Justin Lucas has all but wrapped up the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year title after two days on Lake Chatuge. Coming into this event, Lucas had a nine-point lead over Josh Bertrand. His goal was to finish 8th or higher and there would be no way Bertrand could catch him. Lucas is 5th after two days of this three-day tournament that concludes Sunday.
Bertrand is 43rd after two days. And he’s the only angler who can catch Lucas in the 50-man field. I’m not going to take the time to do the math on the miraculous scenario it would take for Bertrand to win on the final day.
In the Rookie of the Year race, 26-year-old Jake Whitaker put some distance between him and 47-year-old Roy Hawk on Day 2. Whitaker is 9th with a total of 24-14. Hawk dropped to 41st after catching only two keepers weighing 3-1 Friday. Hawk entered this event with a four-point lead in AOY points over Whitaker. So he’s got to finish within three places of Whitaker to win the rookie title. And he’s got 31 anglers between him and Whitaker.
It’s the “bubble” concerning those 35 guaranteed Classic berths where every fish is going to count Sunday. Two Oklahoma anglers with storied Classic histories made big moves Friday. Edwin Evers, who won it in 2016 at Grand Lake, was 35th coming into this event, dropped to 39th in the “theoretical AOY standings” based on his 36th place bag on Day 1, jumped up to 31st in the AOY standings after moving up to 17th in the tournament with 13-8 Friday. Jason Christie, who finished second at the 2016 Classic and third in 2018 – after leading both going into the final day – was 41st in AOY and moved up to 34th Friday with his 26-9 total, which has him in 7th place at Chatuge.
Remember, these AOY points updated during a tournament simply show the totals as they would be if the tournament ended that day. No AOY points are earned from anything but the final tournament standings. Below are some of the anglers trending up and down around the 35th place cutoff in automatic Classic berths. It shows here they were coming into this event, and where they are now based on the Day 2 standings:
| Trending Up | ||
| Micah Frazier | +8 | (38th to 30th) |
| Jason Christie | +7 | (41st to 34th) |
| Chris Lane | +6 | (45th to 38th) |
| Jake Whitaker | +6 | (32nd to 26th) |
| Edwin Evers | +4 | (35th to 31st) |
| Trending Down | ||
| Wesley Strader | -11 | (24th to 35th) |
| Scott Rook | -9 | (36th to 45th) |
| Roy Hawk | -8 | (29th to 37th) |
| Jared Lintner | -8 | (34th to 42nd) |
| Chris Zaldain | -6 | (23rd to 29th) |