anglers who made every knockout round
consecutive top-four finishes for wheeler
repeat top-10 finishers
spots improved by poche
THE
FRONT PAGE By Mitchell Forde by the numbers
Breaking down the dramatic 2023 Bally Bet AOY race
The final chapter of the closest Bally Bet Angler of the Year competition in Bass Pro Tour history lived up to its billing . Rookie Matt Becker caught and passed veteran stars Ott Defoe , Jacob Wheeler and Alton Jones Jr . in the points with his 22-pound , 11-ounce limit of smallmouth bass on the final day of Stage Seven , which also earned him the victory at Saginaw Bay .
Becker ’ s title made history ; he ’ s the first rookie to win Angler of the Year on a national tour since Shin Fukae in 2004 . But it was far from the only compelling storyline of the season . Here ’ s a look at the numbers that tell the story of the 2023 AOY race .
anglers who made every knockout round
Becker finished the year just 4 points clear of DeFoe and Wheeler and 5 points ahead of Jones . Never in the first four BPT seasons had an angler come within five points of the AOY champion , much less three of them .
One reason no one could create separation at the top of the leaderboard : Everyone missed at least one cut during the regular season . It marked the first time since the inaugural BPT campaign in 2019 that at least one angler hasn ’ t participated in every Knockout Round . A pair achieved the feat in 2022 ( Wheeler and Jordan Lee ) and 2020 ( Lee and DeFoe ).
Almost as much as his win at Saginaw Bay , Becker can attribute his title to the fact that his lone hiccup — at Stage One on the Kissimmee Chain — resulted in a 47th-place finish . Wheeler and DeFoe both had worse slip-ups , with Wheeler finishing 77th at Lake Murray and DeFoe 59th at Lake St . Clair .
consecutive top-four finishes for wheeler
Wheeler ’ s streak of two straight AOY titles might have been snapped , but another strong season further padded his unmatched BPT resume .
Wheeler has now finished fourth or better five years in a row . No other angler has finished among the Top 10 every year . Of course , Wheeler is also the only multi-time winner of the AOY trophy .
That said , there ’ s one angler who is at least on pace to match his perennial prowess . Dakota Ebare finished fifth in the AOY standings in 2023 after a fourth-place campaign as a rookie . Expect Ebare to be on the short list of 2024 favorites .
repeat top-10 finishers
While there might be an element of randomness to winning tournaments , the 2023 standings show that ’ s not the case when it comes to Angler of the Year success . Virtually everyone in the Top 10 has been here before .
Excluding Becker , who didn ’ t compete on the Bass Pro Tour prior to this year , eight of the other nine Top 10 anglers had finished there at least once prior . Three — DeFoe , Brent Ehrler and Jeff Sprague — have now logged three Top 10 finishes in five seasons . Lee has done so four times .
spots improved by poche
While success ( or lack thereof ) in the points race tends to be sticky , a few anglers rebounded from disappointing 2022 seasons in a major way . Among the most notable surges in the 2023 AOY standings was that of Keith Poche , who leapfrogged from a 67th-place finish a year ago to 17th .
Poche ’ s 50-place improvement was highlighted by a memorable win at Stage Two on Cherokee Lake . Other anglers who finished among the top 20 in 2023 after missing out on REDCREST qualification a year ago : Bradley Roy , who vaulted from 54th place in 2022 to 13th , and Takahiro Omori , who improved from 63rd to 20th .
14 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2023