PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – In the waning hour of the 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech regular season, as the gravity of his accomplishments started to hit him, Virginia pro Ryan Lachniet expressed his gratitude about a season that had lived up to some lofty preseason goals.
“Something seemed to go right for me every tournament,” Lachniet said on the MLFNOW! livestream as he finished up his final day at VOSKER Stop 6 on Lake Champlain. “Whether it was the first spot I pulled up on was really good, or (catching) a giant one at the end of the day, something has gone my way, every tournament. I’m just super thankful that God blessed me like that.”
It was a breakout year for Lachniet, who put an exclamation point on his 2026 campaign with a Rookie of the Year title, a second-place finish in the 7 Brew Angler of the Year race, a Top 5 on Lake Champlain, and an invitation to fish the Bass Pro Tour in 2027. The 22-year-old graduate of Campbellsville University in Kentucky anted up for the Pro Circuit with the goal of earning a spot on the Bass Pro Tour – six months later, he walked offstage at Plattsburgh City Marina with one of the five golden BPT tickets in hand.
“I wanted to make the Bass Pro Tour, that was the goal I was chasing,” Lachniet said. “I always thought the Rookie of the Year was a cool deal, but my goal all along was the Bass Pro Tour. I definitely didn’t think it would be easy – only five people make it; it’s a hard thing to do.”
Holding serve on Champlain
Lachniet entered Stop 6 with 930 points and a realistic attitude about his chances of making up 13 points on defending 7 Brew Coffee AOY Banks Shaw (“There was no way that Banks was going to finish worse than 13th here,” Lachniet said). He left the marina on Day 1 with Dylan Nutt (927) and Carter Nutt (923) hot on his heels for Rookie of the Year honors, with travel partner Connor Jacob (899) and Brody Campbell (890) representing the fourth and fifth potential invites to the Bass Pro Tour.
The Virginia pro held serve on Day 1, collecting 20 pounds, 1 ounce to start the tournament in 10th place. Shaw settled in eighth to add 2 points to his AOY lead over Lachniet, but the Nutt brothers faltered that day, Carter finishing 51st and Dylan finishing 102nd (falling 48 and 95 points back, respectively). Jacob and Campbell maintained, and Cal Lane replaced Dylan Nutt in the fifth position inside the BPT cut line.
Lachniet effectively locked up both a Bass Pro Tour bid and the ROY title on Day 2, climbing to fourth place in the tournament with 21-8 to increase his rookie lead over Jacob to 40 points and expand his cushion in the Bass Pro Tour race to 65 points over Will Harkins in the final spot.
Shaw sewed up the AOY trophy early the next day, blasting 21 pounds in quick fashion and eventually finishing third in the event, while Lachniet corralled 19-9 to finish fifth. But Rookie of the Year hardware, a spot on the 2027 Bass Pro Tour and momentum going into the September Pro Circuit Championship on the Kissimmee Chain in Florida felt just fine to Lachniet, thank you.
“I’m just so satisfied, I literally couldn’t be happier,” he admitted after weigh-in.
Lachniet stayed steady
Lachniet’s rookie Pro Circuit campaign was a study in consistency: he made all six cuts and finished no worse then 25th in six events (with three Top 10s). The other contenders had some notable surges, but (minus Shaw) they also hit some speed bumps that cost them points to Lachniet’s steady pace.
- Jacob collected an impressive four Top 10s, but got derailed by a two-fish, 4-pound first day on the Santee Cooper lakes (he finished 50th).
- The Nutts racked up a win and five Top 10s between them, but ultimately fell out of the race with a down week at Champlain (49th for Carter, 79th for Dylan).
- Harkins was 66th at Santee Cooper; Ethan Fields started the season with a 50th-place finish at the Harris Chain.
Lachniet’s consistency is no accident – it’s something he’s worked on diligently since his freshman year in college, when he had “a pretty rough go of it” in tournaments.
“I try hard to limit the risks, and take the safest bet for a consistent finish,” Lachniet said. “I’m always looking for as many points as I can get consistently. I started to figure out three or four years ago that the only way I was going to qualify to fish a major tour was to be super, super consistent. I’ve worked on it, a lot.
“My first year of college, I couldn’t figure that out. If I had two choices – one that was safe and consistent and one that was risky – I’d take the wrong one. I’d catch a 6 and a 4 … and then nothing else. The biggest thing for me now is, anytime I have a place where I might catch some big ones and a spot that I know will produce solid limits, I’ll take the layup. I’ve just learned that approach fishing a lot of tournaments. I know the differences between ‘It might be really good’ and ‘It’s good and safe’.”
Lachniet practiced what he preaches
Lachniet started the season strong with a Top 10 at the February season opener on the Harris Chain in Florida, and followed with a 25th-place finish at the Santee Cooper lakes. Those two early-season tournaments affirmed Lachniet’s play-it-safe approach, and set him up for the follow-through in Stops 3, 4, 5, and 6.
He caught 13-13, 13-9 and 9-3 in three days on the Harris Chain – a far cry from the 20- to 26-pound bombs being dropped at the top of the leaderboard, but still good enough for 10th place on a fishery that had previously given him fits.
“The Harris Chain was the only place on the schedule that I was really worried about,” Lachniet said. “I’d been there a bunch of times and my best finish had been maybe 70th or 80th. That place really had my number. But I found a place that had a decent population of fish. They weren’t huge, but consistent. I stayed with that all week, and it just kinda worked out.”
He faced a choice at Stop 2 at Santee Cooper, where two wildly different scenarios revealed themselves in practice. Lachniet chose the safer option, opting for an area with good numbers versus a more risky area with bigger fish, and sticking with the safe bet after weighing only 17 pounds on Day 1 for 36th place. He upgraded with 21 pounds on Day 2 to climb to 25th.
“I definitely had to choose between something that was maybe really good, and something safe,” Lachniet said. “I had something down in Lake Moultrie that was really good, but risky. I knew that it could go wrong. I also had some fish in Potato Creek that weren’t big, but there were a bunch of them. We had that big fog delay (on Day 1), I ended up catching a solid limit in Potato Creek and culled up to 21 back in that same area on Day 2. I made the safer choice.”
Lachniet can now look forward to the Pro Circuit Championship in mid-September on the Kissimmee Chain and gear up for his 2027 rookie campaign on the Bass Pro Tour. It’s a scenario that’s fueled him since his first derby.
“I fished my first tournament when I was 12 and thought ‘This is the coolest thing in the world. I have to figure out how to make this my job’,” he said. “I didn’t figure that was super realistic, but it’s something I’ve had on my mind since I was a kid. It seems a little hard to believe, but I’m ready and excited for it.”