4 minSports
Bass fishing's top anglers compete for record $1.25 million prize in Nashville
Sixty professional bass anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series and Major League Fishing are competing on Old Hickory Lake in Middle Tennessee for a record $1.25 million first-place payout in the inaugural The Champions tournament.
Sixty of the world's top professional bass anglers are competing over three days on Old Hickory Lake in Middle Tennessee, with a record $1.25 million first-place payout on the line. The inaugural The Champions tournament carries a total purse of $3.25 million, the largest in the sport's history.
The event brings together 30 anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series and 30 from Major League Fishing's Bass Pro Tour, two circuits that have historically never competed against each other. Organizers designed the tournament to settle one of the sport's longest-running debates about who is the best angler in professional bass fishing.
Competition begins Thursday at 7:30 a.m. CT, with anglers divided into Team Stars, representing Bassmaster, and Team Stripes, representing MLF. The teams compete for team bragging rights over the first two days, and the top 15 individual anglers advance to a championship round on Saturday. Weights reset for the final day, when one angler will take home the largest first-place prize in bass fishing history.
MLF pro Jacob Wheeler said a win would mean more to him than anything else in his career. Speaking at Wednesday's Media Day in Nashville, he compared the event to a football showdown between the AFC and NFC champions. « The money's one thing, and that's great, but it's the meaning of being the best for that year, » he said.
Two amateur anglers, Eric Giessing of Missouri and Kyle Carr of Texas, also earned spots through a sweepstakes and will compete alongside the professionals. Team Stripes captain Zack Birge argued that his squad's experience gives it an edge over the younger Bassmaster competitors. He said the veteran anglers have a deeper arsenal of traditional techniques, while some of the younger anglers rely more heavily on electronics. Wheeler agreed, calling the veterans on his team the « OGs » and saying experience plays a real role.
Bassmaster Angler of the Year Trey McKinney, 21, acknowledged that he has a target on his back after a remarkable 2026 season. He said the competitors are friends off the water but treat the event seriously once they are on it. McKinney also predicted that the challenging conditions could allow one of the amateur competitors to win.
Old Hickory Lake has already tested the field during practice, with low water levels and little current making bass difficult to locate. The tournament also adds a restriction on forward-facing sonar. Anglers must choose to use the technology either Thursday or Friday, but not both days, and on Championship Saturday they may use it for only half of the competition. MLF pro Drew Gill, a LiveScope expert, said those limits could significantly shape the final results, noting that underwater intelligence remains valuable even when the technology is switched off.
For McKinney, a victory would carry life-changing weight. He said the prize amounts to retirement-level money, and that his first plan with a win would be a trip to the beach before turning to investing. Wheeler said the key to success will be controlling emotions in an event of this size, adding that the best anglers perform in big moments.
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