The 2026 professional bass fishing season is nearing its midway point with storylines building across the Bassmaster Elite Series and Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour, as southern rivers and classic TVA impoundments set the stage for tight Angler of the Year races and a shift toward northern smallmouth later this summer.
B.A.S.S. opens its 2026 Elite slate Feb. 5-8 on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, followed by Lake Martin a week later, before the Bassmaster Classic on the Tennessee River out of Knoxville in mid-March. The trail then works through the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi, the Arkansas River at Muskogee, and a two-stop swing through South Carolina’s Lake Murray and Santee Cooper in May, with AOY pressure rising ahead of June’s event on North Carolina’s Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound. The season is scheduled to close with smallmouth-centric tournaments on Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River in August, where recent years show AOY titles often decided by ounces.
On the Bass Pro Tour side, Major League Fishing starts its 2026 season Jan. 15-18 at Lake Guntersville with a 51-angler field fishing the standard four-day format of Qualifying, Knockout, and Championship rounds. The schedule runs through Lake Hartwell, split events on Texas’ Lake Whitney/Lake Waco and O.H. Ivie/Lake Brownwood, plus Beaver Lake and Grand Lake, before closing Aug. 6-9 on Lake Erie out of Sandusky, Ohio. REDCREST 2026 and the Heavy Hitters big-fish showcase at Florida’s Orange Lake highlight the high-purse majors.
Format and rules remain a talking point, with the Bass Pro Tour maintaining its score-every-fish model while other circuits, including the National Professional Fishing League, adjust information-sharing and off-limits rules for 2026 to tighten competitive integrity. With several events still to fish and northern swings ahead, AOY races on both major tours remain open, and big-water smallmouth venues are likely to decide the sport’s top honors.