For years the story at Lake Champlain has been forward-facing sonar and the open-water smallmouth it finds. The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit's season finale at Plattsburgh, New York, was the first event on the lake fished under a mixed format - pros could run forward-facing sonar for only three hours a day. The record fell anyway.
Cal Lane weighed more than 20 pounds every day for a three-day total of 65 pounds, 7 ounces, breaking the mark for the largest three-day catch at Champlain in MLF/FLW history and eclipsing the 64-1 Kyle Cortiana caught there in the 2024 Toyota Series event. His 23-15 on day two was the third-heaviest five-fish bag recorded at the lake. It paid $100,000 and a berth in REDCREST 2027, which happens to be in his home state.
Lane got there by pairing three hours of mid-lake smallmouth each morning with kicker largemouth punched out of thick elodea more than 30 miles away - a combination he only found because his first practice day went badly.
"I had to get out and go to a new area," Lane said. "I went south where the wind wasn't as bad. It was really the only option. I just started fishing stuff they should be on, like break lines. I saw some roaming on bait, and I had it all to myself."
The win ends a long run of near-misses across 2025 and 2026, and Lane was open about how little he expected it on this particular fishery.
"I still can't believe it's real," he said. "Especially not on a smallmouth fishery - I never would have thought. I'm not big on smallmouth; I don't understand them, but I caught some 4-pounders in practice and saw a bunch. I thought I could catch 18 pounds of smallmouth. When I got those largemouth bites, I was like, 'Man, there's a chance.'"
"It went exactly to plan," Becker said. "It is very rare that tournaments go exactly how you want them to go. If we had 'Scope all day, I may have fished for smallmouth a little bit longer, but that may have cost me some largemouth. If you would have told me I'd catch 63 pounds and don't win, I would have said you were crazy."
Banks Shaw took third with 61-13 and, with it, a second consecutive 7 Brew Angler of the Year title, holding off Ryan Lachniet by 15 points. He did it on a plan that collapsed on day one and got rebuilt on the water.
"I planned on strictly fishing for smallmouth, and I ran all my stuff Day 1 when I only had 18 pounds after using my forward-facing, and none of that stuff panned out," Shaw said. "So, I pretty much just completely scratched that. I didn't plan on fishing for largemouth - I tried it in practice and didn't catch anything at all, not even a single largemouth. And I just went and did it."
Shaw's season was messier than his record-setting 2025 - a 35th at the Harris Chain opener, a boat fire early in the year, a 17th at Douglas - but he converted more of his chances, winning two Pro Circuit events plus his first Bass Pro Tour title, and has cashed more than $558,000 in 2026.
"Last year was an incredible year," Shaw said on stage. "The goal was this year just to top that year. I was like, man, I don't know if I'll be able to do that. Somehow, here we are - we topped last year's season."
Rookie Brody Luckey was the highest finisher to weigh nothing but smallmouth, fourth with 60-15, and he did most of his deep damage inside the sonar window. But his best single morning came outside it.
"I was looking for some extra bites when the 'Scope period wasn't going," Luckey said. "The last day, first thing in the morning, I pulled up on a spot and caught 16 pounds on a topwater. I was fishing shallow shoals - pretty much anywhere it wasn't grassed up. If I could find one that was rocky, that's where I would get a bite."
The wider question is how pros should prepare for a format that keeps changing. Britt Myers Jr. has now fished three seasons under three different technology rules - unrestricted in 2024, day-on day-off in 2025, three-hour windows this year - and has adjusted his practice each time.
"Last year, I took a different approach in practice. I spent a whole lot more time without 'Scope," Myers said. "When you have a three-hour period, if you find a really good area, you can make a lot happen in three hours. When you have a day with zero 'Scope, you need a good area with no 'Scope involved."
"'Scope screwed me over in that tournament - I went for broke, and there were a couple I couldn't get to bite shallow," he said of Douglas Lake. "Had I just gone offshore and tried to be consistent, that could have been a much better event."
Lachniet took Rookie of the Year, and the last Bass Pro Tour berths went to the wire: Lachniet, Connor Jacob, Carter Nutt, Brody Campbell and Will Harkins earned invites. Lane, eighth in points, was the first man out of the cut - $100,000 and a lake record as consolation.
