BASS announced its 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series schedule on Tuesday and for the first time in the tournament trail’s seven-year history, an Elite event will be held on Lake Okeechobee.
The 2012 season begins Feb. 24-26 with the 42nd Bassmaster Classic on the Red River out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La. Skeet Reese won the Classic there in 2009. This Classic will feature tournament winners from the 2011 Elite Series and Opens as well as the first Mercury College B.A.S.S. champion, Andrew Upshaw of Stephen F. Austin State University, along with the top anglers in the Elite point standings and Federation anglers.
The Elite trail begins March 15-18 on the St. Johns River in Palatka. From there the trail goes south to Lake Okeechobee for a tournament March 22-25 out of Okeechobee.
Other sites include Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas, Douglas Lake out of Dandridge, Tenn., Toledo Bend Reservoir in Louisiana, the Mississippi River out of La Crosse, Wis., and a mystery body of water June 28-July 1 that the pros will find out about only a few days before the tournament. The season concludes in Syracuse, N.Y., at Oneida Lake.