Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
If—like me—you’re really looking forward to the 2025 NPFL Championship on Lake Hartwell, there are some things you need to know.
The anglers fishing this year’s Championship—all 42 of them—qualified in 2024 under 2024 rules that allowed forward-facing sonar. As a result, the Championship will be fished using those same rules and the anglers will be permitted to use forward-facing sonar … for the very last time in NPFL competition.
The field is made up of the anglers who won regular season events in 2024, the anglers who finished in the top 40 of the Progressive Angler of the Year standings, and the winner of the inaugural NPFL Championship … in 2024.
Here’s the field, alphabetically:
Barron Adams
Gary Adkins
Brock Bila
Zack Birge
Joey Bloom
Nick Brown
Jason Burroughs
Corey Casey
Drew Cook
Mike Corbishley
John Cox
Louis Fernandes
Bailey Gay
Todd Goade
Buddy Gross
Scott Hamrick
Will Harkins
Josh Hooks
Richard Kee
Wes Logan
Matt Massey
Jason Meninger
Jesse Millsaps
Matt Mollohan
Christian Nash
Trent Palmer
Isaac Peavyhouse
Brandon Perkins
Dustin Perry
Mike Quinlin
Timmy Reams
Darrel Robertson
Hunter Sales
Ryan Satterfield
John Soukup
Michael Stout
J Todd Tucker
Patrick Walters
Joseph Webster
Kyle Welcher
Dustin Williamson
Jason Williamson
Will Harkins, Mike Corbishley, Patrick Walters, Gary Adkins, and Bailey Gay all won regular season events and finished in the top 40 of the AOY standings.
Nick Brown won Stop 5 on Lake of the Ozarks to earn his berth.
Brandon Perkins won the first NPFL Championship and returns as defending champ.
Twenty-nine of the 42 anglers fished the NPFL in 2025, so you probably know them. Thirteen did not, and their faces may not be familiar to you unless you followed the League in 2024.
Thirteen of this year’s competitors also fished the 2024 Championship and are back for another shot at the biggest tournament the League has to offer. Six anglers in the field fished the Championship in 2024, are back this year, and have already qualified for the 2026 Championship on dates and a body of water that will be announced soon. They are:
Barron Adams
Nick Brown
John Cox
Todd Goade
Brandon Perkins
Patrick Walters
That’s a proverbial “murderer’s row” of bass talent!
For now, know that the 2025 Championship field is star-studded. It features the best the NPFL had to offer in 2024, including that year’s Progressive Angler of the Year Kyle Welcher plus 2022 AOY Gary Adkins, 2023 AOY Todd Goade, and 2025 AOY Patrick Walters.
Then there’s the star I haven’t mentioned: Lake Hartwell. This gem on the South Carolina-Georgia border pumps out bass year in and year out all calendar long. Are the fish gigantic like at Amistad or Santee Cooper? No, they are not. The biggest Hartwell bass in NPFL history weighed 6-12. But Hartwell’s bass are plentiful … and they bite. It’ll make for a very tight competition that won’t be decided until the last competitor weighs in on Sunday, October 5.
That’s right—Sunday!
The Championship starts Friday, and we’ll have live coverage all three days with Luke Dunkin and Fat Cat Newton plus live weigh-ins with “Mr. Boom” himself, Big Al McCullough.
The 2025 NPFL Championship is where the action is.
Don’t miss a minute.
