Fantasy: Pipkens was best overall pick on Sturgeon Bay

Chad Pipkens was the best pick in Fantasy Fishing this tournament because the margin between him and his closest competitor was the biggest at 26 points.

DOOR COUNTY, Wis. — Chad Pipkens was the best overall pick for Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing for the final Bassmaster Elite Series event of 2015, the Toyota AOY Championship.

Here’s the perfect team:

Bucket A: Chris Zaldain, 305 points

B: Alton Jones, 290

C: David Walker, 295

D: Chad Pipkens, 280

E: Ott DeFoe, 272

Best possible score: 1,442

No player quite reached that mark.

Bucket A: Zaldain

Chris Zaldain won the AOY Championship on Sturgeon Bay, and with his Day 3 leader bonus points, he earned 305 points for his 2.4 percent of owners.

Greg Hackney was the next-best pick with 293 points, even though he zeroed on the last day. However, his big bag bonus and two days of leader bonuses put him near the top in the most stacked bucket. But only 3.5 percent of players benefitted from picking last year’s AOY.

The heavy favorite was Aaron Martens, who hasn’t done much wrong all year. He ended with 217 points for his 38.8 percent of followers. But that means they were all beaten by at least more than 80 points by all the Zaldain and Hackney pickers.

Dean Rojas was the worst pick of Bucket A with 177 points for his 3.3 percent of players.

Bucket B: Jones

Alton Jones showed everybody that all his good finishes recently weren’t just luck. The former Bassmaster Classic winner posted a solid 290 points for his 5.8 percent of owners.

Jordan Lee was the next-best pick with 276 points for his 1.3 percent of fans.

The heavy favorite was Brandon Palaniuk with 44.7 percent. He delivered 264 points for his fans. Sure, that’s 26 points behind the winner of the bucket, but Palaniuk was third in the bucket, so his owners were only beaten by about 7 percent of players.

The worst pick of the bucket was Clifford Pirch with 209 points for his 4.3 percent of followers.

Bucket C: Walker

David Walker made a threat to win this tournament. He didn’t, but he did win Bucket C. He earned 295 points for the 2.7 percent of people who chose him.

Just behind was Bobby Lane, with 10.1 percent of owners, and 285 points.

The heavy favorite was Kevin VanDam at 55 percent. He posted only 223 points, meaning more than half of the Fantasy Fishing players were beaten by the owners of the five anglers ahead of him (Walker, Lane, John Crews, James Elam and Micah Frazier).

The worst pick of the bucket was Brandon Lester with 183 points for his 8.7 percent of players.

Bucket D: Pipkens

Chad Pipkens was the best pick in Fantasy Fishing this tournament because the margin between him and his closest competitor was the biggest at 26 points. Pipkens earned 280 points for his 29.2 percent of owners.

But just behind him was the favorite of the bucket, Todd Faircloth, at 32.8 percent. He ended with 254 points.

The worst pick of D was Scott Rook with 195 points for his 1.2 percent of players.

Bucket E: DeFoe

Ott DeFoe earned 272 points for his healthy following of 15.2 percent of players.

Right behind him was Mark Menendez with 257 points for his 1.1 percent.

The favorites were in a dead heat. Jonathon VanDam, with 32.6 percent of owners, narrowly beat Mike Iaconelli, with 32.0 percent, 239 to 233.

John Murray was the worst bet in E with 175 points for his 1.7 percent of fans.

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed playing this season! Next up is the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic!