There are some extra nervous twitches among many of the 107 Elite Series anglers competing today. "Big" doesn't begin to describe what's on the line for a lot of them. And it's all about making the Top 50 at the end of the day – the last Day 2 Top 50 cut of the 2015 season.
If the regular season ended this morning, Ish Monroe would be the last man in the 50-angler field for the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Lake Michigan's Sturgeon Bay, Sept. 17-20. In 51st place and out of luck would be Marty Robinson, followed by Dennis Tietje, Mark Menendez and Stephen Browning.
There's one day left to change your season, for the better or the worse. It's like the NCAA Basketball Tournament motto: Survive and advance. If you make the Top 50 cut today at St. Clair, you've at least got one more day to possibly improve your standing in the AOY points race, qualify for the Sturgeon Bay event, and maybe earn a Bassmaster Classic berth there.
You can ask a lot of these guys on the tour, and they'll tell you the same thing: They judge their season on whether they qualified for the Classic, or not.
Yes, there's a $100,000 first-place prize on the line this week and an Angler of the Year race to decide – maybe this weekend, maybe later – but it's all about that Top 50 cut today.