In our article on the Yokohama Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair, I gave you 4 winners, out of the 7 picks, which isn’t awful, but you won’t see that reflected on my record at the T-H Marine Pick Em Challenge page since I forgot to actually enter my selections, which is, in fact, awful! I kept staring at the screen, trying to figure out how I earned “0” points when I was certain I got a few of them right! Well, upon further review, I noticed that I never actually clicked on my picks, and I can assure you, I haven’t made that mistake for this final event of the Elite season! So here we go for the Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at the Mississippi River!
We start right at the top with the battle for the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year between Trey McKinney and Chris Johnston in what seems to be a two-horse race. McKinney has been spectacular for two years, with multiple Top 10 finishes – almost unheard of in Bassmaster History. But, it’s history that Chris Johnston is chasing as well, trying to become just the 4th angler to win back-to-back AOYs. Roland Martin was the first to do it, and he did it three times. Kevin VanDam went back-to-back, back-to-back, winning four in a row from 2008 to 2011, and Guido Hibdon did it in ’90-’91. I would argue that this is, by far, the deepest field of anglers in Bassmaster history, and against that backdrop, I think Chris Johnston gets it done. This fishery is just too similar to the waters he has fished most of his life. McKinney will be hot on his heels.
In Match 2, it’s the ROY showdown between roommates Paul Marks and Tucker Smith. These guys finished 1-2 earlier in the year in back-to-back events, swapping the Blue Trophy. I like Tucker Smith in this one, by the slimmest of margins!
Match 3 is between Minnesotan Seth Fieder, who is hovering near the Classic Cut Line, and Canadian Jeff Gustafson who needs a win here to get to the Classic in Knoxville, on a body of water that has been an ATM machine for him, with a Classic and Elite win! As desperate as Gussy is, I’ll go with Seth Feider here in his home state.
Match 4 gives us a couple of Classic bubble contenders, Brandon Lester and Evan Kung, who were at opposite ends of the leaderboard at St. Clair. I’ll take Evan Kung the Canadian here over my neighbor, Lester, and hope I don’t run into Brandon at the ramp anytime soon!
In Match 5, we get Jay Przekurat of Wisconsin and Minnesota’s Bob Downey. Przekurat must be incredibly disappointed in his uncharacteristic performance at St. Clair, as the AOY leader. These guys finished 12th and 15th the last time the Elites were on the Big Muddy, and this will be close as well…I’ll take Jay Przekurat on the bounce back.
Match 6 is dubbed the River Rat Race between Bryan Schmitt and Gerald Swindle. Schmitt is firmly in the Classic right now, and Swindle needs a bit of divine intervention to get there, but he has been heating up the last couple of events, with his best finishes of the season, since opening with a 7th at the St. Johns. I’m going to take Gerald Swindle here to get the win over Schmitt!
And in Match 7, the braid will be singing with skinny water specialists John Cox and Greg Hackney going at it. Cox has put together another solid campaign, 13th in the points, and a threat to win this derby. The Hack Attack has, well, been hacked a bit this year, and certainly not up to his usual standards. Love both these guys, but John Cox is the pick!
This has been a blast this season, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!
