TBF Junior World Championship LIVE

LIVE!

LIVE  Weigh in July 29-31, 2026 at 2:00pm CT.  Lake Dardanelle, Russellville, Ar

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Beaty and Coburn Win 2026 TBF Junior World Championship on Lake Dardanelle

Final 15 TBF junior teams all awarded scholarships and prizes

Tension was high as division champion anglers took off from Lake Dardanelle in Russellville, Ar., for the final day of the world championship event. Anglers were greeted with one more day of heat blasting off the lake’s shores. Weights were zeroed, the playing field even, making the final day a whole new tournament. All 15 final teams received scholarships, prizes, and trophies for their efforts this week. One team went home with all of that plus much more: the 2026 TBF Junior World Championship titles.

Caleb Coburn and Brooks Beaty

The Louisiana Bass Federation anglers, Brooks Beaty and Caleb Coburn, were crowned champions this week on Lake Dardanelle. The team caught a three-bass limit and the biggest bag of the tournament, weighing 14 pounds 3 ounces to secure the titles. They also reeled in tournament big bass at 5 pounds 11 ounces and received two new Lew’s reels.

The Calvary Baptist Academy Jr. Cavaliers were in third after day one with 13 pounds. They paired that with 10 pounds 5 ounces on day two to make the final day cut with 23 pounds 5 ounces. They remained steady in the third and fourth place slots with solid limits both days. On the final day, they came out swinging and landed the heaviest bag of the three-day tournament.

Caddo Lake is the duo’s home lake, which straddles the border between Caddo Parish in Louisiana and Northeast Texas. It’s the largest natural freshwater lake in the South and covered in wetlands and moss. The team found fishing in Caddo similar to that at Lake Dardanelle, though not as swampy or covered in cypress trees. Both lakes are somewhat shallow, and that’s where they found fish this week.

Coming in second was the team of Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson representing the Tennessee Bass Federation. Smith and Anderson from the Scotts Hill Jr. Anglers caught a three-bass limit weighing 12 pounds 11 ounces. The team came out in second on the first day with 13 pounds 3 ounces and first place on the second day with 13 pounds 9 ounces.

Anderson and Smith

The third-place team representing the Trader Bills Jr. Fishing Club worked their way up the ranks from seventh place on the first day and ninth on the second to claim third in the championship event. Arkansas Bass Federation anglers Jaxon Livingston and Jake Gaston caught a three-bass limit on the final day, weighing 11 pounds 6 ounces.

Livingston and Gaston

Fourth and fifth place came down to a tie with both teams catching 9 pounds 11 ounces. Hagan Hay and Hank Rowton from the North Louisiana Jr. Fishing League locked in fourth. The Phoenix Jr. Bassmasters team of Levi Woodruff and Ryder Schwoerer came in fifth.

Hay and Rowton

Woodruff and Schwoerer

Lake Dardanelle State Park and Russellville Tourism in Russellville, Ar., welcomed 79 TBF junior champion teams from 29 states across the US to their waters. All anglers received swag bags filled with sponsor merch at registration, and to kick off the event, piles of pizza and ice cream were served lakeside. Anglers battled heat and humidity all week with a short and sweet rain shower that arguably left more humidity in its wake. But they fought and fished hard to prove worthy of advancing from their respective states. At the end, one team rose above the pack to be named the 2026 TBF Junior World Champions.

15 TBF Teams Advance to JWC Final Day Shootout; Smith and Anderson Lead the Pack

Day two of the 2026 TBF Junior World Championship wraps up on Lake Dardanelle

Anglers welcomed cooler temperatures early on Lake Dardanelle due to the rain that rolled in late yesterday, but the reprieve from the heat and certainly not the humidity didn’t last long. The rain changed up the bite as expected but not enough to see a significant tip of the scales. Five division champion teams were named the top finishers in their respective divisions. 15 teams total advance to tomorrow’s final day, made up of the division champs, second highest finishers from the larger divisions, and then the next highest cumulative weights of the field. Plus, one team was drawn at random to join the field as the lucky dog winners. Tomorrow, all weights will be zeroed as teams battle it out to decide who will be the 2026 Junior World Champions.

15 TBF Junior Teams Advancing to Finals

Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson sailed into first from the second-place slot yesterday. The team caught 13 pounds 9 ounces today, making their two-day total 26 pounds 12 ounces. Yesterday, their main goal was to catch enough to make the cut but not too much so they’d have fish left to seal it out with the win.

“By about 1 pm we had another 13 pounds; after that we kinda just went and pre-fished,” Smith said. “We are going to swing on every fish we see tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 pounds or 3 pounds; we are going to go try and catch every fish we can in the lake.”

“We are going to start off shallow tomorrow,” Anderson added. “We had a pretty rough start today, but eventually we figured out a pattern. We also had a pretty tough start of practice, then the pattern didn’t work, but we ended up figuring it out pretty good. We’re hoping to go get in the run tomorrow.”

Cooper Anderson and Parker Smith

Smith and Anderson hoped the rain clouds would make the bigger ones more active and help their bite, but they were also a bit worried it could hurt. “Well, our original plan the rain kinda messed it up a bit, and we had to switch it up,” Smith said. “We ended up catching our biggest fish about 10 am think it was 5 pounds 8 ounces. Then, on the same rotation, we caught another one; it was 4 pounds 8 ounces. But after that, pretty much sealed us up for the rest of the day.”

The duo has definitely figured it out, and despite the climate hurdles and rough starts, they’ve landed in the top spot going into the final day. Even though weights are zeroed, leading a world championship comes with a solid confidence boost and plenty of bragging rights.

“We had a big tournament we got fifth in last weekend,” Smith commented. “So this week (winning it) would mean a lot to us coming off a big loss.”

The Scottsville Hill Jr. Anglers shined a lot of thanks to their sponsors and families and their active club located in Scottsville, Tn., right by Lexington. “It’s a great organization, and we’ve had a lot to do with them over the years,” Smith said. “I want to thank them and my grandparents, all my sponsors, and Academy Sports for sponsoring us these last couple years. It really means a lot to us.”

“We definitely have a great program in West Tennessee,” Anderson added. “I’d like to thank our boat captain, Mr. Nick, and his wife on their 50th anniversary and my parents and grandparents.”

Anderson, Smith and Boat Captain Nick Hart

When asked about what the future looks like for these bright rising stars, they shared humble goals. “We definitely want to take it step by step,” Smith continued. “We don’t want to jump too far ahead; we want to fish high school, then eventually college, then who knows, maybe we go on to the big stage.”

Tournament big bass after two days of fishing went to the 863 Jr Angler team of Easton Ovens and Coy Ebrahim representing the Florida Bass Federation. The team weighed in a 6-pound 3-ounce beauty to secure big bass and two Lew’s reels.

Tournament Big Bass: Easton Ovens and Coy Ebrahim

The division champions are as follows: Southern Division (TN), Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson, 26.12lbs; Central Division (LA), Hagan Hay and Hank Rowton, 23.15lbs; Northern Division (IL), Allen Goodman and Tatum Liesman, 22.4lbs; Eastern Division (WV), Isabella Sigmon and Jaxon Schmidt, 21.1lbs; Western Division (AZ), Levi Woodruff and Ryder Schwoerer, 19.6lbs.

Tomorrow, 15 junior champion teams will take on Lake Dardanelle in the hopes of becoming world champions. The stakes are high, and so are the temps, as the weights are zeroed and the titles are wide open. The 2026 TBF Junior World Championship concludes tomorrow on Lake Dardanelle in Russellville, Ark.

Division Champions

2026 TBF Junior World Championship Underway on Lake Dardanelle

TBF junior state qualifiers compete for champion titles: Robbins and Smith of Tennessee out on top

This week, Lake Dardanelle State Park and Russellville Tourism in Russellville, Ark., welcomed 79 TBF junior champion teams from across the US plus their boat captains, sponsors, and families. Teams from 29 states fished to qualify in their respective states and punch a ticket to the esteemed championship event. Thousands of dollars in scholarships and prizes are up for grabs this week, and with everyone reaching for the titles, one thing, besides the heat, is for certain: the lives of these young anglers will never be the same.

The top three teams are separated by a mere 9 ounces. Teams are battling the heat, and most are factoring in the rain shaking things up tomorrow.  In the end, they’ve all got one common goal: catch enough to make the final day cut and leave enough to finish world champions.

Day one leaders are Gunner Robbins and Drew Smith of the Upper Cumberland Junior Bass Club representing the Tennessee Bass Federation. The team had a three-fish limit of bass weighing 13 pounds 9 ounces.

“I thought we were gonna place pretty good, but I didn’t think we were gonna be leading it,” Smith said. “It’s sunk in now, and we’re pretty excited. We got enough tomorrow to qualify out there; we just got to have a really good bag Friday.”

The duo calls Dale Hollow Lake “home lake,” nestled on the Tenneseee/Kentucky borders, renowned for its crystal clear waters. They’ve had to adjust to navigate Lake Dardanelle waters, which are like the opposite side of a coin. 

“Coming off a bad tournament, it’s good to be in the lead for once,” the team’s boat captain, Paul Robbins, said. “It was a little bit of luck, but we are hoping it will happen again tomorrow.”

Sitting solid in second are Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson with a limit of bass weighing 13 pounds 3 ounces. Smith and Anderson are with the Scotts Hill Jr. Anglers representing the Tennessee TBF. “Once we got a decent bag, we spent the rest of the day scoping and marking,” Anderson said. “If we put a gold mark on it, that means it’s good.”

The West Tennessee team calls Lake Pickwick home. “The lakes are kinda setting up similar, but the main difference is at home we catch a lot of fish in 20- 25 ft on a big jig or flutter spoon; here we’re seeing a lot more fish shallower in 8-10 ft of water,” Smith said. “The rain might be a little bit of an issue for us tomorrow. But we hope it turns the bigger fish more active. A lot of them weren’t pulling the trigger.”

The team’s boat captain, Nick Hart, has been a longtime TBF federation angler, avid fisherman, and now proudly leads and supports these young anglers on the national stage. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Hart said. “These guys are the real deal. They’ve been so solid; they’ve been unreal.”

The team has several state and one national championship title under their belts, but Hart mentioned their latest feat happened at a Thursday night tournament. “They broke the record; that record had stood at 18 pounds for the longest time,” Hart continued. “This team caught three fish for 20.3 pounds.”

In third by just three ounces and a limit of bass weighing 13 pounds are Brooks Beaty and Caleb Coburn from the Calvary Baptist Academy Jr. Anglers in Shreveport, La., representing the Louisiana Bass Federation.

“We knew we had a decent bag and somewhere right around the top three is right where we wanted to be,” Brooks said. “The rain coming might make it a little bit different, but right now we still have enough fish. We’ll just see what this weather does and see how to adjust to catch three more good ones.”

The pair’s favored home lake is Caddo Lake. They’ve found fishing is similar to Caddo, although Dardanelle isn’t swampy and covered in cypress trees; they’re both somewhat shallow, and that’s where they’ve found the sweet spots.

“We found fish prefishing two weekends in a row,” Brooks stated. “Those fish are still there, and we’ve found new fish.”

“Actually, I have a funny story from pre-practice,” Coburn chimed in. “I went to cast my dropshot and the weight came back and hit me on the back of the head.” Their response to what’s going on in your heads now? “We’re excited to see how we do tomorrow. We just want the least amount we can but enough to make it to advance.”

Tomorrow, the field will be cut by TBF divisions. The largest division will advance three teams, the next two largest divisions will advance their top two teams, and the two smallest divisions will advance 1 team each.

After crowning the top nine division champions from the five divisions, an additional five teams will advance based on combined overall weight. Tomorrow night, a lucky dog drawing will also be held to advance one final team, rounding out the field to 15 teams.
All weights will be zeroed on championship day, and it will be a shootout for the title of 2026 Junior World Champions. One thing the anglers can all agree on: the stifling humidity, calm skies, and scorching heat made for a tough day of fishing, no matter what fate took to the scales. Tomorrow, we’ll see what the rain stirs up as the hunt continues on Lake Dardanelle.

Full results: 
https://www.bassfederation.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Day-1-results.pdf