Story by Todd Goade | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
I hope everyone reading this has had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and you made some lasting memories! I’m writing this from my Mom and Dad’s dining room table in West Texas, and we have had a wonderful time making great memories of our own.
The field for the 2026 NPFL field is set at 130 anglers and there may be a couple of more added to help ensure we complete the season with that same number. All tours have some attrition during the season for various reasons, so I think it is a good business decision to have a buffer built in, so our payouts remain intact the whole year.
For me, it’s exciting to see the names on the roster competing next year as it is a mixed bag of people from current tours, past tours, home grown NPFL anglers, and rookies fishing their first tour. I believe this may be the best NPFL season yet.
One thing that really continues to bother me is the commentary that “The old guys are fishing here because they don’t like forward-facing sonar, are tired of getting beat by it, and are not good at using it.” For me, that is a total line of BS. I don’t read a lot of comments online, but that line of comments bothers me.
I’m older. I like forward-facing sonar. I feel like I’m really good at it. Over my fishing career I’ve always been good at utilizing new technology as it came to market. However, I really enjoyed the 2025 season fishing my strengths and figuring out patterns at each lake as they developed and not relying on a screen to catch a bass.
Prohibiting forward facing sonar for the 2025 season was a great business decision … and a bold one. Looking at it now, after other tours have limited use of forward-facing sonar—probably because many viewers don’t like watching it—it appears that the NPFL was right on target.
In 2026, we’ll be visiting lakes that haven’t been on a schedule in quite a while … or ever. The NPFL does a great job in taking us to places where other tours haven’t been, such as Wright-Patman in Texarkana, Texas and Lake George in New York. When we went to Wright-Patman in 2023, the fishing community really showed up at our weigh-ins, and I’m sure they will again in 2026. The economic impact for these communities is a great value for them.
Another reason I fish the NPFL is the schedule. Spreading the season out over a seven-month period allows me to run my business and not be gone for long periods at a time. Other tours sometimes have back-to-back events where guys are gone for three weeks at a time. I couldn’t do that.
Lastly, I fish the NPFL because it’s family. The culture here, the camaraderie, the caring, the transparency, is top shelf. I’ve built a brand here and winning the Progressive Angler of the Year title in 2023 will always be the highlight of my career. I’m forever thankful that they gave me a platform to showcase my talents and that I had a small part in the growth of the NPFL.
So, as we line ’em up in 2026, know that a lot of us older guys aren’t here because we hate forward-facing sonar. We just want to go bass fishing, figure it out each week, and not deal with all the noise. There are three major tours to choose from. You can pick the style of fishing you want to do and want to watch.
I choose the NPFL.
Tight Lines!
Todd Goade – Angler Profile
