Brandon Cobb is on a hot streak. His worst Bassmaster Elite Series finish this season was 20th at Lake Seminole. In the other three 2023 Elite Series events he’s placed third at Lake Okeechobee, sixth at Lake Murray and fourth at Santee Cooper Lakes. So, naturally, the 33-year-old Greenwood, S.C., resident is first in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
“When everything is going right, it goes right,” said Cobb on Day 2 at Santee Cooper. He’d just weighed a 24-pound, 15-ounce five-bass limit that vaulted him into second place overall. Cobb added the details of catching a 7-pound, 3-ounce bass that day to further illustrate the point.
“I was hung,” Cobb said. “I was doing the bow-and-arrow move, popping my line, trying to get it off (a cypress knee), (the bass) sucked it off the tree, and I caught it.”
Every angler who has won the AOY title has been able to look back at a catch here or there over the course of a season that was crucial at the time. Cobb won’t forget that one, no matter if he goes on to win the AOY title or not.
It should be noted that Cobb’s hot streak began last year when he finished 32nd at South Dakota’s Lake Oahe and 19th in the season finale on the Mississippi River at La Crosse, Wis. It includes an eighth-place finish this year at the Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville in March.
As good as Cobb has been, he’s only 18 points ahead of Drew Cook, who has three Top 10 finishes and a “worst finish” of 31st place. With four of the nine Elite Series tournaments in the books, here’s a look at the top 10:
1. Cobb — 387 points
2. Cook — 369 points
3. Tyler Rivet — 349 points
4. Carl Jocumsen — 335 points
5. Kyle Welcher — 333 points
6. Mike Iaconelli — 324 points
7. John Cox — 324 points
8. Shane LeHew — 320 points
9. Drew Benton — 302 points
10. Pat Schlapper — 301 points
This is Cobb’s fifth season on the Elite Series. He was first in the AOY standings five tournaments into his rookie year in 2019 when he had already won two tournaments – at Lake Hartwell and Lake Fork, where he also earned a B.A.S.S Century Club belt with a four-day total of 114-0 at Texas Fest. He would finish 32nd in the final 2019 AOY standings.
His other AOY finishes include 41st in 2020, ninth in 2021 and 20th in 2022.
Editor’s note: Full 2023 AOY standings.
