After the first two Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments of 2026 at lakes Guntersville and Martin, I found myself near the bottom of the Angler of the Year Standings. I had dug myself into a hole that will be hard to climb out of.
I hoped to begin turning things around at the next event on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The Tombigbee is essentially a big canal with a few backwaters, and that makes for a grinder river type event.
During practice, I locked down and found a 5-acre pond that took some finagling to get into. The bass were slowly moving up to the bank to spawn, and I decided to invest my time there.
On the first day, I picked apart one side of the pond, which had a 2-foot shelf off the bank. I tried flipping a jig, but the bass wouldn’t bite it. I caught every fish on a wacky rig and sacked an 11 pound, 6 ounce limit that landed me in 49th place.
I returned to the pond on Day 2 but couldn’t get bit on the bank I’d fished the first day. I switched to the other side of the pond, where I had failed to get a bite in practice.
I dissected that bank with a 3/8-ounce black and blue jig, weighed in a 10-8 limit and fell to 53rd place. It was disappointing to barely miss the Top 50 cut, but I had earned valuable AOY points and gained a bit of momentum.
I pre-practiced for the Arkansas River tournament, even though I’m very familiar with that body of water. The river changes year to year, and I wanted to see which areas had good habitat.
Local derbies prior to the Elite tournament were producing heavier bags than I’ve ever seen on that river. In the past, a 12-pound bag made you a contender. This time, it took over 13 pounds a day just to make the Top 50.
During the official practice, I checked the pool we launched on, locked through downriver to Kerr Reservoir and locked to the upriver pool. I never found much of anything, except for one oxbow upriver.
I knew I could run down to Kerr and catch fish, but I’d have only three hours to fish. Locking upriver would give me five hours of fishing time. I opted for the upriver pool.
I got my bites in practice on a white 3/8-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO dressed with a Z-Man Goat twin tail grub. The small, flat trailer let me reel the ChatterBait through the thick water willow that produced most of my bass. I locked my ChatterBait rod in my hand throughout the tournament.
On the first day, there was a little bit of a shad spawn. I caught three good ones right off and culled up to 15 pounds by 10 o’clock. That put me in 36th place.
I returned the next day and quickly realized my backwater was a different playing field. The water had come up half a foot overnight and that messed up my fish. I caught three bass for only about 7 pounds. It just wasn’t happening.
I ran to an oxbow I had briefly looked at in practice and caught two that pulled me up to 11 pounds. I noticed a small pocket of water behind an island in the back of the oxbow. I had to trim up my outboard and hold my trolling motor close to the surface to slide in there. I don’t think I could have gotten in the first day.
The water behind the island was 2 1/2 feet deep and look promising. I caught a 3-pounder and change and a 4-pounder and change. That gave me a 14-10 limit and pulled me up to 22nd place.
I launched on Day 3 hoping to sack enough weight to make the Top 10 final. The water had come up again, and the bass, apparently, weren’t happy about it. I struggled to boat a 10-pound limit and dropped back to 36th place.
More importantly, this moved me up to 74th place in the point standings. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I feel I’ve turned my season in the right direction.
