Stop Number 1 of the 2026 season is in the books! The weekend started off with a night of great food provided by new Ministry Partner First Baptist Church of Tavares which was the talk of the town and supremely filled every angler’s bellies to the full! The ladies at FBC Tavares were amazing and definitely displayed the love of Jesus to our anglers. Brother Billy Taylor brought us the message from God that left us inspired, recharged, and ready to go! Thank you Sir. The night ended with some great fellowship and friend time before everyone departed to their respective quarters for the night.

The next morning, Saturday the 26^th of January 2026, the anglers descended upon the Buzzard Beach boat ramp to prepare for the morning’s blastoff. They were met by the Director and his family of workers to get them all checked in and ready to go. The weather was nice and a cool 58 degrees with a heavy dense fog that held the anglers up from blast off until 07:27AM. Once the fog cleared, the director commenced blast off sending the anglers in search of the biggest bag of the day. The weather warmed up and the wind started to blow as the day progressed and then calmed back down providing the anglers with every option to snag a big bag. Who would return the Champ of the Chain? We would have to wait and see while the 23 teams took to the Harris Chain waters to find out. As the weigh in time arrived so did the anglers with bags in hand and ready to hold up their catches for the day. 23 Teams returned but only 9 had limits and only 19 weighed in displaying that the conditions were tougher than expected. Who would be crowned the Champ, now it was time to find out. Once the weigh in started you could tell the day was tough for some, but everyone knew there is always one team who figures them out…. That team proved to be the team of Matt and Tommy Rust who slammed the scales with a G G G GIANT bag weighing in at 32.56 pounds anchored by a massive 10 pound bass. Second place honors went to the team of Defending Points Champions Josh Davis and John Brazzell who turned in an impressive bag of 23.19 pounds, a clear 10 pounds ahead of the third place team of Don Fisher and Brian Nelson who brought 13.86 pounds to the scales edging out the fourth place brother team of Mike and Jeff Robinson by .25 ounces who snatched up a 13.61 pound bag grabbing the final check of the day. A total of 172.07 pounds of Harris Chain bass were brought to the scales with 69/69 bass being released to be caught another day. Will the 10 pounder hold on to the season big bass honors? Only time will tell, but with big bag producing stops ahead on the schedule, it is anyone’s chance to get. Stay tuned to find out. Next stop is February 28^th on beautiful Kissimmee, see you there! God Bless!