Becker ’ s mastery of offshore ledge fishing for largemouth put him in position to contend for the title with his specialty : Great Lakes smallmouth .
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
“ That ’ s when I knew I had made the Knockout Round ,” Becker said . “ I literally laid down on the deck to catch my breath and felt the same chill and goose bumps I had at St . Clair . All I could think was , ‘ I still have a chance .’”
down the home stretch
Becker advanced , but so did the rest of the AOY contenders : Jones Jr ., DeFoe and Wheeler . With weights zeroing , the Knockout and Championship Rounds set up as the final two laps to the AOY checkers .
“ Of those in contention for AOY , I was the fourth man down ,” Becker said . “ The Knockout Round was the opportunity to make up ground . In my mind , smallmouth were the only way to do it . Largemouth let me be conservative and stay in the game . But now it was time to take risks and fish new water to find bigger smallmouth .”
With that in mind , Becker swapped tackle again . This time all the largemouth gear came out of the boat and the smallmouth spinning rods , rigged mostly with drop shots , went back in . Again , he didn ’ t want to be tempted by another species .
“ I had a score to settle with the bigger smallmouth around the Charity Islands ,” he explained . “ I spent time out there in practice and only caught one 4-pounder . I knew there had to be more out there , so I planned to spend the Knockout Round dedicating myself to finding them .”
Becker had perfect weather on his side for the smallmouth hunt . Light winds and sunny skies allowed for extreme efficiency in terms of running around , trying different spots and having stable sonar signals .
Despite the premium conditions , Becker got off to a slow start , catching just three fish in the first period . But he started to realize something interesting about the Saginaw Bay smallmouth .
“ I kept looking for them on rocks or breaks , something with steep contour change ,” Becker says . “ That ’ s pretty typical for Great Lakes smallmouth . In Erie , smallmouth relate to boulders and steep breaks on points or humps . I found that kind of stuff around the Charity Islands that looked perfect , but there were no fish on them .”
Using Garmin LiveScope , Becker discovered the smallmouth seemed to prefer roaming around coverless bottom . “ I finally quit trying to force the object-oriented stuff and started scoping nothing-looking flats in 15 to 20 feet of water ,” he recalled . “ The scenario was more like smallmouth in an inland lake like Cherokee or Douglas , or even St . Clair , where they just meander around on flat sand .”
Once that clicked , Becker began picking off smallmouth that were cruising the bottom in pairs or triples .
“ I was scoping along a slow-tapering point that ran out into the lake about a half a mile ,” he said . “ It was basically just a long , flat sand point with nothing on it .”
Around noon , Becker hooked into a 4-2 smallmouth that had a school of big ones behind it . When he saw the school , he got goosebumps again . The problem , however , would be keeping track of them . The nomadic pod would not lock down or relate to anything . “ I don ’ t know if it was because these were resident fish just roaming or if smallmouth on Huron are more roamers by nature , or maybe both , but
I could not contact the school again ,” Becker explained . “ I think I might have I hit them one more time at the end of the day because I caught a 4-15 , which really boosted my confidence in the area .”
Becker ended the Knockout Round in fifth place with 17-14 , which put him 3-10 behind Kevin VanDam ’ s lead going into the final day .
hurricane matt makes landfall
The final Championship Round of the 2023 season turned into one for the history books , chock full of intertwined storylines . VanDam entered the last day of his last regular season tournament in the lead . Close behind him , the key AOY players – Wheeler , DeFoe and Becker – sat third , fourth and fifth , respectively . At that point , Wheeler held a virtual four-point lead over Becker and DeFoe , who were tied .
The scene seemed to be set for a storybook season ending : VanDam winning the last event of his unprecedented career while Wheeler claimed his third consecutive AOY crown , arguably the two biggest current stars of the sport soaking up the limelight . What the guidance models didn ’ t factor in , however , was the increase in Becker ’ s intensity . Being overshadowed further fueled him .
“ Yeah , that motivated me a little bit ,” Becker admitted . “ All eyes were on VanDam and Wheeler ; I knew I was the dark horse in that scenario . I needed to beat Wheeler by four spots on the last day to win the AOY . In order to do that , I would basically have to win the tournament to give myself the best shot . It was theirs to lose , and that took a lot of pressure off me . I wasn ’ t
40 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2023