With new events, a new species and a tournament calendar jam-packed full of some of Australia’s best arenas, we think that there’s something for everyone at ABT in 2026.

Tournament Director, Nicholle Smith, is excited about what’s coming up.

“We’ve had some of these ideas on the back burner for a couple of years and it just happens that 2026 is when several of them have come together at once,” Smith said.

BREAM EVENTS

Don’t fix what isn’t broken. The season starts with the ever-popular Victorian road trip in early February to kick off the Daiwa BREAM Series. It’s two of the most popular arenas at the best time of the year. You can win on topwater  or dragging a lure on the bottom.

ABT visits Tasmania every other year and 2026 is a Tassie year. This year, the Huon River is being introduced as a new tournament arena, after a spectacular trial event in 2024. The trial event yielded lots of limits between 5 and 7kg.

The familiar St Helens arena in the north-east has been re-purposed as the venue for the DUO Tasmanian BREAM Teams Open. You can expect this to be a strategic event, with your 5-fish limit compiled over two days (instead of a five-fish limit per day).

Also as part of the 2026 lineup is the return of Gladstone as a BREAM arena. The diversity and sight fishing opportunities set this place apart. And with luck, we will also reintroduce the Manning River as a venue in 2026 after it was ravaged by floods in 2025.

And we are pretty sure the everyone will want to qualify for the 2026 Daiwa BREAM Series Grand Final at Forster, NSW at the end of the year. You may just win a $100K boat fishing topwater all day.

BASS EVENTS

With a BASS Grand Final at Lake Glenbawn in October for the 2026 Rapala BASS Pro Series, we are sure that BASS anglers will want to qualify for the 1:30 chance of winning a boat at the end of some epic impoundment fishing.

To get there, you’ll need to qualify through the Series, with events on the Clarence and Richmond Rivers as well as Somersert, Wivenhoe and Glenbawn dams.

While you’re at it, the Crushcity BASS Australian Open moves to Lake St Clair and you can bundle this event and the Grand Final into one trip.

BARRA GETS AN UPGRADE

Wilson Fishing takes over Zerek as the naming sponsor of the 2026 BARRA Series and the series will run at two, distinct tours – the Southern in March and the Northern in November. This is to cater for the increase in demand as the southern lakes flourish.

We’ve also added a stand-alone saltwater event in 2026 – the Samaki Saltwater BARRA Open on the Fitzroy River in June. This daytime only event will feature coverage opportunities like never before and take advantage of the quality of fishing in this Net Free Zone.

The BARRA Team of the Year points system gets an upgrade, with the dropping of ‘fish bonus points’ and the removal of the Opens from the points race. Now every event is equal and you’ll need to place highly to be in contention.

FLATHEAD ON THE MENU

Finally, ABT is taking on a Flathead event. At the end of October in Lake Macquarie the inaugural Shimano Flathead Open will run. Featuring a teams-format and based on the app, means that this event will feature live scoreboards and unmatched coverage.

We’re bringing the ABT flavour to flatties.

All of the information, as well as entry forms is now available on the ABT site.