Dylan Fogarty Grabs Day 1 Lead at Guntersville Elite Qualifier

Dylan Fogarty of Pennsylvania took the Day 1 lead at the final 2026 Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier on Lake Guntersville in northern Alabama, according to Bassmaster. His five-bass limit weighed 21 pounds, 7 ounces.

Grant Neubauer of Wisconsin sits second, 1 ounce back, and Lucas Toliver is third, 12 ounces behind Fogarty. Fogarty began the week in 121st place in Elite Qualifier points, which put the Elite Series out of reach. The tournament winner earns a spot in the 2027 Bassmaster Classic.

How Fogarty built his bag

Fogarty said he went into the event with little pressure. “I wanted to win or cash a check and then go deer hunting,” he said.

The morning started quickly. He caught three bass in the first half hour, two of them 5-pounders, and lost another that would have padded his total. He then stayed with one pattern. Apart from about 10 casts with a ChatterBait, he threw a topwater lure all day.

Submerged hydrilla on main lake bars has drawn gizzard shad, a baitfish, and the big bass have followed them there. Fogarty said the bite improved sharply whenever the sun came out from behind partly to mostly cloudy skies. He had fished Guntersville several times in college, and that experience helped him find productive areas in practice.

Why big bags were scarce

Plenty of anglers weighed limits between 17 and 19 pounds, but fewer heavy sacks showed up than many expected. A series of cold fronts has moved through the area. Many bass are chasing bait and are hard to pin down without forward-facing sonar, a type of fish finder that shows what is ahead of the boat. The tournament prohibits it.

Neubauer and Toliver find vegetation bites

Neubauer struggled to find momentum in practice. On Day 1 he settled into a 100-yard stretch with a mix of hydrilla and coontail and caught a 5-pounder and a 4-pounder back to back. He rotated between three baits and also saw plenty of big gizzard shad there. He lives near the Upper Mississippi River but had struggled at Guntersville before this week.

Toliver finished the day with 20 pounds, 13 ounces. He planned to throw a frog but kept getting missed strikes, so he switched to a flipping rod and caught a 5-pounder. His mats are a mix of coontail, hyacinth and hydrilla, and he said the bass sat right under them to ambush shad. A top-10 finish would be his first of the season.

Alabama’s Wyatt Burkhalter is fourth with 20 pounds, 10 ounces. His 6-pound, 6-ounce largemouth earned Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day.

Why it matters for the points race

The top 10 anglers in Elite Qualifier points receive invites to the 2027 Bassmaster Elite Series roster, so this event settles the last spots. Brennan Flick of Louisiana leads with 334 points. Tennessee’s Nathan Reynolds has 324, Kentucky’s Bailey Gay has 314, Connecticut’s Noah Winslow has 309 and Peyton Harris has 301.

Tripp Berklinsky (297), Cody Stahl (296), Lucas Lindsay (291), Kollin Crawford (291) and Kaden Buchmann (288) complete the top 10. Connor Jacob is the first angler outside the Elite Series invitations, with 278 points.

What happens next

The full field launches from Guntersville City Harbor at 7 a.m. CT on Day 2 and returns for weigh-in at 3 p.m. A cold front is expected to arrive overnight with cooler air and wind, and Toliver said that has him nervous about the second day.

The top 10 anglers after the Day 2 weigh-in advance to Championship Friday. The winner collects $70,000 and a place in the 2027 Bassmaster Classic.

Source: Bassmaster