Wake up. Summer break is over. Time to lock in for the final two installments of the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series season.
On deck is the mighty Lake Champlain, a familiar foe for much of the roster at this point. The last two trips, it felt like the playbook for victory had been well established: find pelagic smallmouth in open water with forward-facing sonar (FFS) until you feel like you need a 6-pound largemouth.
A page of that playbook has been crossed out with the new FFS coin-flip system, and anglers will not be allowed to utilize the technology at all in this tournament. We’ll see how the weights compare between 2024 and 2026, but this has the potential to be the most intriguing Lake Champlain event in a long time.
Here’s what I’ll have my eyes on as anglers take the water.
Will largemouth return to the spotlight at Champlain?
There was a time in Lake Champlain lore where if you didn’t have largemouth in the livewell, you wouldn’t win anything.
That has changed dramatically over the past couple of trips. Don’t be mistaken, big largemouth are still brought in at every major tournament (many of them caught by Seth Fieder), but solely focusing on largemouth has not led to a blue trophy since 2017. Even then, Aaron Martens brought in some smallmouth.
With that said, there is a chance now that FFS isn’t allowed that we could see a largemouth beatdown, and there is precedent for it in recent B.A.S.S. history. In 2024, Mark Burgess won a three-day B.A.S.S. Nation regional with a total of largemouth weighing 62-1. He caught those flipping a craw, throwing a ChatterBait and cranking a squarebill in Missisquoi Bay.
Higher than normal water levels helped the green fish bite a lot in 2024. That year, the water level was just under 97 feet. Several weeks after the Nation event, the Elite Series returned and both smallmouth and largemouth inhabited the flooded rocks Ed Loughran used to win his first title. Both Matt Robertson and Cory Johnston buoyed their Top 10 finishes with largemouth catches but mixed in smallies too.
This year, the water levels are just under 95 feet and dropping, but that’s still higher than the 2025 EQ last September.
All smallies may have won the 2026 Nation Qualifier, a tournament that allowed FFS, but there were signs largemouth could play a much bigger role in the upcoming Elite showdown. Day 1, Tanner Hadden made a 50-mile run close to Ticonderoga and caught a 6-pounder before coming back towards Plattsburgh and finishing out his limit with smallmouth. Despite boat issues, he ran back again on Day 2 and caught almost 20 pounds in a limited amount of time. Several more quality largemouth bags came in as well, and the big bass of that event was a 6-15.
How do the smallmouth get caught?
Can someone catch smallies with a Sakamata shad on a jighead? Sure, but without FFS that likely won’t be the most efficient way to go about things. You should expect to see more of the traditional smallmouth lures like drop shots, Ned rigs and jigs, as well as the revival of the Carolina rig. Rock bottom and grasslines will be the main features targeted.
The 2026 Nation event revealed some interesting nuggets about what some of these summer smallies are up to. Winner Hayden Marbut and Hadden both revealed the smallmouth they caught were in less than 20 feet of water near deep breaks.
Less shocking, they used midsized or finesse-sized urchin baits like a Hideup Coike to catch those brown fish. Without forward-facing sonar, those same bass could be tempted by topwaters and jerkbaits. A spybait may have a revival this week too.
Emil Wagner won the 2025 Elite Qualifier fishing ledges as well.
McKinney’s chance at redemption
Trey McKinney had a legitimate chance to run away with the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race at Santee Cooper Lakes. He led Cory Johnston by over 40 points, but a 90th-place finish brought him right back to the field. He rebounded nicely at Pasquotank River, however, and leads Johnston by 16 points heading into these last two events.
His performance at Lake Champlain will be critical to his AOY chances. If he falls behind the Canadian at Champlain, history shows it will be nearly impossible for him to make up ground at the St. Lawrence River. Johnston has never missed a Championship Sunday at the St. Lawrence River in a B.A.S.S. event.
Johnston also has two Top 10s at Champlain. McKinney has just one trip to Champlain so far, a respectable 42nd in 2024 during his Bassmaster Rookie of the Year campaign. After his victory at Lake St. Clair last year, he admitted Champlain confused him a little.
If he can put the right pieces together on the Adirondack Coast, McKinney would return to the 1,000 Islands region (where he finished third in 2024) potentially with a lead.
Johnston, on the other hand, would love nothing more than to enter his home waters with an AOY lead. Wouldn’t it be something to win the tournament and hoist the AOY trophy in one weekend? A second-straight Top 10 in Plattsburgh would set the scene.
The Classic bubble
The Elite Series has been gifted four extra Classic berths via Bassmaster Opens winners (so far, there could be more). As it stands, Lee Livesay is bubble boy in 44th with 376 points. Behind him by two points is smallmouth specialist Alex Redwine, Champlain legend Mike Iaconelli and then a bunch of pretty surprising names including Brandon Palaniuk, Tucker Smith, Justin Hamner, Shane LeHew, Emil Wagner and Jacob Powroznik, to name a few.
The good news for that group of anglers specifically is their good history on smallmouth fisheries. The bad news is it’s really hard to make up ground, at Champlain especially. The weights are always ridiculously tight, and for proof, look at last year’s Elite Qualifier event where just over 3 pounds separated 13th from 50th. The St. Lawrence River isn’t that much easier to separate from the field either.
Anglers to watch
Drew Cook: In the middle of all of this Johnston vs. McKinney talk, Drew Cook has quietly worked his way into contention on the heels of back-to-back Top 10s at Santee Cooper and Pasquotank River. He also doesn’t get the credit as a smallmouth angler that he deserves. Cook has finished 32nd or higher in five trips to Champlain, including 11th- and 12th-place finishes in 2021 and 2023, respectively. He has never finished below the Top 10 in Angler of the Year.
Shane LeHew: Another slept-on smallmouth ace from the South, LeHew is having his worst year as an Elite Series angler. The St. Lawrence is really where he tends to shine, but there would be no better place to start his rebound than Champlain, where he has multiple top 30 finishes, including a 16th in 2020.
Joey Cifuentes III: To stay on the Elite Series in 2027, Cifuentes needs to make things happen quickly. Luckily, his history at Champlain is solid. He has an 11th and a 16th in 2023 and 2024, respectively, in Elite Series competition and a sixth in FLW competition in 2022.
Cooper Gallant: It has been a season from hell for the 28-year-old Canadian. He opened the season with a 30th and 22nd at Guntersville and Lake Martin but has since notched four finishes of 85th or worse.
