I recently spent some time on Lake Gunterville pre-practicing for the Ultimate Angler Championship, an event put on by the State of Alabama the second week of October with a million dollar prize purse. Obviously, I want to give myself the best shot at the $500,000 first-place prize, but I also used my time to start preparing for the first event of the 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series, which will take place on Guntersville the first week of February.
When I’m practicing for next year, I have to consider we have events with forward-facing sonar and events without. That changes things. In many cases, like Guntersville, I’ve been looking for places I can catch fish without that technology.
It’s kind of cool going back to your roots and looking for certain things, whether it’s grass or rock or hard spots. You kind of have to prepare for each event, per the rules.
Personally, I like the idea of getting back to the basics in some of the Elite events. I think it’s going to bring new life to some of the guys who’ve been down in the dumps the last couple of years.
The Ultimate Angler Championship does not allow forward-facing sonar, so I think this will give some of the Elites who are participating something of a preview for our first event in 2026. I like the new ruling, and I think we’re going to learn a lot next year watching both ways get played out.
With our first Elite event of 2026 scheduled for early February, we’ll be fishing a very different time of year, but that one’s the banger of the whole group. The world has watched Guntersville blow up the last four or five years with gigantic bags, and we’ve learned that a lot of them are getting caught with forward-facing sonar.
That’s especially relevant to the time of year we’ll be starting the new Elite season. It could be 10 degrees, so that one could be a really tough event and, since we can’t use forward-facing sonar, it could get us back to that winter grinder style tournament.
I think that will make it a fun one to watch with winter conditions and giant Guntersville bass. We’re gonna showcase a lot of baits and techniques like lipless baits, blind jerkbaiting and probably some cranking.
In terms of preparation for next year’s Elite, I used my recent time on Guntersville more for general awareness. You have to look at what a hard north wind can do; you have to look at whether you’ll have time to fish all the way to the end of the lake or up the river.
It’s a big lake, and there are a lot of little variables that’ll go into that event. So, you’re not only practicing for spots or areas, but you have to practice for the logistics of a great big lake like that, especially when it’s early in the year.
I will say that during my pre-practice, I completely went away from anything I might have fished in a tournament that allowed forward-facing sonar. If this technology was allowed in either of the events, you would see us out there floating around in the middle of the lake on the main river channel swings.
I’m not going to say somebody can’t go and catch ‘em out there, because somebody will, but it will be really hard to do that without forward-facing sonar. That’s why I only looked at stuff where I could catch ‘em without having to stare at my screen.
Next year is definitely going to be interesting, and I think you’ll see a few guys who heavily relied on forward-facing sonar struggle. I also think you’ll still see some of them do well.
I think you’ll still see some of this year’s top anglers do well in 2026. Ultimately, the guys that are putting in the time are going catch them with or without forward-facing sonar.
