It's hard to believe, but much of the Best Bass Tournament (BBT) schedule is in the rearview. But there is still some fishing left for the year. In addition to the final events of each division, there will be two specialty events and the Tournament of Champions left for the 2024 season. Here's a look at what to look forward to and a preview of next year's plans.
Specialty Events This Summer
After most of the regions are done with their seasons, there are two more events to put on your calendar before the end of the year. Those are the annual Snag Proof Open in August and a topwater-only tournament scheduled for September.
"The Snag Proof is always the first weekend of August, and this year, we are doing the topwater-only tournament in September, where you can use any type of topwater bait you want to," added Pringle.
The Snag Proof Open will be held on the Delta on August 3rd and 4th, and the Blow Up (topwater-only event) will be held on September 14th and 15th.
T.O.C. in October
The annual Tournament of Champions is a great event that brings all the best anglers from each region. To keep things fair, BBT only releases the event's location once every region has completed three events. That's happened, and the site of this year's tournament will be Lake Berryessa out of Pleasure Cove Marina on October 12th and 13th.
"We announced the lake as Berryessa, which is a place where we've never held a TOC before," said Pringle. "October is a great month there because spotted, largemouth, and smallmouth bass will all be in play. It's a great fishery, and you could catch your personal best of any of them at that time of year."
To qualify for the event, anglers can fish a single division or the Travelers. Here are the qualification rules directly from the BBT:
BBT will take the top 40% of the following teams who have fished a minimum of (4) four events, and no more than (5) five will be counted in one REGION. If you fished the (6) Six events in that same region, a bonus of 5 points will be added to your score. Travelers are a team fishing 7 events or more from any of the six BBT regions with four events with the same partner. This will qualify the team that fished the four together and 7 or more total.
The BBT season is not quite over, but there is plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year and beyond. They organize tournaments with fishermen in mind and work hard to put on the best tournaments in the region.
Looking Towards Next Year
While this season is still going strong, Pringle and other tournament directors are already looking towards next year. Creating a tournament schedule is much more complicated than just picking dates and lakes. Pringle and others are working together with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and tournament sites to choose dates that work for everyone.
"We are starting to work with the other organizations to work with schedules already," said Pringle. "Not having directors in every region, my wife and I are running four of the divisions, and there will be some back-to-back dates next year. One division may fish a lake one day and another the next. This year, we did that with the Central and Motherlode divisions fishing Don Pedro, McClure and the Delta on the same weekends."
Doubling up like this makes sense for logistics for the BBT team and allows anglers to fish both without having to travel a lake twice. "We are making it as fair as possible for all of the anglers and make it feasible for us," said Pringle.
Pringle is also working hard to bring back the youth-focused TNT series next year, but the schedule will likely be later than the regular schedule.
"It's one of those things we are still trying to figure out and we are going to be working with other organizations on their schedules," he said. "This year, we were stepping on other schedules, which may have hurt participation. This next year, we'll have to wait and see where everyone will be and where so we can keep things open for everyone."
The BBT tournaments keep anglers coming back every year because they are run well and every decision considers anglers. While this season is wrapping up, there is more fun for this year, and next year's schedule is already starting to come together.
Advertising