NPFL Adds Toledo Bend for 2027 and Extends Entry to Dec. 11

The National Professional Fishing League (NPFL) has filled the last open date on its 2027 calendar with Toledo Bend Reservoir in Louisiana, June 9-11. The league also pushed back its angler application deadline to midnight on Friday, Dec. 11, according to a league announcement published by Anglers Channel.

The 2027 season has six regular-season events and the fourth annual NPFL Championship, with stops in Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Louisiana and New York. Anglers who want to compete must complete the league’s online application by the new deadline.

What changed in the announcement

League President Brad Fuller said the deadline was extended by almost a full month so prospective competitors have more time to look over the whole schedule. He said adding Toledo Bend brings the league to “a legendary fishery.”

Georgia Craven, executive director of the Sabine Parish Tourist & Recreation Commission, said her community is excited to host the league in the city of Many, Louisiana, and called June a good time to fish the lake.

The 2027 NPFL schedule, event by event

• Championship, March 4-6, Lake Mitchell, Alabama (host: City of Clanton). Forty-two anglers qualified: the top 40 in the Work Sharp Angler of the Year standings plus the winners of each regular-season stop in 2026. The lake covers 5,850 acres and has not been visited by any of the top tournament trails before. Largemouth and spotted bass are the targets.
• Stop 1, March 24-26, Lewis Smith Lake, Alabama (host: Visit Cullman). The lake, which covers 21,000 acres, hosted the 2026 championship, won by Patrick Walters. The 2027 stop comes a month later in the calendar, closer to the spawn.
• Stop 2, April 15-17, Norfork Lake, Arkansas (host: Mountain Home Advertising and Promotion). It is the league’s first visit to the 22,000-acre reservoir, which holds largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass.
• Stop 3, May 12-14, Lake Murray, South Carolina (host: Lake Murray Country). The league returns to the 48,000-acre lake, where it held the 2024 season finale in December. The league expects it to take better than 20 pounds per day to win.
• Stop 4, June 9-11, Toledo Bend Reservoir (host: Toledo Bend Lake Country). At 185,000 surface acres, it is the largest manmade reservoir the league has ever scheduled. The league says June fishing can range from an early topwater bite to heavy shallow cover and offshore structure, and expects heavy limits to be needed each day.
• Stop 5, Sept. 16-18, St. Lawrence River out of Massena, New York (host: City of Massena). The league’s 2025 stop there set records for total weight, heaviest average bass and heaviest average daily catch, and the 2026 stop did it again. Both were held in July, so the September date means different conditions.
• Stop 6, Oct. 21-23, Neely Henry Lake, Alabama (host: City of Gadsden). The 11,200-acre lake closes the season, decides the Angler of the Year title and sets the field for the 2028 NPFL Championship.

Why it matters for anglers and applicants

Applicants now have until Dec. 11 to decide, and they can see every lake and date before they commit. The schedule moves the league through a range of waters: a first-time championship lake in Mitchell, a first visit to Norfork, a return to Murray and the biggest reservoir the league has fished.

The league’s own previews point to different fishing styles at each stop. Lake Murray in May is described as a time of active blueback herring and topwater strikes from big largemouths. The St. Lawrence River is billed as a smallmouth fishery that has produced the league’s heaviest catches in the past two years, and the league calls it a likely candidate to do so for a third year in a row.

What comes next

The application window closes at midnight on Friday, Dec. 11. The season then opens with the Championship on March 4-6 at Lake Mitchell, followed by Stop 1 on March 24-26 at Lewis Smith Lake.

Source: Anglers Channel