Clark Wendlandt could still be leading the Elite Series Angler of the Year race when this tournament is over. But he isn’t now, based on the Day 2 standings in the Guaranteed Rate Elite at Chickamauga Lake. AOY points are based solely on the final standings in each tournament. While Wendlandt’s total is final, new leader David Mullins could easily fall several places today in a tournament this volatile.
The asterisk in the chart below indicates the seven anglers who will be fishing on Day 3 at Chickamauga. They’ve all got room to rise and fall before this tournament is over and their AOY points become official.
For instance, if Mullins fell 15 places to 35th today, he’d earn 66 AOY points and have a season total of 606 – one point less than Wendlandt – going into the final tournament at Lake Fork in November.
The main point here is that the AOY race has tightened considerably. Wendlandt had a 47-point lead over Mullins and a 65-point lead over Austin Felix after Santee Cooper. And there will probably be a new AOY leader after this tournament. Lake Fork promises much drama in the 2020 Angler of the Year race.
| After Santee Cooper | After Day 2 at Chickamauga | ||
| 1. Clark Wendlandt | 587 | 1. David Mullins | 621* | 20th |
| 2. Cory Johnston | 550 | 2. Austin Felix | 614* | 9th |
| 3. David Mullins | 540 | 3. Clark Wendlandt | 607 | 81st |
| 4. Drew Cook | 528 | 4. Kyle Welcher | 597* | 5th |
| 5. Seth Feider | 522 | 5. Jake Whitaker | 593* | 4th |
| 6. Austin Felix | 522 | 6. Drew Cook | 584 | 45th |
| 7. Paul Mueller | 515 | 7. Cory Johnston | 584 | 67th |
| 8. Taku Ito | 515 | 8. Scott Canterbury | 581* | 19th |
| 9. Brock Mosley | 509 | 9. Patrick Walters | 581* | 10th |
|
10. Micah Frazier |
509 | 10. Matt Arey | 581* | 6th |
Note: Ties in point totals are broken by the cumulative weights on full field days (Day 1 and 2) for the season.