A rookie runaway has evolved into a rousing race.
Caleb Hudson was seemingly breezing to the 2026 Pro-Guide Batteries Elite Series Rookie of the Year title before the tables turned in the past two events.
The 24-year-old from Appling, Ga., who’s led the race since the second tournament, now has 20-year-old Fisher Anaya of Eva, Ala., hot on his tail. What looked like a gimme has turned into a gut check.
“At this point, it’s anybody’s game,” Hudson said. “I know me and him are ready to go just duking it out the last month and see where we shake out.”
Hudson stands 10th in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points with 480. Anaya is 12th, eight points behind Hudson after making up 83 points in the past two tournaments.
Both are virtually assured of qualifying for the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, so their attention now focuses on winning the ROY title and its $10,000 Pro-Guide bonus.
“I knew I needed some good events before we go up north,” Anaya said, “and that’s kind of what I’ve put together.
“I got the one really bad finish this year at Tombigbee, and I told myself, if I want a shot at it, I’ve got to at least have consistent tournaments with a couple more really good tournaments. And that’s what I did in the Carolina swing. I got fortunate enough to make every single cut over there.”
Hudson made cuts in each of the five seven events, including three Top 10s. After Lake Murray, he climbed as high as second in AOY, 91 points ahead of Anaya. Their fortunes then turned.
“We did a little trading in the last couple — he had a couple really good ones and I had a couple really bad ones, so we definitely switched it up,” Hudson said. “We’ve had pretty much the same year all year, but backwards.
“I started off decent. He started off rough. We had pretty much average middles of the season, and then towards the end, we flip-flopped entirely.”
Anaya recovered from a slip in the season opener at Lake Guntersville with a victory at Lake Martin, where he became the second youngest Elite champ at 20 years, 2 months and 26 days. Trey McKinney set the mark in 2024 at 19 years, 7 days.
An 85th at Tombigbee set Anaya back to 52nd in points but he climbed 26 spots with a fifth at the Arkansas River while Hudson took eighth. Despite posting a 36th at Lake Murray, Anaya lost ground as Hudson was 10th.
The turnaround began at Santee Cooper Lakes. Hudson slipped with his first missed cut of the year, an 81st, allowing Anaya to gain 33 points. Anaya then significantly closed the gap at the Pasquotank River. He rallied from a 68th-place start on Day 1 to finish second, gaining 50 points on Hudson, who narrowly missed the cut at 52nd.
“We were Power-Pole’d down next to each other the second morning, just talking back and forth about fish and what-not,” Hudson said. “There was no sneak peek there. He kind of threw that one right at me. He didn’t give me a warning. He didn’t say, ‘Hey, I’m coming for it.’ He just did it.”
The ROY comes down to the Northern Swing in New York. There’s not much room for error on fisheries where each has limited experience.
“I know myself and Fisher are fairly comfortable up north,” Hudson said. “We’re going to be swinging back and forth at each other. It’s going to come down to who catches one or two extra fish, I’m pretty sure. I think it’s going to be a very, very tight race all the way down to the end.”
The showdown starts Aug. 13-16 with the SPRO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain, where forward-facing sonar is prohibited. The season concludes with the Lowrance Elite at St. Lawrence, Aug. 27-30, which allows LiveScope.
“Heading up north now is kind of going to be a different game,” Anaya said. “I’ve only fished up there a handful of times, so I’m just going to fish to my strengths and hope it plays in my favor.”
In last year’s Elite Qualifier at Champlain, Anaya held the edge, taking 19th to Hudson’s 34th. Anaya went on to win the EQ AOY title, while Hudson won the Lake Okeechobee EQ to climb from 20th in points and finish among the Top 10 who advanced to the Elites.
“It’s scary there at Champlain, especially this late in the year. It’s had all that pressure,” Hudson said. “I’m excited for St. Lawrence, even if we didn’t have forward facing there. I really like that fishery. I’ve always had good luck there so far.”
Hudson finished 18th on the St. Lawrence in a college event and took seventh in the Division 1 Open there last year. Anaya cannot report similar success.
“Last year was my first time at Champlain, then I’ve been to St. Lawrence one time,” Anaya said. “Let me tell you something, I did probably the most unexpected thing — I zeroed.
“I’ve got a few more years under my belt of fishing all over the country now, so maybe I can understand it a little better and figure out what I did wrong last time.”
With the anglers launching from Clayton, Anaya said he expects the St. Lawrence to be a heavyweight shootout with sonar allowed and Lake Ontario in play.
“Last time I was there, I wasn’t allowed to leave the river, and we went out of Massena, so I was stuck up there,” he said. “Now that I’m allowed to go to the lake, I think I’m going to like it.”
Anaya said the race could be decided by who best figures out Champlain. He said it’s the best smallmouth scoping lake in the country.
“I still think you’re going to see guys using 2D and just basically blind fishing out there for them smallmouths just kind of roaming around,” he said. “I don’t see everybody going to fish for largemouth because if you can figure out that smallmouth pattern, it could be game over really, really fast.
“So I think that could be more one of those deals whoever does figure it out, it’s going to win for sure.”
Hudson and Anaya have both stacked up accolades in their young careers and are looking for more in the 2026 ROY.
“It’s obviously very, very tight,” Hudson said. “At this point, it’s anybody’s game. I would love to win. Obviously, this isn’t something I can try again next year.
“I’m excited about that. There’s a couple things that I wanted to do it at the beginning of the year and first was make the Classic. Rookie of the Year, to be honest, you never think you have a chance against these hammers. But so far, so good, so we’re gonna try to wrap that up. I’m happy to be sitting where I am right now.”
