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WHEELER ROLLING : Bally Bet AOY Race Heads into Final Laps
Can anybody catch defending 2021 AOY Jacob Wheeler at Cayuga , Mille Lacs ?
By Joel Shangle
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
With two events left in the seven-tournament race for the 2022 Bally Bet Angler of the Year trophy and accompanying $ 100,000 payoff , one name / face remains comfortably perched atop the 80-angler standings – a position he ’ s held for a hearty portion of two years : Jacob Wheeler .
The 2022 race has seen a steady procession of new names , faces and firsts capturing headlines in the league ’ s eight-month-long season . Four anglers ( Bradley Roy , Alton Jones Jr ., Jesse Wiggins and Ryan Salzman ) have earned their first major tour-level wins , and two other previous winners ( Dustin Connell and Bobby Lane ) have added new hardware to their trophy cases . But through it all , Wheeler ’ s dominance has been undeniable .
The Tennessee pro finished second in early June at Stage Five on Watts Bar Lake to boost his AOY points total to 379 out of a possible 400 points , giving him a stout 58-point lead over 2021 Bally Bet AOY Jordan Lee ( 341 ) and a comfortable cushion over Andy Morgan ( 315 ), Kevin VanDam ( 302.5 ) and Randall Tharp ( 302 ).
The BPT field had an eight-week break before the season enters the back stretch at Cayuga Lake in New York ( Aug . 6- 11 ) and Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota ( Sept . 10-15 ).
the wise money is on wheeler
As we begin the last two laps of the 2022 Bass Pro Tour regular season , it almost feels like the Bally Bet AOY race should be renamed the “ Bally Bet on Wheeler ” AOY race . That ’ s not being flippant or dismissive of the other anglers pursuing the Tennessee pro ; it ’ s just examining the numbers and thinking like an educated bettor .
Wheeler outlasted Ott DeFoe in the final two events of 2021 to win his first career AOY by 15 points ( 494 to 479 ), completing one of the best individual seasons in the 50-plusyear history of the sport . But as astounding as it might sound following an epically great 2021 season , Wheeler ’ s 2022 campaign might be even better .
The defending Bally Bet AOY has finished in the Top
10 in seven of eight tournaments in 2022 ( including REDCREST and Heavy Hitters ) and has finished no lower than eighth in the five regularseason BPT events contested . Based on just that Top 10 performance trend , there ’ s an 88 percent chance Wheeler will earn at least 71 points at both Stage Six at Cayuga Lake and Stage Seven at Mille Lacs Lake .
Wheeler ’ s average finish in five Bass Pro Tour events this season is 5.2 , which means that if Wheeler fishes to his season average – say that again , his average finish is fifth ! – he ’ ll earn 75.2 points at each remaining event . That would put him at 529.4 out of a possible 560 AOY points , which would be a 6.3 percent improvement over his AOY-winning performance in 2021 .
Wheeler ’ s second-place finish at Watts Bar boosted his season AOY points total to 379 out of a possible 400 , which extrapolates to an average of 75.8 points earned per event . His 2021 per-event average – a year in which he won three events and rang up just shy of $ 390,000 in winnings – was 70.6 .
To borrow one of Wheeler ’ s favorite expressions … unreal .
10 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2022