B.A.S.S. has long touted scheduling Bassmaster Elite Series events on top fisheries at premium times, and this year’s slate has the potential to be extraordinary, including multiple chances at eclipsing 100 pounds.
“This is an incredible schedule,” said Bassmaster LIVE analyst Davy Hite, winner of a Classic and two Angler of the Year titles. “I’m just being totally honest about what I think can happen at these places.”
Specifically, Hite was asked to evaluate the chances of having more than one event where the winner tops 100 pounds, which hasn’t happened since the first two years of the circuit. In both 2006 and 2007, there were two events producing more than 100 pounds, and there was at least one in each of the first five years of the Elites.
After a year off, the mark was reached again in 2012 and 2013 before a dry spell that was broken on Texas’ Lake Fork in 2019. In the past three seasons, tournaments on Fork have produced five four-day totals topping 100 pounds, and the Elites are heading there again this season.
Hite sees great possibility of Century Belts, which B.A.S.S. awards for accomplishing the feat, in several other events on the 2022 schedule.
“Oh, I think they’ll be more than one,” he said. “We certainly have a great chance to have more than one.”
The first shot is Feb. 10-13 at the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite on St. Johns River. This will be the fourth consecutive season opener on the northeast Florida fishery. Weather hampered weights the past two years, but in 2019, Rick Clunn came within 18 ounces of earning his second belt with 98 pounds, 14 ounces, much of it coming on a final-day flurry of 34-14.
“I think of big fish when I think of the St. Johns River and Palatka, Fla., but first and foremost, after the last few years, I think about what great fans we have in that area who show up whether it’s going to take 100 pounds to win or 50 pounds.”
Hite said he’s paid attention to other events there and along with anglers exploring more of the huge playing field, he believes the landmark can be attained.
“I really think we could see a 100-pound stringer at the St. Johns River,” he said, “but we would have to have good weather and better-than-average conditions, because I think we’ll see people make long runs.”
The following week at the SiteOne Bassmaster Elite on the Harris Chain of Lakes might have better odds, Hite said. Elite tournaments there more than a decade ago never threatened that mark, but in 2019 Whitney Stephens set the one-day Basspro.com Opens record with his Day 1 bag of 32-12. Just a few weeks ago In the Strike King Bassmaster College event there, two teams topped 30 pounds, with winners Lafe and Matt Messer of Kentucky Christian University bringing in 36-7.
“Harris Chain has been fishing really well the last few years, and I think there’s an above average chance,” Hite said. “There’s no definites in fishing, you got to go fish each and every day and everything changes each and every day.
“It’s a great fishery, a lot of small lakes there, a lot going on with different types of vegetation in different areas. So I think it will be than a better than 50/50 chance it will take 100 pounds to win on the Harris Chain.”
Two weeks after the March 4-6 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk on Lake Hartwell, the circuit stays in South Carolina for the Guaranteed Rate Elite on Santee Cooper Lakes, the only other venue on the 2022 slate that’s had a 100-pound winner.
Just two weeks after the first Elite event in 2006 on Texas’ Lake Amistad produced 104-8, Preston Clark set the modern-era B.A.S.S. record on Santee with 20 bass weighing 115-15.
Hite, who lives near Santee and fishes it plenty, said he’s confident 100 can happen there, provided the weather is conducive. He said it doesn’t have to be great weather, just not awful like 25-mph or higher winds that limit mobility on huge Marion and Moultrie lakes.
“We’ve seen 100 pounds there and we’ve seen it in March,” Hite said. “We’ve been there a number of times. We had plans to be there in spring, everybody excited about the fishing, but we ended up having to go in the fall and Brandon Palaniuk showed you can catch some big fish even in the fall.
“Again with Santee, this will be the only third Elite, but it will be the second of the first three that I say we have a better than 50/50 chance to see 100-plus pounds.”
Chickamauga Lake, April 7-10, also holds potential, Hite said, but the stars would have to align perfectly. Chick produced the Tennessee state record bass, a 15-3 caught in 2015, and Hite said he’s discussed the big bass venue with Buddy Gross, who lives there.
“There’s been lot of double-digit fish caught on Chickamauga, especially prespawn, and this should be a prespawn tournament,” Hite said. “When you talk about double-digit fish, it doesn’t take a whole lot of them to add up to 100 pounds, but I think it will be difficult because of the time that we’re going to be there.”
The negative is that unless the region gets some heavy rains, the lake will still be at winter pool, where big stringers are harder to come by. Yet Hite and Gross agreed some bass topping 10 pounds will be caught that week.
“In my opinion, it will take a guy catching a 30-plus pound stringer, maybe even 35 pounds, and then being able to catch some 20-pound stringers, to make it happen,” Hite said. “Consistency will be maybe a bit of an issue for four days at that time of year.”
There will be more than a month buildup for the Simms Bassmaster Elite on Lake Fork, where five belts have been won in the past three years.
Brandon Cobb started the big hit parade winning with 114-0 in early May of 2019, when Garrett Paquette also earned a belt with 101-15. With the Fork event moved to Nov. 5-8 of 2020 because of COVID, Patrick Walters blew the field out of the water with 104-12, doubling the previous Elite margin of victory.
Last year, Fork guide Lee Livesay posted the third-best five-fish limit of 42-3 in totaling 112-5 to win, and Walters earned his second belt from Fork, opening with 32-14 and closing with 31-4 for 102-5.
Hite sees big things again from the jewel of Texas’ big bass lakes.
“Just seeing Lee Livesay and Patrick Walters’ final day at Fork was impressive, but even more impressive was watching Patrick Walters win there in the fall the season before. That was absolutely incredible,” Hite said. “When I think about Fork, we could see two or three people with over 100 pounds in May.”
Last year, Hite predicted before the season it might take 100 pounds to win on Pickwick Lake, but all bets were off when the lake rose 6 feet after heavy rains and delayed the event two days. Bill Lowen won with 83-5, including an 8-5 kicker, but the field was surely hampered by the water fluctuations.
“We still saw some great stringers caught there, but that made it just so hard to stay on fish for four days, when you have all that rising water then all that falling water over four or five days,” Hite said. “I think the chance of us seeing 100 pounds to win at Pickwick is over 50/50.
“That is a great time of year to be there, those fish will set up off shore, and we will see some tremendous catching at Pickwick in June (2-5).”
In becoming the first Canadian to win an Elite on the St. Lawrence River in 2020, Chris Johnston also came close to becoming the first to eclipse 100 pounds with smallmouth. Brother Cory Johnston was on pace in winning a three-day Open there last year with 78-0. Earlier last year, Taku Ito weighed 26-0 on the final day there to win with 90-0.
“The St. Lawrence is the gift that keeps on giving,” Hite said. “We’ve been so close. It’s a little bit of a stretch, but you look not only at the Johnston brothers, but what Taku did the final day, it could definitely happen. I would say the odds are 40 to 50%, because it’s just so hard to catch over 25 pounds every day.”
That’s the trick, Hite said, catching five bass a day that average 5 pounds, and doing that four days in a row. Johnston had a 27-pound bag but came up 2-8 short with 97-8. Also in that event, runner-up Paul Mueller landed a 7-13 smallmouth, believed to be the largest bronzeback caught in B.A.S.S. competition.
This year’s Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on St. Lawrence is July 14-17, about a week before the 2020 event.
“It will all depend how the winter and spring unfold up there,” Hite said. “Those smallmouth really lose a lot of weight during the spawning process. There’s a possibility there could be four days of spawners there, but there’s also a possibility that the vast majority have spawned, and it’s really hard to catch those 25-plus-pound stringers postspawn.”
In August, the Elites return to Lake Oahe in South Dakota. It took less than 70 pounds to win the 2018 Elite on the huge reservoir of the Missouri River, but it holds some big fish, including the state record smallmouth. In July, former Classic qualifier Troy Diede landed a 7-4 in practice for an event, which came a day after catching a 6-6.
Hite said some good fish will be weighed in the Aug. 18-21 Elite, but he’s doubtful anyone gets 100 pounds.
“Oahe, that’s one of those lakes with the scenery, the beauty, the mystique,” Hite said. “We’ve only been there one other time. It will be tough to hit that 100-pound mark, but it will be a good tournament, a good mixture of fish being weighed in.”
Odds are also against the feat happening in the season finale on the Mississippi River out of La Crosse, Wis. Aug. 26-29.
“It will be a great place to wrap up the season, where every ounce will count,” Hite said. “I don’t think we’ll see anywhere near 100 pounds to win, but we’ll see the tournament being very close the whole Top 10. Usually when you go up there, you have a chance to make a move and maybe win the event. I love the numbers of fish and how close the weights will be at La Crosse.”
So besides 2006, the only other year to have two 100-pound winners was 2007. In March, rookie Derek Remitz weighed 111-7 to win at Amistad in his first Elite, and Steve Kennedy rewrote the record two weeks later with 122-14 at California’s Clear Lake.
The 2022 lineup has the potential to equal that, and maybe even surpass it.
“You’re going to some great fisheries,” Hite said. “We’re going to some places we haven’t been to a lot in recent years, but then time of the year is mixing it up a little bit, too, from the last time we’ve been to Chick and Santee. There’s some places that are going to look very different than it did in 2020 when we were there in the fall.
“I think they have done a great job this year with the schedule.”