LA CROSSE, Wis. — There are two big prizes at stake this week on the Mississippi River: 1) the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, and 2) GEICO Bassmaster Classic berths.
While the final results in both categories won’t be decided until next week in the AOY Championship at Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake, the picture will become clearer over the next four days at the Plano Bassmaster Elite at the Mississippi River presented by Favorite Fishing.
In the AOY race, the contenders must cut into Gerald Swindle’s lead if they’re going to have a chance to catch him next week, when the field will include only the top 50 Elite Series anglers. If the current standings held, only Keith Combs – 37 points behind Swindle – would have a mathematical chance of catching Swindle, as everyone else is more than 50 points back.
Here’s a glimpse of the AOY standings coming into La Crosse:
Angler Pts. back
1. Gerald Swindle ——
2. Keith Combs – 37
3. Randall Tharp – 62
4. Greg Hackney – 70
5. Jacob Powroznik – 77
As to Classic berths, you’ve got to finish in the top 50 in AOY points this week to qualify next week at Mille Lacs. There will be a minimum of 36 Classic berths at stake, based on AOY final standings, so the anglers who barely make the top 50 will still have some work to do in order to qualify for the Classic. But at least they’ll still have a chance.
There are two areas to watch this week in that scenario: 1) the anglers who are just above 50th place and could fall out and, 2) the anglers just below 50th place and could move up.
Here’s a look at the AOY points between 40th place and 60th place, and the relationship to that 50th place cut mark. Coming into La Crosse, Adrian Avena was in 50th place with 464 AOY points this season:
40. Fred Roumbanis + 29
41. Casey Ashley + 29
42. Clifford Pirch + 27
43. Tommy Biffle + 27
44. Josh Bertrand + 25
45. Jason Williamson + 18
46. Stephen Browning + 16
47. Mark Menendez + 15
48. Kelly Jordon + 7
49. John Crews + 1
50. Adrian Avena ––
51. Boyd Duckett – 1
52. Mike McClelland – 1
53. Randy Howell – 2
54. Davy Hite – 4
55. Fletcher Shryock – 5
56. Rick Clunn – 5
57. Paul Mueller – 8
58. David Mullins – 12
59. Chad Morgenthaler – 18
60. Koby Kreiger – 22
Note that Brent Chapman is also 22 points out of 50th place, but he’s 61st in the standings. He and Koby Kreiger have earned 431 points so far this season. Those ties throughout the AOY standings are broken based on total weight of the full-field days (Days 1 and 2) for every tournament this season. Kreiger has posted a higher total weight than Chapman so far, so he ranks 60th and Chapman is 61st.
That tiebreaker came into play last year when Ish Monroe earned the final top 50 berth over Keith Poche.
Keep in mind that it’s not mathematically impossible for someone higher than 40th place to fall out of the top 50, or for someone lower than 60th place to rise into the top 50 this week. But it becomes increasingly difficult the more anglers there are between you and the 50th spot.