Elite

Previewing the 2026 Elite fisheries

Get a preview of what to expect when the Elite season begins its eight-month run in February.

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Captions by
Craig Lamb
The 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series schedule aligns with the best times to fish on the nation’s top bass fisheries, including South Carolina’s Lake Murray. Here’s a historical look at what to expect for each tournament. 
Lake Guntersville, February 5-8
The possibility of heavyweight catches is real, given the habitat and vitality of the Tennessee River fishery. Guntersville put on a show at the 2020 Bassmaster Classic held in early March. That’s one month later than dates of the 2026 competition. Here’s a recap of top patterns and lures from the Classic won by Hank Cherry. 
The 53 anglers spent the week dealing with rain, dingy water and post-front conditions. By then, the largemouth were committed to the prespawn cycle, setting up a textbook lesson in late winter/early spring interception tactics. Migrating largemouth ranged from secondary points, ditches, creeks and riprap and docks, all of those leading to spawning flats. 
The top lure lineup consisted of coverage baits to intercept forward largemouth movement. Those baits included bladed jigs, crankbaits, jerkbaits, swimbaits and jigs. 
Runner-up Mike Auten favored a bladed jig and lipless crankbait for his weight of 58 pounds, 10 ounces. 
Auten fished creek channels leading to spawning areas, and the search and destroy lipless bait was ideal for quickly covering water. 
Cherry won with 65 pounds, 5 ounces. A casting jig, jerkbait and bladed jig were his top lures. 
The two-time consecutive champ focused on riprap lined causeways he described as migration routes to spawning areas. Concentrations of giant schools of gizzard shad created the ideal setup for pinpointing bass location. 
Lake Martin, February 12-15
At the 2018 Elite held in February, largemouth stole the show on a fishery known for superb spotted bass fishing. Periodic rains with warm water runoff inundated the impoundment to create ideal conditions for a prespawn bite. 
Mark Menendez used crankbaits, a jig and spinnerbaits to finish eighth. His lure lineup was a snapshot of the top lures dominating the Top 10, although a credible spotted bass bite played out offshore. Crankbaits were especially ideal for the dingy water in the mid-50s. 
Takahio Omori’s winning weight of 59-8 came from an obscure spot up the lake in an area so shallow his boat left a mud trail. Current flowing behind a small island set up the perfect scenario for Omori in the ultra-shallow water. 
Omori made repeated casts into the current seam with a squarebill crankbait to score the win. 
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, March 26-29
Last year and about three weeks prior to the 2026 Elite event a Bassmaster Open played out on the Tenn-Tom. Trey Schroeder won with 42-12, and Stephen Browning finished second with 42-4.
Schroeder never ventured into the muddy main river, opting to fish in the nearby clearer water of Columbus Lake near the weigh-in venue. 
The key was finding a hard-bottom area consisting of sand and gravel with mixed vegetation. A shad spawn and bedding bass added to the productivity of his area. 
Browning rotated between a bladed jig and squarebill crankbait. 
A favored bait was this 3/8-ounce Z-Man Tungsten ChatterBait Elite EVO with a Z-Man RaZor ShadZ for a trailer. 
Browning also used this Megabass S-Crank 1.5 for covering shallow water wood and rock. 
Schroeder set out to cover as much water as possible with a swim jig. He switched to a flipping rig after locating isolated areas with specific prespawn and later bedding largemouth.
His search bait was this 3/8-ounce 6th Sense Braid Swim Jig with a 6th Sense Stroker Craw for a trailer. 
Schroeder’s one-two punch included this 6th Sense Bongo, rigged on a 1/2-ounce 6th Sense Pitch Black Tungsten Weight, with a 5/0 6th Sense OX Flipping Hook. 
Arkansas River, April 16-19
Tournament waters are pools 15, 16 and 17, which always means planning the entire day around the lock schedule. Such was the case in June at the 2020 Open won by Chris Jones with 42-13. 
Jones rotated through spinnerbaits, plastic frogs and this key bait. He chose a 3/8-ounce Booyah Bait Co. prototype jig with YUM 3.25-inch Craw Chunk.
Lake Murray, May 7-10
The 2024 Elite played out during the same May timeframe as the upcoming 2026 stop, with Patrick Walters nearly smashing the century mark with a winning weight of 93-15. 
Prolonged cloudy conditions kept the herring bite going throughout the day around islands and other near-shore areas. When it subsided top anglers switched to Carolina rigs and other deeper coverage baits in the same areas. 
Walters caught 26-12 on a cloudy Championship Monday for the Rapala Crush City Monster Bag of the Tournament and its $2,000 bonus. The epic finish also gave him a double-digit margin of victory.  
Walters deployed a topwater and glidebait for surface feeders and a Carolina and finesse rig when that action subsided. 
For topwater bites he used this Rapala Precision Xtreme Jowler 12. 
Walters also used a Clutch Swimbait Darter glidebait.
For finesse bites, he used a Zoom Super Fluke paired with a #2 Redline Neko Hook.
Santee Cooper Lakes, May 14-17
The Elites last visited here in late April, or just two weeks earlier than the 2026 event. Luke Palmer posted a winning weight of 95-14 in the 2023 event. His 14-3 margin of victory over Mark Menendez was the sixth largest in Bassmaster history at the time. 
Spending all four days on Lake Marion’s southwest side, Palmer’s main technique was old school — big rod, heavy line and flipping to cypress trees. In the early going, he threw a bladed jig through the eelgrass, but switching techniques late on the first day ignited his run to the top. 
“When that sun came out and it warmed up, those fish went ahead and moved to the trees,” Palmer said. With thousands of cypress trees spread throughout Marion, Palmer focused on those nearest deep water. Knowing the tournament fell at the tail end of the Santee Cooper spawn, he fished the zone most likely to host the late spawners.
Palmer alternated between two creature-style baits for his shallow-water strike zone. 
A key bait was a YUM Bad Mamma, rigged on a 3/0 straight shank hook, with a 1/4- or 5/16-ounce Rougarou tungsten weight. 
Using the same weights and hook, he also used a YUM Wooly Bug.
Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound, June 11-14
The Elite’s first visit here in mid-April 2025 generated high praise for the bass fishing considering the weights caught by the anglers, mostly in the connecting rivers to the Sound. 
The highly anticipated 2026 trip happens two months later, but there’s no reason to believe the fishing will be any different. Kyle Welcher staged a blowout performance with a winning weight of 118-12.
Many of his peers made lengthy round-trip runs in rough water through the Albemarle Sound to reach adjoining river systems. 
Instead, Welcher played it close by choosing a 1-mile stretch of the Pasquotank within a couple of miles of the weigh-in venue in Elizabeth City. 
Welcher dialed into specific stumps and cypress knees he surmised were used by largemouth to spawn. He opened the tournament catching prespawn females, but as the tournament progressed, those females locked onto their beds to spawn. 
His key lure was a CrushCity Bronco Bug, rigged on a 4/0 Gamakatsu G-Power Heavy Cover Worm Flip and Punch Hook, with a 1/4-ounce tungsten weight. 
Adding a simple bobber stop was key so the bait and weight stayed together. Doing so maximized the effectiveness of the complete package.  
Lake Champlain, August 13-16
The always highly anticipated Northern Swing wrap up kicks off during the same dates as the 2024 event on Champlain. Ed Loughran III won with 80-12 with mixed bags of largemouth and smallmouth. 
Loughran’s best area was a rock ridge in 5 to 10 feet of water surrounded by milfoil beds. Smallmouth stayed on one side of the ridge, while largemouth staged on the opposite side. 
Loughran’s lure lineup led off with a 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait with Missile Baits Spunk Shad 4.5. 
For topwater action he used this SPRO Walking Haint.
After depleting his supply of 1/2-ounce Missile Baits Ike’s Mini Flip Jigs, Loughran tied on a homemade version. For a trailer he initially used a Missile Baits Chunky D, and then a Missile Baits Craw Father. 
St. Lawrence River, August 27-30
Claiming first place is no easy feat in the rankings of the Bassmaster Magazine 100 Best Bass Lakes, and the St. Lawrence River has now done it twice (2022, 2024). The river and easternmost Lake Ontario again validated the coveted ranking in 2024, producing two more Bassmaster Century Club entries. 
Elite Series rookie Robert Gee claimed a Century Club belt with his second-place finish of 100 pounds, 7 ounces. The Tennessean capped off an impressive first season after fishing a fourth — and third consecutive — Championship Sunday at the nation’s top fishery.
Canadian Cory Johnston claimed a belt by winning the tournament with 102 pounds, doing so on familiar ground — and conditions — by mastering the rolling waves and gusty winds of the big lake. 
Johnston fished the tournament in Lake Ontario, working an 80-yard stretch of bottom in 33 feet that held heavier-than-average smallmouth. 
His winning lure was a 3-inch 6th Sense Party Minnow rigged on a No. 2 Gamamkatsu G-Finesse Hook with a 3/8-ounce weight. 

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