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fishing clash angler of the year : the ultimate prize for bass pro tour ’ s sixtH season
2024 AOY will join Evers , Lee , Wheeler , Becker on roster of winners
Matt Becker heads into the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season as the defending champion of the league ’ s Angler of the Year title . Becker had claimed a Toyota Division Northern Division AOY in 2021 , but his 2023 performance marked the first ever major tour-level AOY for the Tennessee pro — in his first year on the BPT , no less . It ’ s an accomplishment he ’ s still celebrating .
“ There ’ s something extra special about winning a seasonlong title ,” Becker said . “ Some people are really into winning the major event , but I ’ d rather be the guy who was the most consistent for the whole year . I look at the tournaments as building blocks . You keep stacking the blocks together , hopefully by the end of the year , you ’ ve built a house .”
The 2024 BPT Fishing Clash AOY race kicked off Jan . 30- Feb . 4 on Toledo Bend in Louisiana . If history is any indication , expect some significant shakeups to the standings in the months to come . Here ’ s how the previous Anglers of the Year claimed their titles .
Becker proved exceptionally well-wired to take advantage of the opportunity . Growing up in Pennsylvania and cutting his tournament teeth in the Great Lakes states ( 10 of his 22 Top 10s entering the event were on Northern fisheries ), Becker didn ’ t flinch at the gusting wind and waves that sent the rest of the Top 10 scurrying . He worked his way through 13 smallmouth during the Championship Round , putting together a bag of fish that all weighed between 4-0 and 5-5 and outlasting Kevin VanDam for the win .
Final AOY score : Becker 461.5 , Wheeler and DeFoe 457.5 , Jones 456.5
2023 — becker completes final-event sweep
As any historic race should , the 2023 Angler of the Year battle came down to the final day of the season , when Becker ran away with both the Stage Seven trophy and the AOY trophy thanks to a 22-pound , 11-ounce smallmouth showcase on the wind-blown , rain-soaked waters around the Charity Islands on Saginaw Bay .
Heading into the final event of the 2023 season – on the sprawling , 1,100-square-mile bay on Michigan ’ s Lake Huron – the Angler of the Year race had been locked in the tightest four-angler grouping in the league ’ s five-year history . Ten points separated then-leader Alton Jones Jr . ( 391.5 points ) from Becker ( 381.5 ) in fourth place , with defending AOY Jacob Wheeler ( 384.5 ) and Ott DeFoe ( 382.5 ) in between .
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
2022 — wheeler goes back to back
There ’ s no better way to describe Wheeler ’ s 2022 Bass Pro Tour season than “ utterly dominant .” The Tennessee pro went an astounding 9-for-10 in Top 10s / Championship Rounds and won his second Angler of the Year trophy in as many years by a whopping 70 points over second-place finisher Jordan Lee ( the unfortunate winner of the other AOY award – Any Other Year – after a stellar season of his own ).
Wheeler and Lee stayed nearly neck-and-neck through the first three events of the year , but Lee stumbled slightly at Stage Four on Lake of the Ozarks with a 22nd-place finish . Wheeler , meanwhile , finished fifth there to open his AOY lead to 301-284 , and then finished second at both Watts Bar and Cayuga Lake to blow open the competition . At 65 points , his cushion was nearly insurmountable heading into the season finale at Mille Lacs Lake .
Wheeler ’ s Top 10 run ended there with an 11th-place finish , but he left Minnesota with another silver and red AOY trophy , which more than made up for it .
Final AOY score : Wheeler 529 , Lee 459 , Alton Jones 429.5 , Dakota Ebare 415.5
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
14 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2024