American bass fishing has two premier tours and no way of proving which is better. The Bass Pro Tour and the Bassmaster Elite Series keep their own seasons and their own champions, and their anglers needle each other without ever fishing the same event. A new autumn showdown aims to end the stalemate — with the richest prize the sport has offered.
The Champions, run by World Bass Enterprises, takes place from 28 October to 1 November 2026 on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville, Tennessee. The purse tops $3 million: $1.25 million to the winner — a record single payday in bass fishing — with $500,000 for second and $300,000 for third.
The 50-angler field is designed as a straight cross-tour test — the top 25 in 2026 Angler of the Year points from each tour, plus each league's regular-season winners. It is a five-fish format, and forward-facing sonar is deliberately reined in: allowed on just one of the first two days, and for only half the fishing time on the final day for the top 15. In a sport locked in argument over how much technology belongs on the water, the restriction sends a message.
The event is the work of a self-funding fan rather than a broadcaster. "As a longtime bass fishing enthusiast, I have always marveled at the incredible skill of the world's top anglers and believed they deserved a marquee platform to showcase their talents to the world," said Brian Bird, founder and chief executive of World Bass Enterprises. He is covering the prize money himself: "The money will be guaranteed — no investors. It's WBE and it's funded by me."
For the competitors, it is a chance to finally settle things. "There has always been friendly competition and banter between the anglers on each tour, but no way to actually settle the score on the water," said Jacob Wheeler, the reigning Bass Pro Tour champion and an early qualifier.
The locked-in field already includes Bass Pro Tour winners such as Zack Birge, Drew Gill, Cole Floyd and Takahiro Omori, plus Elite Series winners including Jason Christie, Chris Johnston and Hank Cherry Jr., with more places riding on season-ending points. It all arrives as the Bass Pro Tour's eighth season reaches Discovery — a big television window for the sport. Whether The Champions returns each year will hinge on this first edition, but for one week on Old Hickory, the tour-versus-tour debate finally gets decided by a scale.
