It takes a different mindset to keep up with this tournament. Basically, it boils down to this: Aaron Martens has to finish 16 places higher in the standings than Greg Hackney and Todd Faircloth has to finish 18 places higher than Hackney in order to surpass him in points and take the Toyota Angler of the Year crown away from the points leader coming into this event.
So not only must Martens and Faircloth catch a big limit today, they need a bunch of other anglers to finish higher than Hackney. With this tournament being only two days now, rather than three, their chances of that happening are diminished even further.
Martens was afraid that might happen. At Thursday's weigh-in, he said, "If we only fish one more day, I might be in trouble."
There is some incentive for several guys to catch 'em today. It comes in the form of dollars. The total payout in this event is about $900,000 – a significant bump up from a year ago.
Last place (50th) up to 26th pays $12,000. From that point up, the payouts increase. For instance, there's a $9,000 difference between 10th place ($21,000) and 5th place ($30,000).
But, remember, it's all about the points generated from the final standings today added to the points accumulated over the season for each angler.