You can bomb in one tournament and still win the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title. Brandon Palaniuk did it in 2017 when he placed 105th at Lake Okeechobee in the second event of the season and came back with a remarkable run that included four top five finishes.
Brandon Cobb is hoping for a similar scenario. His low point this season came in tournament No. 6 at the Sabine River, where he finished 91st. Cobb, 33, from Greenwood, S.C., entered that event with a lead of 71 points over fifth place Kyle Welcher. Welcher finished seventh at the Sabine and vaulted into first place in the AOY standings.
As the Elite Series wraps up with back-to-back tournaments this month – first at Lake Champlain, then at the St. Lawrence River – Cobb is back in the AOY lead, by one point over Welcher. The top 10 anglers are separated by only 63 points.
“To still be first in AOY with a 91st-place finish, I can’t complain,” said Cobb. “My goal is to make the Top 50 cut in the next two. A Top 10 would be phenomenal. If I miss a (Day 2/Top 50) cut, I’ll feel like I left the door open.”
Cobb is facing a challenge in these final two events. He loves to fish at Lake Champlain; the St. Lawrence River, not so much, especially when Lake Ontario is included in tournament waters, which it is this year. Welcher, 30, from Opelika, Ala., has had good and not-so-good finishes on both.
There’s a scenario where anyone in the top 10 could be the AOY champ when the season concludes, from third place Tyler Rivet and John Cox, both 41 points behind Cobb, to 10th place Drew Benton, 63 points back. But the more anglers you have in front of you, the more anglers it takes to all fall down for you to move up.
“I really, truly like Champlain,” said Cobb. “I don’t always fish for smallmouth there. The St. Lawrence River is the one that worries me. It’s a place I haven’t done real well at, other than in the river when you couldn’t go to (Lake Ontario).
“With the lake being open, it’s a different situation. I don’t like the lake. I don’t like big water. That’s why I struggled (on Day 3 at St. Clair). It got rough. I have a hard time fishing in rough conditions like that because I’m not used to it. It’s something I didn’t grow up doing.”
This is the time of year too where Bassmaster Classic qualifications are a focus. The top 40 in the final AOY standings earn a spot in the Classic. That number is now 41 because an Open winner (Jody White) isn’t going to qualify because he didn’t compete in the other Opens in the division. There is an automatic Classic bid that’s awarded to the winner of the final event of the season, and there are a few Open events left. The list could grow to Nos. 42 or maybe 44 on the AOY list at season’s end.
Jeff Gustafson, the 2023 Bassmaster Classic champ, is guaranteed a spot in the 2024 Classic. He’s currently in 47th place in the AOY standings. If he moves into the top 40 in the final standings, Gustafson would become a double-qualifier, which would add one more spot to the list of Classic qualifiers based on AOY points.
Among those on the border of the Classic qualifying list are Jason Christie (37th), Brandon Lester (38th), Seth Feider (39th) and two-time Classic champ Hank Cherry (42nd). As always, there will be high drama over the last two weeks of the Elite Series season.
