Nutt puts the Nation back on top, wins 56th Bassmaster Classic

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., March 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time in 32 years and only the second time ever, a B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier wears the crown of the biggest title in bass fishing. Dylan Nutt, the 22-year-old phenom from Nashville, Tenn., won the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour in front of a giant home-state crowd at Food City Arena in Knoxville.

He follows in the footsteps of Bassmaster legend Bryan Kerchal, who won the 1994 Classic after qualifying through the Nation. Nutt earned his invite to this year's Super Bowl of Bass Fishing by finishing third at the 2025 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship at the Upper Mississippi River presented by Lowrance.

After the crowning moment, Nutt was still processing what it means to follow in Kerchal's footsteps.

"I haven't had the chance to think about it. I've got so many things in my head right now. I don't know what I'm thinking," he said.

"It [the Classic] has always been the pinnacle of bass fishing to us, and I mean, heck, the last Classic that I went to was the one here, back in 2023, and I never would've thought next time I went to a Classic I'd be in it and holding the trophy at the end of it."

After catching 19-5 on Day 1 and a tournament-best 26-11 on Day 2, Nutt led the Top 25 anglers out onto the Tennessee River from Volunteer Landing this morning firmly ahead of second-place pro Drew Cook by nearly 4 pounds. The University of North Alabama (UNA) senior wasted little time extending his margin. Fishing in Fort Loudoun Reservoir, he caught a keeper on his second cast, boxed up a limit by about 9 a.m. and had culled to roughly 19 pounds by a few minutes after 10.

When B.A.S.S. froze the BassTrakk unofficial leaderboard at 1 p.m., Nutt was up by an estimated 10 pounds over fellow twenty-something wunderkind Trey McKinney. Still, nothing was guaranteed at that point. All week, the afternoon hours have been key. On Day 2, several 5-plus-pound bass were caught in the afternoon. And as we saw on Saturday, the Loudoun-Tellico system has some giants, including a pair of 6-pounders Nutt landed to get into the lead and a 7-5 giant caught by Cook that was the biggest bass of the tournament. With Cook, reigning Classic champ Easton Fothergill and a slew of other hammers still within reach, there was enough drama to attract a packed house to the final Bassmaster Classic weigh-in driven by Yokohama.

But in the end, no one could keep up with Nutt's pace. He caught a Day 3 limit of 20 pounds, 13 ounces for a three-day total of 66-13 and a winning margin over runner-up McKinney of 9 pounds, 5 ounces. For his win, Nutt earned the $300,000 top prize.

Time on the water made the difference for Nutt. His pre-tournament preparation began as soon as he qualified last fall, but he ramped things up dramatically during the pre-practice period before Loudoun-Tellico went off limits.

"I spent a month up here fishing every day just trying to get as much of an advantage as I could," he said. "And it paid off.

"I feel like I know this place better than my home lake, and it showed this week. I put my time in out here, and I worked really hard at it and was able to pull it off."

Some of the areas he found in Fort Loudoun during pre-practice still held fish during the official practice earlier this week, and he was able to pick up where he left off once the tournament began. He said he chose to focus on Loudoun because it fishes more like a river, with current positioning his fish on key spots.

"I'm very confident in my ability to catch them on the rivers like this, and the way they were setting up, it was in my wheelhouse," he said.

"I was fishing a lot of prespawn staging areas. It was largemouth and smallmouth just kind of moving in and out. And I was catching them on a minnow using forward-facing sonar."

His go-to soft-plastic minnow was a Berkley prototype bait. He fished it using a 6-10 medium-light Abu Garcia Fantasista X rod, an Abu Garcia Zenon X spinning reel, 8-pound-test Berkley X5 braided line and a 15-pound-test Berkley GinClear leader. Nutt rigged the minnow on a 3/16-ounce jighead.

"I was fishing anywhere from about a foot and a half [deep] to about 8 feet. I did figure out a pattern this week," Nutt added. "It kind of progressed throughout the tournament, catching smallmouth on pea gravel banks and stuff like that."

The one exception was on Day 2, when he caught his biggest bag in the back of a creek. That limit included four largemouth — the most of any of his three daily limits — that were set up essentially where they'll soon spawn.

"It was just an area that had a lot of big ones," he said. "There were a lot of areas like it out there, but not many of them have fish. It was a lot flatter than some of the other creeks. There were a lot of shoals in there. It just seemed like it was almost like a little lake in there."

After his initial flurry during Sunday's final round, Nutt experienced a lull that lasted a couple of hours. But he kept his head down and kept grinding, knowing he'd eventually run across them.

At around 1:30, it happened. With about 10 of his closest friends from the UNA bass club plus other spectators watching on, Nutt made a couple of final culls that were met with whoops and hollers. It was the final push; the last bit he needed to feel confident going to weigh-in that he'd done everything he needed to do to be a Bassmaster Classic champion.

In the process, he reminded the world just how good his generation of anglers is. He's the ninth angler to win the Classic in their first appearance and third-youngest Classic champ ever. And though he's young, Nutt showed exactly what he and his twin brother, Carter, have been preparing for their entire lives — the very thing they've been talking about and dreaming about since they were old enough to hold a rod.

After Dylan was handed the Ray Scott Bassmaster Classic Trophy, an emotional Carter was the first to embrace him on stage, followed by their entire family, including their parents, Michael and Emily, younger brother, Garrett, and Dylan's girlfriend, Braleigh Jackson.

"Me and him have spent so much time together learning, and it all prepared us for moments like this," Dylan said about Carter.

"Fishing's been the only thing I've thought about for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until I got to college that I started thinking about girls or anything like that. It was just fishing."

Just fishing and whole lot of talent — the potent combination that produced the new Classic champion.

Once again, McKinney found himself in contention for a major title, but once again, he came up short. The Illinois pro finished runner-up for the second consecutive year. That's in addition to his back-to-back second-place finishes in Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year standings.

Despite coming up short, McKinney is pleased with his performance. He improved each day of the tournament, weighing in limits of 16-10, 18-13 and 22-1. His Day 3 limit was Sunday's heaviest weight.

"I felt lost at the beginning, and we just kept finding our way, and at the end of the tournament we ended up with a big bag," he said. "So it was definitely a good feeling to kind of get stronger throughout the week.

"Today was unbelievable. It was one of those days you just wait for."

McKinney said he caught fish from the time he put his trolling motor down until he got ready to head back to Volunteer Landing for check-in. He was culling fish for ounces at a time most of the morning, but a 5 1/2-pounder shortly before noon vaulted him up the standings and into second.

"I flipped up there, and she hit it going away from me, and as soon as she hit it she started stripping drag. I literally just held it and I was like, 'Oh my gosh. This is her.' And she came up and jumped, and I was like … good night. So it was a blessing for sure."

All throughout the tournament, McKinney targeted fish in groups and clusters on hard clay or sand breaks along main-lake banks swept with current where he found schools of bait.

"The deepest I caught one today was probably 8 or 9 feet, but they could be over 20. They could be over 30."

The only thing that might've held McKinney back from challenging Nutt was his decision to fish Tellico on Day 1. He thought he was on at least 20 pounds, but it didn't happen.

"The fish are so smart, they got wise to all the boat pressure, all the spectator boats," he added. "They just got really smart. And then the second day I ran up there, I was like, I'm gonna give it a fair shot and see if they'll bite. They didn't."

He spent the rest of his tournament trying to climb back into contention on Loudoun. Different baits did the bulk of the damage each day, including a 2.7-inch 6th Sense Divine swimbait, a prototype 6th Sense jig and a minnow-style bait.

Japan's Yui Aoki finished the tournament in third place with a three-day total of 57 pounds, 3 ounces. Aoki, who qualified for the Classic by winning a Turtlebox Bassmaster Open presented by Battery Tender on Kentucky Lake, is well known as a forward-facing sonar expert, and he put his knowledge to work this week, improving his weight each day of the tournament, culminating in a 19-3 limit today.

Aoki spent the entire tournament on Loudoun and caught his fish on a Dstyle 4-inch minnow and Dstyle 4-inch Geelacanth soft-plastic lure.

"Day one and day two, smallmouth was better, but today largemouth was good," said Aoki. "[I caught] four largemouth and one smallmouth today."

Current was the key for Aoki. He targeted areas where the current swept the bank, where fish were set up on any kind of structure or cover that deflected the flow. His key depth range was 5 to 10 feet.

Stealth was vital, said Aoki. He had to approach "very, very slowly" to avoid spooking the fish.

"I'm so happy," he added. "I want to come back here. I want to win here."

Rounding out the Top 10 are Easton Fothergill, of Grand Rapids, Minn., in fourth with 56-2; JT Thompkins, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., in fifth with 55-5; Justin Atkins, of Florence, Ala., in sixth with 55-0; Drew Cook, of Cairo, Ga., in seventh with 54-4; Jordan Lee, of Cullman, Ala., in eighth with 52-12; Dakota Ebare, of Brookeland, Texas, in ninth with 50-0; and Wesley Gore, of Clanton, Ala., in 10th with 48-11.

The $2,500 Mercury Big Bass Award for the biggest fish of the tournament went to Drew Cook for his 7-pound, 5-ounce bass on Day 2. JT Thompkins won the Day 3 Big Bass award of $1,000 for a bass that weighed 5-11.

For weighing in a limit worth 26-11 on Day 2 — the heaviest limit of the tournament — Dylan Nutt earned the Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag and its $7,000 prize.

As the highest-placing entrant in the Toyota Bonus Bucks program and the Classic winner, Nutt also took home an additional $10,000, while Easton Fothergill received $5,00 for being the second-highest-finishing entrant.

Nutt also won the $20,000 Yamaha Power Pay award for being the highest-finishing eligible angler.

Bassmaster paid a $1,000 BassTrakk Contingency Prize to Thompkins for providing a BassTrakk weight estimate closest to his official weight.

Visit Knoxville Sports Commission hosted this event.

Media Contact: Mandy Pascal, Communications Manager, 334-414-8677, [email protected]

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SOURCE B.A.S.S.