The big story to watch on the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series – according to just about everyone who can distinguish a flipping jig from a football jig – is how the “half on, half off” forward-facing sonar schedule will impact the final standings. I don’t doubt that will be something to watch. It’ll be a continuing storyline I’ll certainly write about.
But it’s not the only factor that will make 2026 interesting.
Each Elite season since the tour’s inception in 2006 has been its own sprawling novel, with a hundred or so anglers each living their own chapter, with sub-threads galore. Here are some stories I’ll be watching for as we prepare to kick things off at Guntersville:
Three-peat possibility – Chris Johnston has won the past two Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles, propelling him into a limited fraternity of pros who’ve earned the award multiple times. He’s only the fourth to do it in the Elite era, along with Brandon Palaniuk, Aaron Martens and Kevin VanDam. Now he has a chance to go for three in succession. KVD was the last one to accomplish the feat when he won a seemingly unfathomable four in a row from 2008 through 2011. The only other angler to notch three in a row was Roland Martin from 1971 through 1973. No one’s saying it will be easy – indeed, winning a single AOY award requires a complex matrix of pieces to fall into place – but right now, Johnston’s the only one with a chance at it.
Hall of Fame watch – If Johnston wins a third AOY, this year or in the future, it immediately pushes him to the top or near the top of the mix for future Bass Fishing Hall of Fame consideration among current Elites – and he’s not yet 40. Who else has a chance to burnish their resume this year? There are the 50-plus-year-old guys like Christie (2022 Classic champ), Hackney (2014 AOY) and Swindle (two-time AOY), but also two-time Classic winners Hank Cherry and Jordan Lee, and of course, near-perennial All-Star Brandon Palaniuk.
Who will dethrone Anaya? – Fisher Anaya has yet to make an Elite Series cast, and he already has a target on his back. The “straight to the NBA” rookie (the comparisons with Trey McKinney are inevitable) won the Bassmaster EQ AOY title, which provided an Elite berth but not a spot in the Classic. Then he won the Team Championship Classic Fish-Off on Lake Hartwell to push his way into Knoxville in March. Making him the presumptive Rookie of the Year is a fair bet, but there’s a group of talented and tested fellow first-years who certainly won’t concede anything.
Sophomores and juniors – The rookie classes of 2024 and 2025 have upended the sport with Top 10 finishes, wins and Classic berths. There’s no doubt most of them will continue to excel – although the change in technology rules leads some fans and pundits to presume they won’t be quite as successful. I wish no single angler any ill will, but I am waiting for the first year when one or more of these superior talents stumble. It happens to every angler in the course of his career – and the true test of their greatness is how and whether they bounce back. When the forward momentum stops, at least temporarily, that’s when resilience comes into play and proves long-term excellence.
The Menendez effect – With the recent Elite exits of Rick Clunn and then Bernie Schultz, Mark Menendez becomes the oldest member of the Elite Series field. He will turn 62 later this year. He has had an exceptional and lengthy pro career, with six Classic appearances, three B.A.S.S. wins, and once held the record for the largest bass caught in Bassmaster competition. Now he has a bigger challenge, should he choose to accept it – be a unifying voice of reason in a fractured bass world. Menendez has always been measured and thoughtful, as well as politically active (see, for example, his work with the Asian Carp problem), but this will be a particularly challenging task. He’s uniquely suited for it.
Speaking of seniors – Like Chris Johnston, Brandon Palaniuk is not yet 40, and yet he’s been competing at the Elite level since some of his fellow competitors were in kindergarten. Palaniuk certainly had some individual tournament pitfalls in the early stages of his career, but he was a perpetual contender for AOY and won the title twice. The past two years have been tougher for him, though. He missed a Classic, and then nearly missed another, despite a signature win at Lake Okeechobee. What, if anything, has changed? Will he return to the top of the AOY standings, or have changes in his life and the overall level of competition made that unlikely? I’m betting on the former.
Return to the Pasquotank – With no Florida stops on the schedule this year, the use/non-use of forward-facing sonar is, of course, a major story, but so too is the return to river systems like the Arkansas River out of Muskogee and the Tenn-Tom. But the true wild card for me will be the return to the Pasquotank, albeit at a different time of year. Kyle Welcher and the weather so dominated the storyboard in the previous event that we didn’t get to understand as much about the system or its potential as we might have in a tighter tournament. It remains a broad and fertile playing field, with hundreds of thousands of acres of water, and I doubt Welcher or anyone else will win on the same area and pattern that dominated in 2025. Seasons may be made or broken in this last event before the tour goes up north.
The usual suspects – With all of the deserved acclaim for Johnston and last year’s dominant rookies and sophomores, it’s easy to forget that there are several anglers who are perpetual AOY contenders and right on the verge of superstardom. First among those is Patrick Walters, who will turn 32 on the last day of the schedule and has years of experience – and top AOY finishes – on his permanent record. Likewise, Jay Prezekurat, who will turn 27 a week after the Pasquotank event, already has multiple B.A.S.S. wins, a smallmouth Century Club belt, and in four Elite seasons has never finished worse than 10th in AOY. There is talent to spare on this tour, and whenever I get fixated on one or two anglers, I’m always surprised by the performance of others I’ve unfairly ignored because they’re quietly doing brilliant work.
I’m ready for the 21st season of Elite Series competition to start – and while these are the stories that I’ll watch consistently, I’m most excited for the twists and turns that always crop up unexpectedly.
