Weekend of Champions

Bassmaster Classic Returns to Knoxville  

At the break of dawn, spectators lined up along the banks of Volunteer Landing as the 56th annual Bassmaster Classic cast off for another year of world-class competition. Held March 13-15, the tournament brought together 58 elite anglers from across the country to fish Fort Loudoun and Tellico reservoirs – both managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

More than 160,000 visitors attended the three-day event, which generated over $35 million for the local economy, Kim Bumpas, Visit Knoxville president, said.

For competitors, the tournament represented the pinnacle of professional bass fishing and a shot at the $300,000 top prize. For TVA, it offered a chance to highlight the Valley region’s natural resources while educating visitors on dam safety and the broader TVA mission.

“This is the Super Bowl of bass fishing,” Shannon O’Quinn, program manager for TVA Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, said. “The best anglers in the world compete against each other on the Tennessee River – one of the best sport fishing destinations in the United States. It’s a huge event and a huge economic booster for Knoxville.”

A collage of freshwater fish was among the many TVA booths and displays at the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo.

Managing a World-Class Resource

Each day at noon, as tournament anglers cast their lines for the biggest catch of the day, fishing enthusiasts flocked to the Knoxville Convention Center and the adjacent World’s Fair Exhibition Hall for the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo.

Featuring more than 200 exhibitors, the expo is one of the nation’s largest consumer fishing shows. Here, TVA staff led visitors to a freshwater fish tank featuring species pulled straight from the Tennessee River. Biologists from TVA and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) taught guests about the area’s rich biodiversity and the stewardship practices needed to sustain these resources for future generations.

As part of its environmental stewardship mission, TVA maintains a reservoir system that – on top of providing world-class fishing – helps ensure reliable power operation across the region, supports about 130,000 recreational jobs and generates an economic impact of $11.9 billion.

Support for the reservoir system involves habitat restoration, water?quality monitoring and collaborative projects with wildlife agencies, such as the placement of fish attractors at reservoirs. TVA also maintains flow and oxygen levels to support fisheries that help attract events like the Bassmaster Classic.

“There’s a variety of things that people have questions about – our fish, aquatic vegetation and how we run the river system,” O’Quinn said. “(Bassmaster) is an opportunity for us to share information and answer questions.”

A display by Dam Safety features a boat used in a public safety video. The boat sustained heavy damage after it was sucked into spillway currents. A QR code directs visitors to the safety video on YouTube.

Safety is Key

On the other side of the expo, TVA’s Dam Safety team set up their outreach trailer, which showcased the warning systems and signage displayed at TVA dams to help protect the public.

They reinforced this critical public safety message through a video depicting the dangers encountered when boating too close to a hydroelectric dam. The TWRA video, produced in partnership with TVA, featured two mannequins on a boat going over TVA’s Pickwick Dam and then getting sucked into the currents created by the spillway.

Dam Safety team members took the opportunity to educate guests on safe practices around dams, and they used prizes and giveaways to promote tools like TVA’s Lake Info app, which gives users advance insight into weather conditions, generation and spill conditions.

The goal? Help visitors understand the realities of turbulent eddy currents and the importance of vigilance on the water.

With warmer weather comes rising power demands, increased generation and changes in reservoir levels, all of which influence conditions around TVA dams, Harrison Strickland, program manager for TVA Dam Safety, said.

“Taking advantage of events like Bassmaster gives us an opportunity to get out there and inform people on the real things that can happen when we get too close to these dams,” Strickland said.

Shannon O’Quinn, program manager for TVA Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, chats with a guest visiting TVA’s freshwater fish tank at the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo.

A Win for Future Anglers

Public safety, reservoir management and environmental stewardship are vital for attracting events like the Bassmaster Classic to the region.

For event organizers like Gene Gilliland, conservation director at Bassmaster, healthy fisheries and stewardship are inseparable from the sport itself.

Throughout the weekend, Bassmaster staff worked alongside TWRA to ensure proper care of the fish. The organization also hosted its biannual Conservation Summit, attracting nearly 90 attendees from 32 states.

“From a practical standpoint, the tournaments that we run, the publications, the media presence that we have, all depends on having healthy waters and healthy fish populations,” Gilliland said. “We focus on that stewardship of the resource and sustainability so that future generations can enjoy it, become members and participate in our tournaments at whatever level.”

Together, TVA and its community partners are committed to protecting these natural resources for the next generation, including 2026 Bassmaster Classic winner Dylan Nutt. A 22-year-old angler from Nashville, Nutt clinched the victory with a total catch weight of 66 pounds, 13 ounces, becoming one of the youngest champions in tournament history.

His rise through the junior, high school and college bass programs exemplifies what long-term stewardship and resource management makes possible.

“It all relates back to protecting the places where we make memories,” O’Quinn said. “This is where we go fishing with our families, our kids and our friends. It’s where we have adventures and make lasting memories.”

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