It all (could) come down to today for the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year and Dakota Lithium Elite Series Rookie of the Year races. These are “official” observations after yesterday’s weigh-in, and don’t represent what’s currently in play on BassTrakk.
Joey Cifuentes III (aka The Cowboy) was four points ahead of Kyoya Fujita, with 699 and 695 points, respectively. What’s notable is even though The Cowboy has two Bassmaster Elite Series wins this year, Fujita is close behind in the points, based on the strength of fishing four of the eight Top 10 finals. And he’s on track to make it a fifth should he make the cut tomorrow.
In the last two events at St. Clair and Lake Champlain, Brandon Cobb (728 points) was in a great spot after two days of competition, and then faltered on Day 3. Meanwhile, Kyle Welcher (756 points) surged on those days. (As of 8:30 a.m. ET BassTrakk shows Welcher in second place, with Cobb in 26th.) The same scenario is playing out this morning. Cobb needs to finish 15th or better on Semifinal Saturday to stay in the AOY race.
The 2024 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota has lots of drama in play, with the Top 40 receiving invitations to fish on Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in March.
Currently, Jason Christie is last man inside the cut and of course, fishing a Classic in his home state is a huge goal. Last man in status is a precarious place to be, given who is outside the Classic bubble. Fishing today are Jacob Powroznik, (43rd AOY), Scott Martin (45th AOY), Bryan New (48th AOY) and Greg DiPalma (50th AOY).
Three St. Croix Bassmaster Opens remain on the schedule, with a chance for those outside the Classic bubble to move up in the standings, should an Elite pro win an event, and be inside the AOY cut. That makes three opportunities for a double-qualification to come into play.
