Let’s catch up with the pundits and media members to make some bold predictions for the 2026 Bassmaster Classic!

Thankfully for a young Japanese angler, they were not.

Both ends of that premise deserve explanation, and we’ll give each their due. But first, let’s meet the man.

Service and serving 

Born and raised in California’s Monterey County, Moore spent 31 years with the Salinas Police Department. Starting as a patrolman, he worked his way up through multiple roles, including 14 years on the SWAT team, before retiring in 2006 as Deputy Chief of the Salinas Police Department. 

“We had a lot of gangs, a lot of homicides, a lot of shootouts,” Moore said. “Overall, in my law enforcement career we went from a cow town with lots of violence to a whole different world by the time I retired. I got to see that whole change for the good.” 

It’s no stretch to say the discipline and discernment Moore perfected during his law enforcement career have served him well in the Bassmaster AmBASSador program (formerly known as the Bassmaster Marshal program). 

Initially connecting with B.A.S.S. in 2015 when the Elites’ Western Swing visited the California Delta and Lake Havasu, Moore now begins his 12th year as an Progressive Bassmaster Elite AmBASSador and his 11th year for the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. 

“I had just retired and decided to get back into bass fishing,” he said. “When the Elites came out West that year, I thought, ‘This is a good opportunity to catch up.’ When I stopped bass fishing, there wasn’t a Senko and a lot of other stuff.

“I had started watching bass fishing on TV, but I thought this was a good opportunity to observe the latest techniques, especially on a body of water I was familiar with.”

Typically participating in six to seven events annually, including the Classic, Moore is recognized as a Super AmBASSador for his on-the-water blogging and BassTrakk update proficiency.

Answering the call to action

A lengthy law enforcement career like Moore’s holds countless memorable moments, but none so vivid as a day that could have ended very badly.

“Early in my career, in the mid-80s, a guy had kidnapped a girl in Mexico and brought her up to Salinas,” Moore said. “She was able to get a call in to our office to say she needed help, so the SWAT team got into a room, and he was decoyed out because he (supposedly) had a call at the front office.”

The plan was not without risk, but options were scarce. Moore positioned in a concealed spot and as the kidnapper and his hostage passed his location, his job was to grab the girl and basically pancake her to the floor while his fellow officers handled the bad guy.

“To this day, I remember he had his hand on .45 (caliber pistol) in his waistband, and he was making her walk right in front of him,” Moore recalled. “The whole time, I was thinking I was gonna take a bullet in the back, but it was successful. We rescued her and life was good.”

Flash forward four decades, Moore’s watching Elite pro Kyoya Fujita hunt down big Lake Fork bass when the unthinkable suddenly unfolds a rod length from his seat. That 2024 event brought cold conditions, so when Fujita overextended his reach for a big fish, he plunged head first into the lake — weighted by bibs and a heavy jacket.

“I really don’t know how he would’ve gotten out of the water, if I hadn’t been there to pull him out,” Moore said. “He had all the heavy clothes on. It would have been sobering.”

Return to the roots

Moore’s a lifetime angler who saw the Bassmaster Marshal program as a mechanism to reconnect with the freshwater scene he had tabled during his years of saltwater pursuits. He has competed on the WON (Western Outdoor News) Bass Tournament Series, but his is largely a recreational passion. Nevertheless, spending eight hours with top-tier pro anglers hastened his objective.

“I had gotten away from freshwater fishing for about 20 years because I would go to Cabo San Lucas for big-game saltwater fish — swordfish, marlin, tuna, sharks, wahoo,” Moore said. “When I retired, I thought, ‘Let me try bass fishing again.’”

Moore calls punching California Delta mats his favorite technique, although he caught his personal best 10-1 largemouth while winding a squarebill along shallow vegetation. Like most anglers, Moore constantly seeks knowledge and perspective to elevate his game and what was then the Bassmaster Marshal program fit the bill.

Every year has brought a plethora of lessons, but from square one, he realized that behind the mystique of professional fishing, stands a very relatable reality.

“They’re just fishermen; they struggle like all the rest of us,” Moore said. “It’s kinda like golf; it’s the top 10% in that tournament that look like they’re smoking ‘em and the rest of ‘em are in varying degrees of struggling.”

Why he does it

As Moore describes, the Bassmaster Ambassador comprises a give-and-take experience. On his end, he enjoys shooting photos and videos for Bassmaster LIVE, as well as the angler’s social media use.

What he gets out of the AmBASSador role is the privilege of seeing the sport from an angle few will experience. The action’s addictive, but Moore said the appeal runs deeper.

The Inspiration: He’s seen plenty of success and optimism on the water, but one of Moore’s most meaningful moments arose when a key fish catch dramatically altered an angler’s season.

Heading into the fifth event of the 2025 season with only three check cuts in the previous four, Pat Schlapper really needed a shot of encouragement. Fortunately, Day 2 of the Elite at Lake Fork delivered the boost he needed when a tiny fish and a giant ate the same squarebill. 

The little one shook loose and Schlapper boated an 8-pound, 10-ounce kicker that would literally transform his season. The Wisconsin pro finished 32nd at Fork and went on to win the next Elite at the Sabine River and the season finale at the Upper Mississippi River.

“To watch that one day turnaround and what happened the rest of his season was eye-opening,” Moore said. “It was awe-inspiring how one day can completely change your momentum for the rest of the season.”

Moore said he enjoys candid glimpses of the soon-to-be hot ticket baits before their mainstream exposure. For example, he watched Fujita pitch hunks of tentacled plastic under trees well before the “dice bait” craze ignited.

“You get a jump on something before 90% of the field is using it,” Moore said. “Now, I have several of the dice bait brands, but way back then, you had to make your own when I first saw Kyoya use it. I made my own, but they’ve worked ever since.”

Along with baits and presentation, Moore said he’s constantly paying attention to how anglers employ modern technology.

“The second tournament where I served as a Marshal (Lake Havasu), Josh Bertrand used Garmin Panoptix (predecessor to LiveScope) and that was the first time I’d seen that technology,” Moore said. “Watching it advance and seeing how the guys use it has been interesting.

“When I was with Brandon Palaniuk several years ago, that’s when I really got a grasp on how to use Humminbird 360. I watched him do it and smoke ‘em, so I came home and put it on my boat, and I’ve used it ever since.”

As Moore notes, having a front-row seat to the sport’s top level short cuts the learning curve, while saving time and money. From observing and analyzing what he likes and dislikes about different electronics brands, to discovering the lithium batteries he installed on his rebuilt 84 Ranger boat, Moore makes the most of his time with pro anglers.

“You cut through a lot of that, and you don’t have to experiment,” he said. “The single biggest impact is that a lot of my equipment and how to use it has been accelerated. I really don’t feel I’ve made any mistakes because I ask questions and I see the latest and greatest.

“I think the opportunity is there for everyone. I have not met an angler yet that, if you ask them a question about their gear, their boat or their electronics, isn’t happy to tell what they have. You cannot get any better personal one-on-one information.”

Most significant is the minimum size reduction for keeper smallmouth from 18 to 15 inches. In fact, that reduced size limit is universal for smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass caught from the Classic waters of Fort Loudon on the Tennessee River and the connecting Tellico Reservoir. 

In 2023 Jeff Gustafson noted his winning weight could have exceeded an additional 9 pounds from numerous 17-inch smallmouth caught during the three-day tournament. The same was likely true across the Classic field of anglers targeting smallmouth, recognized as the state’s official sport fish for producing five of the largest on record. 

Another weight buster is in play with largemouth and specifically those inhabiting Fort Loudon. Florida-strain largemouth have been stocked there since 2015 and given that timespan the timing is right for those genetically bigger offspring to hit the scales. 

“We know of at least one 10-pounder that was weighed during a tournament in March 2025,” said John Hammonds, fisheries biologist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). 

In 2000, the TWRA began stocking Florida largemouth bass downstream from Fort Loudon in Lake Chickamauga. The experiment worked, with the lake producing a state record largemouth weighing 15-3 caught in 2015. The stocking program was then expanded to Pickwick, Watts Bar, Nickack and then Fort Loudon. (Update: the pending state record largemouth weighing 15.75 pounds was caught Feb. 28 from Nickajack.)

“We have sampled 8-pounders from Loudon, giving us every indication the program is working,” Hammonds said. “We’d sure like to see them cross the scales at the Classic.” 

Fort Loudon is particularly favorable for growing largemouth and Florida-hybrid offspring with its fertile riverine waters and shallow vegetation supporting ideal nursery habitat. The watershed’s overall drainage area encompasses parts of southwest Virgina and western North Carolina to keep nutrients flowing through the system. 

The clearer, rockier and deeper water of Tellico are most favorable for smallmouth. Alabama spotted bass are there too, and are hybridizing with the smallmouth. The offspring are confusing to identify which supports the decision to reduce the length limit. 

In the 2019 and 2023 Classics, the minimum keeper size was 12 inches for spotted bass, 14 inches for largemouth and 18 inches for smallmouth. The standardized 15-inch minimum that went into effect last summer will certainly have more positive results for tournament weights. 

“Anglers will be able to weigh in more of the overall smallmouth population with the 15-inch limit,” Hammonds said.  

That will incentivize anglers to target more smallmouth, while seeking a kicker largemouth with the desirable Florida genes. 

“I think this Classic will produce more weight based upon what we’ve seen, and it should be the biggest weigh-in we’ve had here,” Hammonds said. “I could be wrong, but I’m very optimistic.”

Calling himself “a dang local,” the third-year Progressive Bassmaster Elite has spent countless hours on the Fort Loudoun-Tellico tournament waters, so he knows the fishery’s personality and potential.

While Gee’s not fishing this year’s Classic, he took time to discuss his home waters and describe what he believes will be the most promising areas.

Gee loves targeting big summertime schools by side-scanning and down-scanning offshore structure. The Classic’s mostly prespawn complexion won’t see any of that, but Gee believes first-quarter weather patterns have created a scenario that could positively impact the sport’s premier event.

“We had a massive cold front (mid-February), so there was a big shad kill on the lakes,” he said. “That helps and hurts. It helps the bass get fatter, and it makes them a little dumber when they start wanting to feed again.

“In mid- to late-February, they were kinda lazy and lethargic from all the dead shad they had been able to eat. Toward the end of the month, they started to bite again.”

Gee’s prediction: The fish will be ready to cooperate come Classic time, but more importantly — anglers will likely find the overall population plumper than in past events.

“It will be the heaviest weigh of any of the Classics that have been at Knoxville,” Gee said. “It’s gonna blow the other two out of the water.

“They’ve just grown up a lot more since the last Classic here (2023). The fishing is just getting better on both lakes.” 

Less is more

Another key point is a significant change in regulations that occurred after the 2023 Bassmaster Event (the 2023 Classic) on Fort Loudoun-Tellico Lakes. As of Aug. 1, 2025, this fishery operates with a daily creel limit of five black bass (all bass species) and a 15-inch minimum length limit.

That’s a big difference from the 18-inch minimum that had previously applied to smallmouth, and Gee says it will open the door for more bronzeback focus.

“Now, you can keep a 16- or 17-inch smallmouth, which we’ve never been able to before,” Gee said. “I’ve had to throw back 3-pound smallmouth because they’ve been only 17 1/2 inches, so the new regulations really open the door for all-smallmouth limits for the whole tournament.

“It’s been so hard to catch smallmouth that measure 18-plus inches, that’s why people haven’t typically liked to target them. Now, people will go for that more because you can keep more of the smallmouth that you catch.”

Turning the conversation to the playing field, Gee summarized four promising regions.

Teillico Canal

Linking Fort Loudoun and Tellico Lakes, this short connector rocketed into prominence with Jeff Gustafson’s 2021 Bassmaster Elite win and then his 2023 Classic victory. The canal’s days of anonymity are long gone, but Gee believes it’ll play this time around — especially with the new smallmouth rules.

“That’s where there’s a concentration of smallmouth because it’s the deepest and cleanest water,” Gee said. “Bait concentrates there, and the fish love that canal with the current flowing through there.”

What to fish: The mix of deep hard structure and the shallower rock/clay bottom offer good prespawn and spawning habitat for smallmouth and largemouth.

When it plays: “In that canal when current is stronger, they start biting better. If the wind is blowing, it really pops off. Even if the current isn’t strong, but the wind kicks up, that’s when they really bite. 

“Overcast, or sunny, they really like that wind. The water is so clear, the wind breaks up the surface so they’re not so spooky.”

How to fish it: Gustafson twice demonstrated the jighead minnow’s canal effectiveness, but Gee also suggests crankbaits, shaky heads, Ned rigs and 5- to 8-inch paddletail swimbaits.

Key to success: “If you fish that area, you must find the big smallmouth. You might catch a big largemouth there too, but if you’re going down there to catch a big bag, you’re more than likely gonna have a 5-pound smallmouth.”

Upper Fort Loudon

Gee points to the stretch from roughly the Pellissippi Parkway (Interstate 140 Bridge) to several miles above the Classic takeoff site at Volunteer Landing as a prime zone for big bags of largemouth.

“It’s a little grimier and the water color can change overnight,” he said. “In the snap of your fingers, the water can go from 2 to 3 feet of visibility to inches of visibility.”

What to fish: Shallow targets, including laydowns, wood, rocky, riprap and rockpiles. There’s also a lot of big trees displaced by Hurricane Helene (2024) sunken in this stretch.

When it plays: Gee said this area will become prominent if the water is stained and river current is high.

How to fish it: Gee said this is a great stretch for old-school techniques like jigs, squarebill crankbaits, and flat-side crankbaits.

Key to success: “That’s where you can probably catch an 8-pound largemouth,” Gee said. “It really varies by the day. They’re river fish so it’s a new day every day. They might be on docks today and riprap the next day. The guy who can figure out where they want to be each day, can win.”

Tellico upriver

In Gee’s experience, anglers willing to make a super long run, may find their commitment rewarded with giant largemouth up to 9 pounds.

What to fish: With traditional riverine habitat comprising stumps, shallow wood and standing timber, this distant region also offers tailrace fishing below the Chillowee Dam. A mix of big largemouth, smallmouth and mean mouth swims these waters.

When it plays: Fed by mostly clear drainage from the western North Carolina and north Georgia mountains, clarity here is typically high. Overcast skies and windy conditions can diminish visibility and stimulate the fish.

“Also, if we have a rain that muddies up the water, those fish are easier to catch.”

How to fish it: Old-school flat-side crankbaits, paddletail swimbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs. Gee also hints at power fishing with a shaky head and a Ned rig.

Key to success: Gee points to the obvious time commitment of a long run and the necessary fuel stop as a serious consideration.

“You have to get on them quick, and if you can get there and get a limit in the first hour, it will really settle you down,” he said. “A lot of people will make that run and end up spinning out, because if you don’t get a limit early, then you feel like you’re on the time clock.”

Pellissippi Bridge to Ish Creek

With many local tournaments releasing fish in this area, Gee said there’s more quantity than quality, but diligent types may pick through a busy day of catching to find a few good bites.

“This will be a primary area because it has a lot of bass,” Gee said. “A lot of people will fish here because the fish are very concentrated.”

What to fish: Laydowns, isolated wood, bluffs on river swing banks, riprap and residential docks see a lot of the action. Gee also points to rock veins extending from clay points, which warm up nicely and provide subsurface staging spots.

When it plays: An all-the-time area, this zone will improve if rains bring stained water.

How to fish it: Cranking, jigs, bladed jigs, paddletail swimbaits, spinnerbaits and lipless baits excel here.

Key to success: “Somebody is gonna figure out how to get the better-than-average fish to bite,” Gee said. “There’s a lot of fish in there and a lot are small. A lot of guys will have 11 to 12 pounds, but some guys will have 14 to 15.

“It might be a time sacrifice to go through numbers, but if you find a few of those better-than-average fish, you can have a big day.”

I was shocked because I had no idea he was in bad shape. I knew he was a lifelong diabetic and had issues with it, but he was controlling it pretty well until recently.

As tough as it is to hear of his passing at such a young age, I prefer to dwell on our friendship and what I know about his life.

I actually became friends with his father, Guido, before I fished a pro tournament. He was an excellent mentor for me and was the first full-time bass pro I got to know personally. He was a former Angler of the Year and Classic winner.

Guido was someone I could go ask a question and get an honest answer. You may not like the answer you got, but you can bet it was an honest one. 

Dion was somewhat like Guido. He may not have been as outgoing as Guido, but he always was straight and honest with the people he met. 

He and I were closer in age and did fun things together. We did fishing trips including some saltwater outings off the coast of South Carolina. 

Guido was known for his keen ability to sight fish bedding bass and for proving to the South that the tube bait was as effective on largemouth as it is on northern smallmouth. 

I’m sure it wasn’t easy living in the shadows of a legendary father, but Dion handled it well and was his own man. He proved that when he won the 1997 Bassmaster Classic by a mere ounce over Dalton Bobo.

I’ll never forget the incredible amount of water and slime that dripped off Bobo’s bass as he walked about the stage displaying them to the crowd. I kept thinking, “put those fish on the scales before they lose weight!”

I was pulling for Dion, but I always want to see winners win. It remains the closest finish in Bassmaster Classic history. 

Like his father, Dion was a power fisherman and a great finesse angler but was especially adept at fishing small jigs under docks on spinning gear and light line. That is how he won the Classic.

He will be missed by the bass fishing world, especially among those of us who knew him and the great Hibdon family. 

Even so, I stay positive after such a tragic loss and remain very thankful I got to know him and call him my friend. 

Chancellor won the Classic on the Arkansas River near Pine Bluff., Ark., and in doing so put his modified Carolina rig called the “Do-Nothing” worm in the spotlight. That lure and a jigging spoon formed the bait lineup for his winning weight of 45 pounds at the August event. 

“After all the times and seminars of me telling just how good this Do-Nothing method is, fishermen didn’t take it or me seriously,” Chancellor was quoted saying in Bassmaster. “That was until it won the Classic.”

The worm rig was initially given to Chancellor by a friend in the 1970s. The name he chose was symbiotic with the presentation. 

“You don’t have to do nothing to fish it and catch bass,” Chancellor said. 

Simply put, the lure was dragged along the bottom. The key was how-to rig it. The 4-inch, straight as a stick, mold of a common earthworm came rigged with a pair of panfish-size hooks and a leader harness. The small, exposed hooks provided the advantage of being razor sharp. The worm harness loop was tied to a 4-foot leader connected to 14- to 17-pound main line with a swivel. A plastic bead was rigged above the swivel with a 1-ounce slip-sinker on the line. 

Chancellor sold the Do-Nothing rig at his Jack’s Quick Stop convenience store in Phoenix City, Ala. 

His Classic victory was leading Chancellor down the path of stardom when disaster struck in 1986. An automobile accident in which Chancellor suffered some herniated discs led to back problems that eventually cause him to quit competitive fishing in 1991. 

“Jack was like a big brother to me, friends for life,” said Stanley Mitchell, 1981 Classic champion. “He was a true professional as an angler, trusted friend to all, and great family man.” 

A celebration of life memorial service will be held Friday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. at Vance Brooks Funeral Home in Phenix City, Ala. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to Columbus Hospice of Georgia and Alabama. Donations may be sent to 7020 Moon Rd., Columbus, Ga. 31909.