With a final day tally of 20 pounds, 2 ounces, and a total 3 day weight of 56 pounds and an ounce, Matt Robertson won a first-place payout of $1.25 million in the Champions bass fishing tournament on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee. This is the largest first-place payout in the sport’s history and it represents an interesting turn in pro bass fishing.
Before we dive into the rest of the results, here’s what you need to know about the tournament and how it all came together.
It’s been just over 8 years since the professional bass fishing world effectively split the best anglers in the world into two separate organizations, the Bassmaster Elite Series and the MLF Bass Pro Tour. In that time, new names have risen to the top of the leaderboards, and the old guard has won their fair share of events as well.
But the question that seemed to circulate year after year was who really is the best angler in the world?
Since the two organizations don’t cross-compete well, the answer remained shrouded in speculation and uncertainty. Sure, Jacob Wheeler might be the best at catching the most fish under the MLF BPT format, but could he still sack up 5 giants for 4 consecutive days in an Elite Series format? Would the young gun, Trey McKinney, give Wheeler or Kevin VanDam a run for their money in an MLF-style event?
The bass fishing world figured we’d never know, that is, until February of this year when World Bass Enterprises introduced The Champions Tournament. CEO Brian Bird announced the tournament, and an eye-popping $3.25 million purse to go along with it. Bass fishing fans from around the world started to pay attention.
The Qualifiers
To qualify for The Champions Tournament, Bassmaster Elite Series anglers and MLF Bass Pro Tour anglers fished their respective 2026 tours throughout the year. After each event, they were awarded Angler of the Year points. The Champions Tournament lineup consisted of the top 25 in AOY points from the Elite Series and the MLF Bass Pro Tour. The additional spots were filled based off of a “win and you’re in” ruling that applies to anglers who won one of the major events, but didn’t make the points cut.
Two additional anglers were selected through a random draw that WBE put on for those who pre-ordered the Pay-per-view streaming service. Due to naming rights, the anglers were split into teams. Elite anglers were assigned ‘Team Stars’ and MLF Bass Pro Tour anglers were assigned ‘Team Stripes’. The two randomly drawn anglers are Eric Giessing (Stars) and Kyle Carr (Stripes).
World Bass Enterprises
At the end of the event, a trophy was awarded to the top performing team, also “settling” the debate of which organization has the better anglers. For the 2026 Champions Tournament, Team Stars (Elite Series) has won bragging rights for the year.
“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,” MLF Bass Pro Tour 2025 Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler said in a statement. “The opportunity to crown a true world champion across the entire sport is something our anglers have wanted for a very long time.”
The Tournament Rules and Location
The Champions Tournament was held on Old Hickory Lake, launching out of Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The launch and respective FanFest was full of attractions like a petting zoo, kids fishing area, inflatable archery, cornhole tournament, boat demos, and more. They even had the legendary Bill Dance fire off a cannon during the shotgun launch on the first day of competition.
Unsurprisingly, forward-facing sonar was addressed for this event, and seemingly played into a 50/50 outcome. For the first two days of competition, anglers were able to select which day they’d fish with live sonar, and which day they’d go without it. Then for the top 15 anglers fishing the final day, they got to use live sonar for 3 hours of competition.
To add to the pomp and circumstance, as if $1.25 million wasn’t enough, the weights also reset for the top 15 anglers heading into the final day. Making it truly anyone’s ballgame coming into Saturday. Old Hickory Lake put on quite a show for the first two days of competition, with largemouth, spotted bass, and smallmouth all making their way to the scales. The smallmouth dominant bags carried the most weight due to the minimum keeper size being 18-inches, while largemouth and spotted bass only needed to be 14-inches to make the cut.
Final Results and Payouts
The final day featured the following anglers fighting for the first place prize.
Matt Robertson, Ron Nelson, Bob Downey, Fisher Anaya, Pake South, Jason Christie, Trey Mckinney, Takahiro Omori, Kyle Welcher, Cole Sands, Chris Johnston, Cody Meyer, Bryan Thrift, Michael Neal, and Wesley Strader.
And while they all certainly wanted the top prize, the second place through seventh place payouts weren’t anything to scoff at either. Here is a look at the top 7 anglers, their final day weights, and their payouts after the final weigh-in. 15th place made a cool $20,000 and the payouts increased in $5,000 increments up to 7th.
1st Place: Matt Robertson (20-02) — $1.25 Million
2nd Place: Pake South (13-07) — $500,000
3rd Place: Wesley Strader (11-02) — $300,000
4th Place: Trey Mckinney (11-0) — $200,000
5th Place: Michael Neal (10-10) — $100,000
6th Place: Ron Nelson (9-13) — $75,000
7th Place: Fisher Anaya (9-13) — $60,000
What This Means for Bass Fishing Moving Forward
While we put the largest professional bass fishing payout ever in the rearview mirror, it’s worth considering what The Champions Tournament means for bass fishing fans everywhere. Personally, there’s a bit of a shock factor involved. The payouts for the Bassmaster Classic and MLF Redcrest combined don’t even sniff the purse that was just awarded during this three-day event. That’s truly awe inspiring.
But what it really has shown me is that the two major organizations need to do some soul searching. If World Bass Enterprises can come out of nowhere and pull this off, perhaps it’s time to look at how they were able to do it successfully. Would fans pay a yearly subscription to watch a Pay-per-view Elite or BPT event? If so, could that increase the purses for those events and help the professionals in our sport actually make a living? I don’t see why not.
I know change is difficult for outdoorsmen and women, it’s in our nature to hold on to traditions and the status quo, but this weekend has shown me that there is a way to actually grow the sport of competitive bass fishing in a meaningful way. Now we’ll see if either organization actually has the guts to give it a try and truly make their anglers’ lives better.
As a final thought, I was blown away by the live coverage and the fanbase that showed up in-person and online, especially with the seasonality of this event. The bass fishing world was hungry for The Champions Tournament, and World Bass Enterprises pulled it off in epic fashion. I’m already looking forward to the 2027 lineup.