2025 BASS elite schedule

[TnRiver46]

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Wow can't even hold one event where the sport was born and current home of BASS.  Guess Alabama didn't pay to play, sucks.   

 

First three events will be scope fest with a possibility of some sight fishing.  Hartwell, Fork and St. Clair will be scope fest.   So much for scheduling events that aren't heavy on FFS usage.  

 

3 out of 9 have a chance for diversity of techniques.   

 

Only exciting stops are the Albemarle Sound, and Mississippi River imho.   Looking forward to the NPFL announcement.   Heck at this point I'm looking forward to MLF's announcement and schedule.   

[TnRiver46]

I like the schedule , can’t wait 

 

(they did have 2 consecutive in Alabama last year, if they did that again it would be “they always go to the same place every year”)

I wish they would go to the MS river every year, looks pretty awesome 

[Choporoz]

MLF let the Albermarle cat out of the bag

[bottom_dollar]

Not bad, they will probably hit Alabama and New York next season. 

 The really good scopers can use it anywhere they go but now the OGs and their traditional techniques will at least have a fighting chance on most of the lakes, and a lot depends on the conditions when they get there. ie Champlain or Wheeler this year. 
Of course some people are gonna be upset but in this great country we have not one but at least 3 “pro” leagues to watch!! 

[king fisher]

I'm still hoping they come to the North West sometime  I know it is a long way to travel, and makes for many extra hardships on the anglers.  I get it, but sometimes jobs suck.  It wont kill them to have to put a few more hours on the road, and loose some sleep.    I guess it could be worse, I could be waiting for the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl.  I'm sure both will happen, but maybe not in my life time.

[gim]

Kinda lame.

 

Sabine River is terrible.  Its a pure dink fest.  "Aint no big uns in the Sabine." - @Catt

 

Scheduling is pretty bad too.  Back to back events with weeks off in between.  What happens when they have a weather day again?  Some anglers miss out on pre fishing at the next event because of it.

 

St Clair in August, pure scope fest off shore.  When you schedule midsummer northern smallmouth events up north, that's what you get though.  Don't blame the anglers, I blame the moronic scheduler.

 

The one event I do like is LaCrosse.  I wish it was a spring event in early June instead, but that area has vast areas to fish for both largemouth and smallmouth.  There is a Bassmaster Open at LaCrosse in a week BTW.

[Glenn]

16 minutes ago, king fisher said:

I'm still hoping they come to the North West sometime

That will NEVER happen.  The anglers will never agree to it because it's too far and expensive for them to travel.  The last time they scheduled the CA Delta, the Elites revolted and B.A.S.S. caved in to their demands.

 

The 2025 schedule is....average and conservative.  Nothing leaps out to me that's exciting and new.  Even Fork, with its larger-than-average fish, is a fishery that's been visited so many times by them. It's getting bland.

 

Thousands of lakes and rivers in the U.S. and they keep going back to the same ones while eliminating the entire West.  Same ol B.A.S.S. stuck in their ways.

 

Meh.

[bowhunter63]

Looks good , But one thing is for sure I’m still gonna suck in the fantasy league 

[Tennessee Boy]

It definitely looks like a more diverse schedule.  They said that Toledo Bend and Fork were their most watched tournaments this year so I was wondering if they would be willing to skip Texas in the winter.  They did.   I’m not very familiar with some of the lakes.  Looks like a good schedule to me.

[TnRiver46]

St Clair is the one I’m looking forward to the most, love the blue water smallies 

 

I watched somebody, I believe it was zaldain, battle a musky on a crankbait for some time there last year 

[king fisher]

44 minutes ago, Glenn said:

That will NEVER happen.  The anglers will never agree to it because it's too far and expensive for them to travel. 

Doesn't Brandon Palaniuk live in Idaho?  Wouldn't be to far for him to travel.  Other elite series anglers have lived in CA.  Lots of people have to travel all across the country for their jobs.  The sponsors don't mind selling tackle to people in the Northwest.  It wouldn't hurt the pros that get the sponsorship money to have to spend some extra time and money to fish in the West once every few years. Then they complain that You Tube anglers take sponsorship dollars away from the true professionals while the true professionals don't even want to travel to one third of the country.  That's ok.  Josh Jones goes to Idaho to make video's.  I hope he catches the new world record small mouth while he is there. 

[Texas Flood]

No stops in Iowa again I see...

[gim]

3 minutes ago, Texas Flood said:

No stops in Iowa again I see...

 

That's because there's nowhere to stop.  Haha

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, Texas Flood said:

No stops in Iowa again I see...

They did go to SD once or twice 😂 

[Texas Flood]

33 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

They did go to SD once or twice 😂 

That's pathetic. I mean who doesnt want to fish a Iowa lake that is mostly fertilizer run off and a 15lb daily bag?

[TnRiver46]

Hey, took less than 15 lbs a day to win the bassmaster classic where I live 

[Texas Flood]

Iowa>>Tennessee confirmed 

[Siebert Outdoors]

I'd really like to see a Lake of the Ozarks in April.

[gim]

7 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Hey, took less than 15 lbs a day to win the bassmaster classic where I live 

 

15 pounds is a monster bag for the Sabine River.  Sadly, that's a waterway in Texas of all places too.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

2 hours ago, Glenn said:

That will NEVER happen.  The anglers will never agree to it because it's too far and expensive for them to travel.  The last time they scheduled the CA Delta, the Elites revolted and B.A.S.S. caved in to their demands.

 

The 2025 schedule is....average and conservative.  Nothing leaps out to me that's exciting and new.  Even Fork, with its larger-than-average fish, is a fishery that's been visited so many times by them. It's getting bland.

 

Thousands of lakes and rivers in the U.S. and they keep going back to the same ones while eliminating the entire West.  Same ol B.A.S.S. stuck in their ways.

 

Meh.

It's pretty amazing that BASS's business model is so reliant on city tourism councils paying them to bring a derby there.    I've heard it's much harder to get cities out west to pay BASS to come.    A number of Elite anglers I've listened to on podcasts have said they'd be open to going west.      I think the number one criterion for BASS when making a schedule is what cities will pay them to come.     

 

Then you have to really ponder why BASS can't throw in a new format derby occasionally.    One of the few things MLF really gets right is the Team events, and especially the Heavy Hitters.    I'd argue Heavy Hitters format is the most exciting derby format. 

 

If BASS didn't have the Classic, they'd be a fraction of what they are.   The whole league is being held up by one event.   When you hear the pros talk, they all say that a Classic win is the end all accomplishment in Bass fishing, and I'd agree.  

[JediAmoeba]

I think to be a big league you need to have a lot more diversity as far as regions in the country go. Despite what Texas does for bass fishing, they shouldn't have 3 of the 10 events. And Florida doesn't need 2.

 

It's no wonder that most bass fishing pros are in the South, the best majority of tournaments are during the spawn in the south. Bed fishing should be outlawed. Generally considered one of the worst classics ever was in Pittsburgh but I thought it was great seeing them figure out a really tough Fishery. I don't want to see these guys always catching 20+ lb sacks - that's just not the way most of the countries fishing is... They should definitely throw in 1 or 2 tidal Fisheries as well.

 

Every major sport goes all over the country and many even expand to international countries. However BASS is stuck going to a few defined Fisheries and states. It really kind of stinks. They don't have coanglers and there are only 100 boats. They could do a little better and expand to other parts of the country and run the season all the way to November. I think they should run 1 event per month for the year.

 

And as previously mentioned they could do all kinds of cool things - team events, buddy tournaments, etc. Fish like a lot of the local clubs around the country so the weekend anglers can relate more.

[Logan S]

29 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

They should definitely throw in 1 or 2 tidal Fisheries as well.

There are 3 tidal fisheries on this schedule.  

[TnRiver46]

45 minutes ago, Logan S said:

There are 3 tidal fisheries on this schedule.  

[VolFan]

I’d like to see them do one ‘Fish Wherever You Want’ weekend with photo/scale style scoring. Basically an all-virtual event but you could have a few camera crews scattered around. Best bag wins.