EARLY – The Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour (BPT) returns to Texas next week, March 26-29, as Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano sets the stage for a high-stakes showdown across the storied waters of O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood. With big bass potential, shifting spring conditions and a field packed with the sport’s top talent, the first-ever Bass Pro Tour visit to these Lone Star fisheries promises to deliver heavy drama, explosive catches and a defining moment in the 2026 season.

Hosted by Visit Early, the four-day tournament will feature 51 of the world’s top professional anglers competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of a $600,000 purse, along with valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for REDCREST 2027 – the Bass Pro Tour championship – and the Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event. Competition will unfold under MLF’s catch, weigh, immediate-release format, where every bass over the 2-pound minimum counts and SCORETRACKER® – the MLF live leaderboard – keeps the pressure on throughout the day.

“We are excited to welcome Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour to Early, Texas, and to showcase the incredible fishing opportunities that O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood have to offer,” said Denise Hudson-Brian, Tourism Director at Visit Early. “Hosting an event of this caliber not only highlights our community’s commitment to outdoor recreation but also positions Early as a premier destination for anglers and fishing enthusiasts.

“I want to express my gratitude to the mayor, council and city leadership for their support in bringing this event to our community,” continued Hudson-Brian. “And a special thank you to the dedicated city staff and volunteers who have worked tirelessly to ensure this event’s success.”

The field showcases a powerful mix of proven stars and emerging momentum, led by reigning Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year and 10-time tour winner Jacob Wheeler and back-to-back REDCREST champion Dustin Connell. Established winners and fan favorites like Zack Birge, Edwin Evers and Ott DeFoe continue to anchor the field, but they’ve been pushed early and often by a hungry new class.

That rookie group has wasted no time making an impact on the Bass Pro Tour stage. Mitchell Robinson, Jacob Walker, Banks Shaw and Dustin Smith have each shown flashes through the opening events, led by Walker’s pair of runner-up finishes and Shaw’s back-to-back top-five results at Stage 1 and Stage 2. With three events in the books and momentum beginning to take shape, the mix of seasoned champions and confident newcomers is already producing one of the most competitive starts to a Bass Pro Tour season in recent memory.

Suzuki Marine Stage 4 Presented by Plano will usher in a new chapter for the Bass Pro Tour, marking the first visit to both O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood. In fact, only one previous MLF event has been contested across the two fisheries – the 2024 MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Patriot Cup, where Jeff Sprague and Bryan Thrift emerged victorious. While the lakes are relatively new to the Tour, O.H. Ivie has built a reputation as a trophy bass factory, producing more Toyota ShareLunkers – bass exceeding 13 pounds – than any other Texas fishery over the past five years. With the two-day Qualifying Round set for Ivie, anglers are expected to find bass actively transitioning toward the spawn, creating even greater opportunities to capitalize on the lake’s renowned size potential.

Lake Brownwood, which will host the Knockout and Championship Rounds, is expected to provide a contrast in style, typically offering higher catch rates and rewarding a more traditional, shallow-water approach. With an abundance of shoreline cover – including water willow, rock banks and docks – and less reliance on forward-facing sonar, Brownwood could play right into the hands of anglers looking to fish instinctively and rack up numbers when it matters most.

Sprague brings both experience and perspective into the event, having already found success on these fisheries with the 2024 Team Series Patriot Cup win. While that event was won in the fall, Sprague expects a much different look this time around.

“O.H. Ivie didn’t really show its truest potential in the fall, but it still showed the number of fish that can be caught in that fishery,” said Sprague. “I look forward to it being a different story entirely next week.”

With a warm winter followed by late cold snaps across Texas, the Wills Point, Texas pro said he believes the fish are still in a transitional phase and may not be fully committed to the spawn.

“I really expected the fish to be wide open into the spawn when we got to Lake Whitney for Stage 3 two weeks ago, and they were not,” Sprague said. “Ivie’s a bit similar – it’s a deep, rocky impoundment – but I still think there will be a lot of prespawn fish caught. The majority of them will still be prespawn, but they’ll weigh as heavy as they’re going to weigh. I do think we’ll see some double-digit fish caught, especially on O.H. Ivie.”

As for how the event may unfold, Sprague expects a balance of forward-facing sonar and traditional patterns, with multiple ways to compete in the Bass Pro Tour’s every-fish-counts format.

“This event at this time of year, on these fisheries, lines up perfectly for guys to fish however they want to,” he said. “There’ll be some ‘scoping that takes place – a lot of offshore staging areas, roadbeds, foundations and creek swings where fish will start to pile up to spawn now that the lake is low.”

At the same time, Sprague noted the lakes’ unique cover could reward anglers willing to slow down.

“These lakes are going to fish differently than we typically fish on the Bass Pro Tour, due to the amount of structure in the water. Lake Brownwood will have a variety of rock, docks and wood to fish, but O.H. Ivie is all sagebrush, mesquites and salt cedars, and that stuff is hard to fish. It’s tedious and you’re not going to be moving around a whole lot. You’ve got to get in there and really pick it apart.”

While O.H. Ivie has earned national attention for producing giant bass, Sprague doesn’t expect anglers to rely solely on isolating single big bites.

“Those fish are typically caught by sitting out there and targeting one fish at a time, and I don’t think that’s how this event will play out,” he said. “Between Ivie and Brownwood, I think we’ll see some good numbers and some really tremendous weights – the kind you’d expect from five-fish limits – and guys having a lot of fun both scoping and fishing shallow, especially at Brownwood.”

Anglers will arrive Thursday and Friday (March 26-27) at 6:15 a.m. CT to Elm Creek Marina, located at 457 Recreation Road #10 in Voss, Texas, and Saturday and Sunday (March 28-29) at 6:15 a.m. CT to the Brownwood Reservoir Public Boat Ramp, located at 621 Spillway Road in Brownwood, Texas. Anglers will return to the morning launch location each evening following the end of competition at 3:45 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to watch the event live online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!®  livestream and follow along with SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29, from 3–6 p.m., MLF invites fans of all ages to Early Town Center located at 109 Kelcy Way in Early, for the MLF Fan Experience & Watch Party. Fans can watch the Bass Pro Tour pros live on the MLFNOW!® big screen, enjoy free food for the first 100 fans each day, enter hourly giveaways, browse MLF merchandise and the bargain bait bin, and cheer on their favorite anglers. Youth of all ages can take part in a fishing derby (gear and bait provided, weather permitting) and a casting contest. Live music with C.J. Briscoe and Caleb Wilbourn begins at 4 p.m., followed by Top 10 angler interviews and the trophy presentation at 5 p.m., including autographs and photos with Bass Pro Tour finalists. The first 50 kids ages 14 and under will receive a free rod and reel each day.

Student anglers from 6th grade through college are invited to join MLF pros at the free Columbia PFG Student Angler Clinic on Saturday, March 28, from 2–6 p.m. The clinic will also be held at Early Town Center, located at 109 Kelcy Way in Early, and offers a unique opportunity for students to learn from Bass Pro Tour pros, gain hands-on fishing instruction and compete in the national MLF Casting Competition. Click HERE for more details and to register for the event.

The Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano will feature anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The 2026 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 51 of the best professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Kubota Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.

The full field of anglers will compete in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday on O.H. Ivie. After the two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the pro with the heaviest two-day total will advance directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers who finish 2nd through 25th will advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round on Lake Brownwood. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the top nine to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round on Lake Brownwood, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $125,000.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on all four days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!®  will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

Television coverage of the Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood Presented by Plano will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 12, on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Force, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.