Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
At the end of a year—or the beginning of a new year—it’s customary to look back and assess what happened … especially in the sports world.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t do that with an eye to the National Professional Fishing League season because 2025 was a watershed year with new and dramatically improved production efforts, a star-studded competitive field, and loads of record-setting performances.
Where to begin?
Well, it would be ignoring the proverbial “elephant in the room” if I didn’t mention the fact that the 2025 NPFL season was the first time a league prohibited live imaging sonar. It was a business decision, not one based in morality (though I have my own feelings about that), and it worked! The bass fishing audience not only prefers watching anglers use more traditional methods, but they prefer it so much that the other two leagues (B.A.S.S. and MLF) have followed the NPFL’s lead and restricted forward-facing sonar in their highest levels of competition—the stuff that gets on TV or is shown live on the internet.
What’s the future of this technology and how will it impact tournament angling in the future? No one knows, but the adjustments will certainly continue as the leagues strive to find the right mix. For now, only the NPFL seems fully settled on a position.
Let’s look at the NPFL 2025 season. It was a record-breaking one!
As you probably know, there were six regular season events and a Championship in 2025. Five of the six regular season events were won by anglers fishing their first season with the League—Jason Christie (Santee Cooper), Greg Hackney (Lake Norman), Scott Canterbury (Douglas Lake and Logan Martin Lake), and Chad Marler (Lake Eufaula). The only NPFL veteran to chalk up a win was Drew Cook (St. Lawrence River).
With his win, Christie joined John Soukup as the only two anglers to win their NPFL debuts. Soukup won the very first NPFL event in 2021.
In 2025, Patrick Walters notched his first major Angler of the Year title with a slim victory over Kyle Welcher (the 2024 AOY). In five years of competition, the NPFL has had five different AOYs, but Walters has a solid claim to the title of League GOAT.
The fishing in NPFL tournaments was mostly very good in 2025. The League set records for most bass weighed in, highest bassing average, heaviest total weight, and heaviest average catch. In particular, the St. Lawrence River really showed out, producing the three heaviest catch days for the field in League history and breaking the full tournament record by more than 1,000 pounds.
The St. Lawrence also set the record for heaviest average bass at 3.76 pounds. Those records will likely stand at least until the NPFL returns to the historic river in July of 2026.
Several anglers surpassed historic career marks in 2025. Timmy Reams became the first NPFL pro to exceed 1,000 pounds in career weight. Louis Fernandes, Brandon Perkins, and Patrick Walters followed soon thereafter.
Reams and Fernandes have competed in every NPFL event since the inception of the League in 2021. Unfortunately, their strings have come to end since neither qualified for the 2026 NPFL Championship, which will kick off the 2026 season in February at Smith Lake out of Cullman, Alabama.
Fifteen anglers brought a 5-bass limit to the scales every competition day of 2025. No angler had ever done it before. A lot must go right for that to happen. First, you need talent, and the 2025 NPFL field was the most talented in the history of the league—at least until this year. Second, you need productive lakes and decent weather. In 2025, the NPFL had that in spades. Only one competition day was canceled due to weather (at Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma), and the fishing was mostly excellent all year long, which made for great viewing and lots of drama on the weigh-in stage.
Kyle Welcher set the record for heaviest weight in a single season with a shade under 300 pounds. Patrick Walters was less than two pounds behind.
Jason Christie set the League record for heaviest tournament weight (82-12) at his NPFL debut on Santee Cooper.
The Douglas Lake event in May might have been the tightest and most nerve-wracking in NPFL history. Scott Canterbury, Kyle Welcher, and Tim Cales were tied going into the final day. Canterbury prevailed, but it came down to the wire.
Jordan Osborne was another first-time NPFL pro who found success right out of the gate. On the first day of his first League event (Santee Cooper), he set the record for heaviest daily weight at more than 33 pounds! At least one angler had a bag exceeding 30 pounds every day of that tournament.
On the same day that Osborne broke the single day weight record, another NPFL newbie—Harmon Davis—tied the League record for biggest bass with a 10-09. Jesse Wise established that record at the 2024 Championship on Lake Amistad, and though it’s been tied, it still hasn’t been bested.
The NPFL Championship on Lake Hartwell was held in October under 2024 rules because qualifiers earned their berths in 2024. This meant that live imaging sonar was permitted in the Championship. In a triumph of poetic justice, Scott Hamrick won the Championship in impressive, come-from-behind fashion, and he did it without forward-facing sonar being a significant part of his game. Instead, he fished boat docks with jigs and topwaters for the big win and became the NPFL’s oldest tournament winner in the process.
All in all, it was a special and spectacular season brought to you live on the NPFL website and on YouTube by FullCom Media, the League’s new production company.
Was it the best season in NPFL history? Yes! Absolutely!
Will 2026 be even bigger and better? Count on it! And stay tuned.
