BASS has released their tournament schedule for the Elites for next season. I found it interesting to see no visits to Florida, Texas, or Louisiana. What are your thoughts? 

 

https://www.bassmaster.com/elite/news/b-a-s-s-announces-2026-progressive-bassmaster-elite-series-schedule-featuring-legendary-fisheries-and-historic-returns/

And again - nothing up here...they ever going to hit Mille Lacs or the Upper Mississippi again?

They will be on the upper Mississippi in a couple weeks I think 

 

@MN Fisher

Looks like an excellent schedule.

Its not bass fishing without Florida in there. Hard to believe. Makes one wonder why.

 

 

2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule

February 5-8, Scottsboro, Ala., Lake Guntersville
February 12-15, Alexander City, Ala., Lake Martin
March 13-15, Bassmaster Classic, Knoxville, Tenn., Tennessee River
March 26-29, Columbus, Miss., Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway
April 16-19, Muskogee, Okla., Arkansas River
May 7-10, Columbia, S.C., Lake Murray
May 14-17, Clarendon County, S.C., Santee Cooper Lakes
June 11-14, Elizabeth City, N.C., Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound
August 13-16, Plattsburgh, N.Y., Lake Champlain
August 27-30, Clayton, N.Y., St. Lawrence River

3 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

And again - nothing up here...they ever going to hit Mille Lacs or the Upper Mississippi again?

August 21-24 at LaCrosse.

 

However, I do agree that 2026 is overly heavy on southern waters. Only 2 events on northern smallmouth waters, and both at the worst time of year. Drop shotting and scoping in midsummer. Barf

27 minutes ago, gim said:

August 21-24 at LaCrosse.

Hadn't seen that, probably cause I dropped out of the 'contest' due to missing 2 events cause of my time in the hospital.

 

28 minutes ago, gim said:

However, I do agree that 2026 is overly heavy on southern waters. Only 2 events on northern smallmouth waters, and both at the worst time of year. Drop shotting and scoping in midsummer. Barf

Come on, man....tell us how you REALLY feel about a viable finesse technique?

7 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

I found it interesting to see no visits to Florida, Texas, or Louisiana.

 

Hey they've completely dissed the western half of the U.S. for nearly 2 decades.  When I asked them about it, they made it clear there were no plans ever to venture West again.  The reason? The pros don't want to travel that far.

 

Looks like the circle is getting smaller now.  Probably due to rising travel costs.

3 hours ago, gim said:

scoping in midsummer. Barf

Over the course of 4 days, I couldn't find a single person at ICAST that favored livescope.

 

Not one.  Not even a pro.

 

I'm not saying there aren't any fans of it, but they're a small minority for sure.

 

My take? (not that anyone asked)  It's similar to electro-fishing.  A great tool for fishery biologists and lake managers, but not something anglers should have.  Yes, it takes skill to use it, but it shouldn't be used for fishing.

8 hours ago, Glenn said:

 

Hey they've completely dissed the western half of the U.S. for nearly 2 decades.  When I asked them about it, they made it clear there were no plans ever to venture West again.  The reason? The pros don't want to travel that far.

 

And yet, they have no problem asking those out West to buy their sponsors’ rods, reels, baits, etc.  

9 hours ago, Glenn said:

Looks like the circle is getting smaller now.  Probably due to rising travel costs.

 

I get that.  It's a big commitment and it's expensive to participate in these events unless you have sponsors forking over the dough.  I think all of us would like to see more waters covered around the country and expand some horizons.

 

The part I fail to comprehend about the northern smallmouth events is the time of year they are held.  EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

 

Everyone knows what the brown bass are doing in midsummer.  They are on deeper offshore structure.  This is exactly why I refuse to target them that time of year.  If they had these events in the spring, a wide variety of tactics would come into play.  Instead, it's just the same old same old.  Full screen staring on display with a finesse tactic in deep water.

 

23 minutes ago, gim said:

 

I get that.  It's a big commitment and it's expensive to participate in these events unless you have sponsors forking over the dough.  I think all of us would like to see more waters covered around the country and expand some horizons.

 

The part I fail to comprehend about the northern smallmouth events is the time of year they are held.  EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

 

Everyone knows what the brown bass are doing in midsummer.  They are on deeper offshore structure.  This is exactly why I refuse to target them that time of year.  If they had these events in the spring, a wide variety of tactics would come into play.  Instead, it's just the same old same old.  Full screen staring on display with a finesse tactic in deep water.

 

It’s a weather thing… they save the northern spots for mid summer in hopes of better weather, and do the spring/fall thing in southern states for warmer temps and hopefully less precipitation. But it’s a crap shoot either way to a certain degree… 

 

39 minutes ago, gim said:

 I think all of us would like to see more waters covered around the country and expand some horizons.

 

The part I fail to comprehend about the northern smallmouth events is the time of year they are held.  EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

 

 Instead, it's just the same old same old. 

 

I'd like to see it broken up more.

 

I basically only fish in Florida. If I traveled, I would fish where I travel, but as a retiree I just have no need to travel outside of Florida any longer.

 

And this controls my fishing thinking to a large degree.

 

I never catch smallmouth bass in Florida. They don't exist here that I know of, and yet in "bass" tournaments up north they are included, yet when tournaments happen here in Florida I don't see our sunshine bass being included- granted they are a laboratory created bass- but catchable just the same and can be weighed in, so why not?

 

Getting to my point or breaking it up some, as a Florida guy I really wish smallmouth were not a part of it, or if they are to be included, then regionally available bass in other areas should also be allowed in like Florida's sunshine bass.

 

On to another issue... getting back to regions...

 

The western guys want to see western waters included.

The northern guys want to see more northern waters included.

The Southern guys want to see more Southern waters included.

The foreign guys want to see more foreign waters included. Japan and Mexico anyone? Others?

 

And for some of us Florida guys, well, honestly all I really want to see is Florida waters.

 

Its a good thing and challenging to be all inclusive. Drag a Florida guy to west coast and he's unfamiliar with it out there but the guys from there have home field advantage, and same for up north... does not make great sense for me to run up north and fish a tournament for a fish I don't even have in my home state but now I gotta go compete with guys who grew up catching them. This is a good thing don't get me wrong.

 

But what I want to see is only Florida. The northern guys are wanting to see more of theirs. The western guys want to see more of theirs. And I want to see more of Florida- but not mixed in with everyone else. Not even the SE. I want Florida to be a stand alone place.

 

I do a lot of fishing video downloading. 95% of what I download and keep is all from just my Florida regions of reach. I have no reason to watch or download fishing videos on how to catch smallmouth, or how western guys use 8" swimbaits matching the truck loads of 8" trout they dump into their man made reservoirs to feed those hybrid lab bass to huge sizes with almost no natural predators. Yeah, I don't want to fish that way. No reason to. Florida is not like that. I want to stay regional. Like everyone else. Heck I won't even download Florida panhandle videos because that's out of my range.

 

I don't get a whole lot out of ice fishing, ya know? Or fishing for California's laboratory created hybrid bass.

 

As I drive through central Florida I pass a small town called Crescent City who has a large sign at edge of town as you enter that says "Bass Capitol of the world!" And they mean it. We have a few other places around Florida sporting the same sign.

 

This is why I said above: "Its not bass fishing without Florida in there."

 

If they are fine with cutting Florida out all together, I am fine with Florida going it alone and creating our own statewide tournament organizations. And let the northern guys do the same, and the western guys as well.

 

We need fishing tournament organizations that serves all of us at all times. Do we need restructuring? New organizations all together? How can we develop a fishing infrastructure that serves all equally across the board at all times? Rather this selective exclusive situation we see now.

 

Florida has spent millions, maybe billions on our bass fishing and in creating sunshine bass.

 

Its hard for me to accept a place like Florida can be cut out like this and it still be called bass fishing. I may be a tiny bit biased.

 

I forgot to mention that like the comment I am replying to above, I would like to see some variation in timing for when the Elite series comes into Florida. Quite often it is always around the same time and same locations. Florida has so much more to offer and they simply are not taking advantage of it.

14 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

It’s a weather thing… they save the northern spots for mid summer in hopes of better weather, and do the spring/fall thing in southern states for warmer temps and hopefully less precipitation.

 

I realize that.  You can't hold a tournament in the south in July or August when it's 115 degrees in the shade.

 

They are missing out on showcasing how these smallmouth waters work each and every year because of scheduling though.  A May or June event up there would draw far more eyeballs and interest than another one in the dog days of August.

 

The anglers have a lot of pull on these decisions I'm sure.  When they complain and lobby, there's not much alternative.  And let's be honest: the majority of them are from the southern portion of the country too.

I know they don't like to drag the season on forever, but I would love to see how these guys do on a northern fishery in late September-October time frame. 

1 hour ago, gim said:

They are missing out on showcasing how these smallmouth waters work each and every year because of scheduling though.  A May or June event up there would draw far more eyeballs and interest than another one in the dog days of August.

Agreed, I’d love to see it. The Bassmaster Kayak schedule is to be announced this Fall and there is a private FB page where they asked us anglers for our thoughts/preferences on locations. I see Mille Lacs on there a lot. Other northern destinations you hear are LaCrosse and Vermilion.  Likeliest IMO is LaCrosse, but I still think it’ll be summer. 

A yak tournament on Mille Lacs?!  Yikes.  That could get hairy given how big and rough that lake can get.

 

LaCrosse is awesome no matter when the event is held.  Spring time is probably the most ideal time, but there's so much variety of habitat and backwaters to fish there anyways.

3 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

I never catch smallmouth bass in Florida. They don't exist here that I know of, and yet in "bass" tournaments up north they are included, yet when tournaments happen here in Florida I don't see our sunshine bass being included- granted they are a laboratory created bass- but catchable just the same and can be weighed in, so why not?

I understand your opinion on this, but it may be because Smallmouth bass are found in 48 states, with only Florida and Louisiana being without them. Whereas as far as I know your Sunshine bass exist ONLY in Florida. So, it makes sense to include Smallies in tournaments, but it may be unreasonable to include Sunshine bass in them.

On the other hand, other "regional" species (spotted bass, Alabama bass, etc.) are allowed, so why not include the Sunshine bass? But again, the spotted bass and Alabama bass are found in several states.....so maybe that is why they are included when your "one state only" bass are not.

And just for fun, don't forget that every species of Bass that are allowed in tournaments are not Bass at all.....they are a type of Sunfish.  So why don't they allow Sunfish to be included in tournaments?  Just playing Devils' Advocate here. 

If I’m not mistaken the majority of professional tournaments scheduled in Florida are usually early in the schedule for obvious reasons and not only because of the weather. 
 

Fishing on Okeechobee, Toho, or St John’s is completely different weight wise than North of the Tenn River. 
 

 

Mike

1 hour ago, gim said:

A yak tournament on Mille Lacs?!  Yikes.  That could get hairy given how big and rough that lake can get.

Mille Lacs would have to take place on the right day since Minnesota is known for a lot of wind. Although people suggest it because they like smallmouth and want to mix up the schedule with a northern destination. Mille Lacs is actually a little smaller than reservoirs on the current/past schedule like Toledo Bend, Santee Cooper, Kentucky Lake, etc. I still think LaCrosse is a much safer destination in a kayak, plus I live rivers

1 hour ago, Kirtley Howe said:

On the other hand, other "regional" species (spotted bass, Alabama bass, etc.) are allowed, so why not include the Sunshine bass?

 

This is a slippery slope.  There's all kinds of other "bass" that could be included in a tournament too beyond what is.  White bass, striped bass, and even yes, the hated rock bass.

 

We don't need to go down that rabbit hole.  Leave it as largemouth and smallmouth only, if you ask me.

No Texas or Florida lakes is strange. 2 of the top 10  Bassmaster 100 are included; Santee Copper and St Lawrence River.

As far as Bassmaster coming west it’s not the quality of the fishing the west coast doesn’t turn out an audience to support their events.

Tom

@TnRiver46 I see the classic is in your neck of the woods. Maybe a BR meetup this year?

16 hours ago, Glenn said:

Hey they've completely dissed the western half of the U.S. for nearly 2 decades.  When I asked them about it, they made it clear there were no plans ever to venture West again.  The reason? The pros don't want to travel that far.

Let them cry all they want about travel to the west.  I have had to do so many things that I didn't like or was inconvenient to make a living, they can suck it up and drive across the country once every couple of  years.  As far as the excuse they don't have the fan base in the west, how are they ever going to develop a fan base if they never go there?  Besides they have never even tried going to WA Oregon, or Idaho.  I bet they haven't ever even contacted the Coeur D'alene chamber of commerce to see if a tournament would be feasible, let alone the number of towns along the vast Columbia River.  

 

They don't mind western anglers spending money on sponsors products, or tuning in to live, watch the tournament's in the East.  They want the western anglers as fans, and members, but don't want to put a few more miles on all of those brand new pick ups.  If that's the best excuse they can come up with, than they might as well tell the western fans they just don't matter.  

26 minutes ago, king fisher said:

they might as well tell the western fans they just don't matter.  

 

 

btw, they did go to the CA Delta once or twice, and they had the Columbia river scheduled in 2018.  Then they cancelled when the pros complained, and B.A.S.S. ended all West Coast stops.  

It's 100% money driven.  Costs for competitors and BASS equipment and staff to travel.  Then add in which locations want to pay BASS most to hold the tournament.  Outside of the classic that's how it works unfortunately.  It is a business at the end of the day.

 

Up here (I live on Champlain and am 4ish hours to Clayton)  bass season doesn't start til second Saturday in June (little later for St Lawrence) due to spawn etc.  If they came up for that timeframe it's sort of a pain because depending on the Spring the smallies are pre, post and full spawn.  Fishing is good but not 30 bags a day of 20+lbs for 4 days good.  August will be a minnow tournament for sure but way easier/consistent to show out with big bags (good for all parties involved).

 

I think (regardless of living on one of the lakes) it's a pretty good schedule mix of OG factories, some risers and a couple wildcards that I've never really heard of.