 100 pounds, and earning a coveted B.A.S.S. Century Belt in the process.
That was a largemouth bass event in early spring on one of the top largemouth bass lakes in the U.S. This is the polar opposite – a spotted bass tournament in the heat of the summer. Largemouth bass have figured in this one, but the anglers who concentrated on them didn’t make the top 10.
“Largemouths didn’t ever come in my mind for this tournament,” said Gallant. “I didn’t have a good practice. “But I’ve gotten exponentially better since coming to the Elite Series with fishing on the fly, staying open-minded. Things are starting to click.”
During his rookie season in 2023 he finished 4th at Lake St. Clair, 4th in the Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year race and easily qualified for the Bassmaster Classic with a 17th-place Progressive Bassmaster Angler of Year finish.
This marks Gallant’s third top 10 this season, which includes an 8th-place finish at Toledo Bend. He’s currently 13th in the unofficial AOY standings based on three days at Smith Lake. Like everyone else, but especially for a Canada native, he’s excited for the smallmouth bass fishing and the cooler weather that awaits on the August two-tournament Elite Series finish at first Lake Champlain, then the St. Lawrence River.
But first things first. Gallant has a chance to win $100,000 today. He’s caught almost every spotted bass he’s weighed this week on either a green pumpkin X Zone Deception Worm fished on a drop shot with a 3/8ths-ounce weight or an unnamed “fluke style” minnow on an Outcast Tackle Goldeneye jighead. He’s fishing over depths of 30 to 150 feet, looking for baitfish schools on forward-facing sonar.
“There’s shad and herring almost everywhere you go,” Gallant said. “You need to find the bait schools that are really balled-up. Those are the key.”
This has been the most accurately forecast tournament of the Elite Series season. Several anglers predicted after practice that it would take an average of 13 ½ pounds a day to win this. The entire top 10 has three-day totals averaging between 13 and 14 pounds.
Big bag of the tournament so far was Todd Auten’s 16-0 on Day 2, which launched him from 62nd place on Day 1 to 10th on Day 2. Kyoya Fujita holds big bass honors so far with a 4-9. That was part of his 14-pound, 10-ounce big bag of Day 3. It rocketed him from 48th place on Day 2, a mere two ounces inside the top 50 cut, to a 13th-place finish on Day 3.
In other words, this tournament is so tight and so vulnerable to one big fish making a difference, it’s unlikely to be decided until the final hour. And Cooper Gallant is right in the middle of that, exactly where he wants to be.
“My biggest fear in fishing is getting booted from the Elite Series,” Gallant said. “I want to make a career of this and do it for a long time.”
