An upstate New York lake known for largemouth and smallmouth fertility, a Tennessee River impoundment renowned for its ledge fishing and a south Florida trophy lake are set to challenge the field competing in the inaugural Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier Series presented by Bass Pro Shops.
Lake Champlain, Wheeler Lake and Lake Okeechobee, uniquely different in all aspects of the game, will determine the fate of anglers seeking threefold goals. Those are qualifying (or requalifying) for the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series and scoring a win to compete in the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic.
The bigger storyline over the choice of fisheries is timing of those events. The season begins in September at Champlain, followed by Wheeler in October and Okeechobee in November.
Will it take a mixed bag to survive at Champlain? Could Wheeler be a late-summer grinder out on the ledges? Might bed fishing be reality in mid-November at Okeechobee?
All are real possibilities. Getting on a hot streak will be nearly impossible. So will fishing history given the traditionally offseason fall timeframe. Consistency and resilience will be the name of the game.
Bassmaster’s first fall tournament series packs more high-stakes drama into three events than ever before. Here’s what to watch for.
Lake Champlain: Sept 18-20
Bryan Schmitt’s mixed-bag weight of 59 pounds, 13 ounce offers the most recent comparison from his late September 2016 Open win at Champlain. Schmitt keyed on shoals with mixed rock and weed with fish holding near the bottom at 10 to 12 feet. A skirted jig and crawfish trailer consistently produced throughout the tournament. Other top anglers followed the same basic pattern, alternating between offshore humps for smallmouth, and shallow vegetation for largemouth.
More recently, yet one month earlier, Ed Loughran won a 2024 Elite event with 80 pounds, 12 ounces. Using forward-facing sonar, Loughran located fish and structure around high spots on a ridge in 5 to 10 feet of water. Smallmouth and largemouth inhabited the area punctuated by chunk rock, weeds and creek channels. Skirted jigs and Missile Baits soft plastic trailers were reliable baits. Also in mid-August, Kyoya Fujita won a 2023 Elite event with 86 pounds, 12 ounces, doing so using forward-facing sonar in the popular Inland Sea.
Wheeler Lake: Oct. 2-4
Even though the win came in late October of 2007, the famous ledges of Wheeler Lake produced the winning weight of 38 pounds, 1 ounce. By then, shad were also on the move, and Frank Ippoliti intercepted bass feeding on those baitfish with a skirted jig and soft plastic trailer. Top finishers also relied on shad movements to find largemouth, keying on main lake rocky points and bluff wall transition areas.
Early October in northern Alabama can be more like moderately warm late summer with exception of shorter days. Those factors could keep areas like the Decatur Flats and its ledges in play, along with shad-driven patterns developing in the creeks.
Lake Okeechobee: Nov. 13-15
For anglers on the qualifying bubble, the final event might give them a shot at climbing the final standings into Elite qualification. That fate depends on the weather, and specifically any hint of fall in the air from northerly cold fronts.
Cooler water temperatures stimulate bass activity, and at Okeechobee that begins the fall feeding period also leading to prespawn. In south Florida, that can begin as early as November, again driven by cooler weather.
A search of recent November local tournament results produced one-day average winning weights in the 20-pound range, topped by a Bay Area Bassmasters tournament in November with a remarkable weight of 38 pounds.
Given the timing, the season finale will be make or break for some, or a coast to the finish for others. Will Okeechobee produce 20-pound catches or even a Dirty 30? In mid-November there is nowhere else it could happen.
