The 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series season is complete, and I squeaked back into the field for 2027 by the skin of my teeth. Thankfully, I finished 70th in the points and didn’t have to find out whether I would make it through the career average list, where I was going to be right on the bubble.
I’m grateful to have requalified.
It wasn’t a bad year overall, either. I made a lot of really good decisions and got the bites I needed to do well in the events, but for some reason, I struggled to get fish in the boat this year.
Looking back, I think I needed a little bit of a wake-up call. I realized just how good of a job fishing the Elite Series is and that I want to be here more than ever. Being in a position where I could potentially lose my qualification really made me take a step back, look at everything and realize how blessed I am. Now, I’m looking forward to getting started next season.
I’m not kidding when I say I lost the biggest bites I had on most of the tournament days I fished this year, everywhere from the Elite Series to the other tour I fished and tournaments around home. I’m going to work on some mechanics and technical things during the offseason, but I don’t feel like I was doing anything drastically wrong that led to poor execution. It just seemed like a lot of bad luck. We went back and watched action-camera footage from throughout the year to analyze what happened, and some things just weren’t explainable.
I’m going to do a little fishing, but I also feel like I need a reset to put all of that behind me and start the season fresh. I finished the season on the other tour in ninth place, which was a good way to wrap things up. I think I’m going to jump into the Bassmaster Elite Qualifier event at Lake Guntersville in November, but I also have a lot going on at home.
Riley and I are building a house on our property, and I want to be involved and help with some of the work. Between fishing two tours this year, I also feel like I need a little mental break. I’ll be going overseas with my sponsor Ark this winter and doing some other promotional work with my sponsors, whom I’m really grateful for.
It was a tough year emotionally and mentally, but once the season ended and I knew I had automatically requalified, it felt like the one good thing I needed to turn everything around. I’m going to take this break, work on things at home and do some fishing to sharpen up a few things. When February rolls around, I’ll be ready to get back at it.
