Clark Wendlandt hasn’t clinched the Bassmaster Angler of the Year title after two days at Lake Fork, but his two closest competitors have left the door open for him. David Mullins, who was leading coming into this event, finished 47th and failed to make the Day 2 top 40 cut. Austin Felix missed the cut as well, finishing 68th. Those two anglers were ahead of Wendlandt before this season finale.
If Wendlandt finishes 31st or better in the 40-man field Saturday, he will be the 2020 Angler of the Year. He’ll start the day in 19th place with a two-day total of 31-1.
“I’m nervous,” said Wendlandt. “I feel like I’ve tapped out the area I’ve been fishing. I’ve got a good secondary pattern, and I caught quite a few doing that (Thursday). The decisions of fishing a tournament alone give you a little anxiety. Making the cut is great, but I wish it were said and done already.
“I’ve just got to catch some fish. But that’s not all that easy when you’ve been beating on them a couple of days.”
Jake Whitaker still has a longshot chance of winning AOY. He was in fourth place, only 13 points behind Wendlandt after the last tournament – at Lake Chickamauga. Unlike Mullins and Felix, Whitaker made the Day 2 cut, in 27th place. It would take a combination of a big day for Whitaker and a bad day for Wendlandt for Whitaker to take the crown.
“If I catch five, I figure I’m there,” Wendlandt said “I told myself yesterday I’m not going to let the enormity of the moment make me fish different. It’s enormous to me not just because it’s Angler of the Year, but because I want to win it really bad.”